Lyrics What Made the White Man White - Higher State, EMC, Hermitofthewoods

What Made the White Man White

We love to claim it, our great nation
Post card picture perfect snowy white places
Molson Canadian, beaver tail maple
Tim Horton savoured, hockey skating
Welcome to the celebration, we made a special reservation
For First Nations populations tucked away in isolation
Far away from most Caucasians, silent war of decimation
Out of sight and out of mind of most Canadians
But not the first Canadians, you know
The ones with whom we traded
Gave em small pox and residential education
Starved them on to reservations
Took the land and segregated
Faced racist hatred through a violent assimilation
Government funded experimentation
Housing project degradation
Health care like 3rd world nation
Highest rates of incarceration
Cops drive kids off reservations
Leave em to die in the snow, isolated
Highest rates of suicide and homicide in the nation
I watched my best friend become a prison statistic
His father a survived they schools
But he lost his mother and sister
You don’t think we have a race problem?
This story comes to mind:
On the rez when kids to got ready for church
They were asking «Why?
Who died?î
What made the white man white
Is it his white wash of history or his white lies?
His white picket fence that his privilege designed?
His white pointy cap, fully masked but his eyes?
The colour of the flame that burns a cross in the night?
Wall of the halls where the power resides?
The porcelain of his idol, his white mansion in the sky
Or the white light he’s going to follow so he can take what he likes
We like to say it.
'We're not racist'
Anyone who says so is ignorant and tasteless
Let me kick the basics (You must learn!)
Let it burn
Back in the day when the Church was moved to Rome
White men stole and took control of the throne
They shaped knowledge by consensus to relentlessly ensure
That their power was absolute and forever would endure
The kings and queens of Europe
Sent their ships to spread the word
That their own claims to greatness
Were all rules to be observed
They conquered distant nations
And waged wars against the heathens
That is, any one on earth
Who didn’t believe what they believe in
Empires rose upon the bones of those
From whom the lands were taken
Justified by a book held high, loosely translated
Established a ruling class and created global trade
The engine ran on genocide, but there was money to be made
Generations fade away and the machines just keep on turning
They lead a life of leisure while their fortunes do the earning
Secure in several centuries of social manipulation
That benefited white men in nearly every situation
What made the white man white
Is it his white wash of history or his white lies?
His white picket fence that his privilege designed?
His white pointy cap, fully masked but his eyes?
The colour of the flame that burns a cross in the night?
Wall of the halls where the power resides?
The porcelain of his idol, his white mansion in the sky
Or the white light he’s going to follow so he can take what he likes