Color Of The Law Lyrics

[Intro: Nina Simone]
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

[Pre Chorus: Thomas Burgundy]
Cause we're all the same
Cause we're all the same
Cause we're all the same
Cause we're all the same

[Chorus: Maddness]
I know we all look the same huh?
That must mean we're all the same huh?
But I know why they pay you
So i see you all the same too

[Verse 1]
Behind me I see sirens
Aye usually I never mind them
My pops told me bout racial profiling
I thought that was just his day, til the day I started driving
Now that I got a little mileage
I'm realizing
My complexion
And the way I'm dressing
Affects your perception
So your first impression
Of me is negative, its not surprising (At least there's privilege in your light skin)
My white friends never cared though
Aye probably cause they got to know me (you're racially ambiguous)
This white cop a lil scared though
Huh
Cause I bet he think he know me
Cause i'm just another statistic
That the system should put away like how did they miss it
Cause I fit the description
To prove his prediction
I'm just like the rest
I should rest up ion prison huh
[Pre-Chorus & Refrain: Thomas Burgundy]
(Cause we're all the same)
I do recognize the privilege that lies deeply imbedded in my lighter skin tone
(Cause we're all the same)
Where racism meets colorism
And the latter gives me a pass more times than not
(Cause we're all the same)
But that pass is blind to my convenience
Cause look around...
(Cause we're all the same)

[Chorus: Maddness]
I know we all look the same huh?
That must mean we're all the same huh?
But I know why they pay you
So i see you all the same too

[Verse 2]
So he pulls me over
But i could just tell
That he's not the nicest
I fight this, it's jail
He asks for my license
It's best i comply cause
It looks like his badge is a license to kill
But I ain't do nothing wrong
And I've learned my rights
But that don't mean nothing dawg
Cause it ain't worth my life
Cause I know what he's thinking
Just give me a reason
To eliminate you cause this street need some cleaning
This city needs money so I'm giving out tickets
It's that, death, or prison
You could pick, you got 5 seconds
Well shit
I guess I'll take a ticket for something that I didn't do
That or provoke him like he's hoping
And end up like my brother on the news but it's nothing new
[Bridge: Gil Scott-Heron]
For my protection?
Who's gonna protect me from you?
The likes of you?
The nerve of you?
To talk that shit, face to face
Your tomato face deadpan
Your deadpan deadening another freedom plan
No knockin', head rockin', inter-shockin'
Shootin', cussin', killin', cryin', lyin'
And bein' white
And bein' white
And bein' white

[Police Officer]
Step out of the car
Step out of the f*cking car

[Verse 3]
He makes me step out my momma's van
He never took his eyes off my hands
And now he's searching me just cause he can
Yo it's funny cause he's just a man
I'm just a man too
Tryna hold my temper back
I only hate him cause his uniform and gangsta rap
And cause they treat us like a joke and get the last laugh
Turn your cameras on and turn my name to a hashtag
Post about it for a week
Forget about it in a week
But this happens every week
See the candles on the street
Man this got me feeling weak
I can't even cross the street and say it's not a risk
Cause they gon stop & frisk
Without no probable cause
But I better not resist
Funny they're supposed to serve and protect
But we just see them as a threat
How they gon earn our respect?
'Kay I know this a high crime area
Plus night-time: double criteria
But "officer safety" ain't a real enough excuse to pat me down for some weed
Or plant your paraphernalia
Oh I forgot yeah the color of my skin
Is enough reasonable suspicion
We all guilty til we're proven innocent
We thought the president that's in a cent meant well
But he really didn't
Check the 13th amendment
Slavery still legal once they get us in the pen
Mandatory minimums for your drug offense
There's a strategy behind this mass incarceration
Oh they telling me "it's not that deep
Just stop please
They just doing their job"
Yeah so were the Nazis
I ain't saying this is every single cop
But I ain't tryna roll the dice and end up lying on my face like Jumanji
Whoa
So as we face the window
There's no reflection, all I see is Jim Crow
When they wrote the pledge
They meant "Liberty and Justice for just us, that's it though"
Civil rights ain't always civil nah
Color of the law, watch them scribble
They say ignorance is no excuse
But knowing bout it is no use
Cause the power gets abused
Plus acquittal
Better keep your head on a swivel
We been dehumanized, labeled all as criminal
The use of deadly force is to preserve another life
We say "Black Lives Matter" tell me why that doesn't sit well huh? Cause you say "All Lives Matter"
Ah man
There you go missing the point
Cause that go without saying
But you ain't never been affected, you don't see it cause your privilege got your vision distorted
Lord
Jesus taught me to forgive
It's just hard when you live in our skin
This been happening for a long time
Cause it was blood on the leaves
Now it's on the concrete
If history don't repeat
Then it does rhyme
Media paint us outrageous
I'm frustrated cause you think we're all the same
Then I realized corrupt police made me hate them all
Even a good one
Damn what a shame
Are we the s-
Are we the same?
Nah
(gunshot)

