Shades Of Brown Lyrics - Mdc

They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn 

In chess, without exception, white moves the first pawn 

They called it "Black Tuesday" when the stock market crashed 

A fix in 1919 turned the White Sox to Black 

Black balled, black magic, executioner's hood 

White hatted, white horsed, champion of good 

Black knight of Dark Ages on the darkest night 

The Pope walks in truth, head to toe in white 

[Chorus:] 

Who started all this bullshit - were they looking for a fight? 

You didn't have to be there to know that they were white 

But when you're talking skin tone, let's not fuck around 

Cause no one's really black or white, we're all just shades of brown 

Black hearted, black beard on the briney deep 

Or the family outcast you call the black sheep 

Days of black plague - draw your final breath 

Heading for heaven white dying of Black Death 

Mankind is preoccupied to keep each other down 

Some use superstition, a Bible or a crown 

At best it's fear and ignorance, at worst, it's a sin 

Not God and country, king or crown, it's the pigment of our skin 

Used to reinforce what's wrong or right 

It's really just the presence or absence of light 

In the blackest hour of the blackest day 

It isn't mighty white of us, but we gotta say 

[Chorus] 

White when your marry, black when you die 

A racial hierarchy, a festering white lie 

White stands for ignorance, pure and sincere 

But if you're talking bigotry it should be crystal clear 

The new world becond, the immigrants came 

Homogenized their culture, anglicized their names 

Then they painted Jesus, blonde with eyes of blue 

Not a Nazarene, more a nazi than a Jew 

In the black revolution with their Black Power found 

Till their leaders were all jailed or stomped into the ground 

And the final step ironic - to nail that coffin tight 

The powder of enslavement in their glassine bags of white 

[repeat chorus until this white male power structure falls]