[Chorus: Maddness & Thomas Burgundy]
I know we all look the same huh?
(all look the same huh?)
That must mean we're all the same huh?
(all the same huh?)
But I know why they pay you
(I know why they, i know why they pay you)
So I see you all the same too
X2

[Outro Discussion: Thomas Burgundy & his 4th grade students]
Thomas Burgundy: Okay... consensual encounter
Students: Consensual encounter
Thomas Burgundy: Reasonable suspicion
Students: Reasonable suspicion
Thomas Burgundy: Probable cause
Students: Probable cause
Thomas Burgundy: Giovanny is walking down the street
Giovanny: uh huh?
Thomas Burgundy: Police come up and they say, "Where you going?"
That's a consensual encounter
He didn't do anything okay? He's walking-
Giovanny: Can i pretend?
Thomas Burgundy: Believe this or not, Giovanny does not have to talk to them. Giovanny can ask them, "Hey, do you have any reasonable suspicion?"
They say, "No" he can keep walking
That's a consensual encounter
They agreed, we're gonna talk
Giovanny says, "I don't wanna talk to you, Im'ma keep going"
(Whats up?)
Makaila: Um if, doesn't if like Giovanny keeps walking, and he says "I don't wanna talk to you" and he just keeps walking, don't you sometimes get shot for that?
So he can't really walk away, he has to tell them why he's gonna walk away
Thomas Burgundy: Mhm, that's a very good point because, legally, he can walk away. Police shooting him, that's illegal
Makaila: Can't the police also go to jail for shooting someone for no reason?
Isamar: Yeah
Thomas Burgundy: They're supposed to but, how many times... we talked, we talked about Eric Garner right?
Makaila: Yes
I think "stop police bru- whatever
Students: Brutality
Thomas Burgundy: Brutality
Daishanay: Brutaylityy
Makaila: um, I think it means that police need to stop- because I've been seeing it on the news, police need to stop shooting black people
Thomas Burgundy: There you go
Daishanay: Black people matter!
Thomas Burgundy: Black Lives Matter?
Makaila: Yeah. but also! also! also! Just because police, just because, people are, the different c- cause there's mostly- there's mostly white policeses
(Giovanny: I'm listening)
Makaila: So um, the po- like if they pull over someone white, they don't- they let them go. They don't um, give them like any ticket or anything
Thomas Burgundy: Mhm
Makaila: Sometimes
Thomas Burgundy: That's a good point
Makaila: Not as much as they do as blac- African-Americans
Daishanay: I wanna say something
Thomas Burgundy: Okay, okay but what can.. cause this affects all of us right?
Students: Yes!
Sebastian: I'm a Mexican and-
Thomas Burgundy: Mexican
Sebastian: Horatio always fights with me and-
Thomas Burgundy: How do you think we can stop police brutality?
Because this, like I said, this could happen to Jordin, this could happen to Giovanny, happen to Jesus-
Jesus: What?!
Daniel: It could happen to me!
Jesus: What?!
Thomas Burgundy: It could happen to Nathan
Daniel: It could happen to me!
Thomas Burgundy: Ashely what's up?
Ashely: Well i think what people do, is just hire the police officers that like are good, like, that are, that are, that are not racist, that are good at doing their, their like-
Students: Job?
Ashely: job
(Thomas Burgundy: Im'ma get to you)
Ashely: And... that have a good reason why they do that. They're li- they shouldn't hire police officers that are-
Cesar: That are racist
Ashely: "Oh! He's this color, and... he's wearing this hoodie, oh Im'ma go arrest him; he looks suspicious
Thomas Burgundy: Mhm
Ashely: You first have to have a reason, like, they think that's a reason, that's not really a reason
Thomas Burgundy: Mhm! Exactly Exactly. So, before I get to you, Makaila-
Makaila: I was gonna say, I like how Ashely said, but also what if the, what if the ch- what if the police chief is racist too?
Thomas Burgundy: Yup
Makaila: So they might, so they might um, hire the same pe- the like, if this, the white pers- the African-American person, is smarter than the white person, the po- just because the police chief is white, he would hire the white person
Thomas Burgundy: Mhm
Makaila: Just because-
Thomas Burgundy: So this has to do with the system right where-
Makaila: yeah
Thomas Burgundy: Exactly, so things like that we need to go in the inside and see, okay who's hiring these people, right?
So that's a good point...

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