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Ar Fol Lo La Ro
performed by Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem
from the album At Carnegie Hall
about the power of music to join people together:

"And whether your blood be high land or low,
And whether your skin be black or white as the snow,
Of reason there's none, and why should there be
As long as there's fire in the blood and a light in the eye"

"This is not a black and white world
To be alive
I say that the colors must swirl
And I believe
That maybe today
We will all get to appreciate
The beauty of gray"

"The time has come
to say fair's fair
to pay the rent
to pay our share"

"It's not easy bein' green
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're not standing out
Like flashy sparkles on the water or stars in the sky"

"When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko"

"The church it was crowded but no one could see
That Cynthia Wesley's dark number was three
Her prayers and her feelings would shame you and me
And the choir kept singing of freedom"

" I'm white inside.
But that don't help my case.
'Cause I can't hide
What is on my face.."

"The world is black,
the world is white.
It turns by day, and then by night.
The child is black,
the child is white.
The whole world looks upon the sight,
a beautiful sight."

"England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses
It's the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds
And I love my baby and that's why I'm leaving
I don't want him to be aware that there's
any such thing as grieving."

"And I told about equality and it's true
Either you're wrong or you're right
But, if you're thinkin' about my baby
It don't matter if you're black or white"

"Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta
There was a Buffalo Soldier
In the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival"

"We got these energy companies
Who want to take the land
And we got churches by the dozens
Trying to guide our hands
And turn our mother earth
Over to pollution war and greed"

"A piece of canvas is only the beginning
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope"

"You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew"

"Hands and feet are all alike
But gold between divide us
Hands and feet are all alike
But fear between divide us
Hands and feet are all alike
Hear what I say
Hear what I say Oh, so be it
How can I turn away
Brother/Sister go dancing through my head Human as to human
The future is no place To place your better days"

"He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
In that palace in the sun"

"Free at last, we should be free at last
Not prisoners of the past, divided by races.
Kind of strange, though we're all 'bout the same
Somehow these lines remain,
We stay in our places.
And what does the color of the skin
Have to do with the person within"

Don't Drink the Water
performed by Dave Matthews Band
from the album Before these Crowded Streets (Purchase from Amazon.com)
about European colonization of Native American lands:

"Away away
You have been banished
Your land is gone
And given me
And here I will spread my wings
Yes I will call this home
What's this you say
You feel a right to remain
Then stay and I will bury you
What's that you say
Your father's spirit still lives in this place
I will silence you"

"What do you know when you know me?
Don't file me under categories, you're deceived
You don't know me
I'm not only a surface, a country"

"He said, Do you remember the day we met, Michael
I heard you were coming and I called many times
I didnt want someone like you to move in here
I wasnt used to your kind."

"Drowning in a sea of tears
Hatred trying to hide your fears
Living only for yourself
Hating everybody else
Cause they don't look like you"

"Ebony and ivory
Live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard
Oh lord, why don't we?"

"Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers sons
Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers sons
Struggling myself dont mean a whole lot, Ive come to realize
That teaching others to stand and fight is the only way my struggle survives"

"The ink is Black
The page is White
Together we learn how to read and write
Some people are Black
There's people that's White
Lets stop Racism and let's unite"

"What we need is awareness, we can't get careless
You say what is this?
My beloved lets get down to business
Mental self defensive fitness
(Yo) bum rush the show
You gotta go for what you know
Make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be"

"Oh now attidue, why even bother
I can't change your mind
You can't change my color
Free your mind and the rest will follow"

"Sometimes she heard the music
Wild and strange in the summer night
They're dirty people warned her mother
Never go near their campfire light.
Stay away from the camp of the blackfellas
Little white girls have disappeared
They drink and dance when the moon is red
Better never let 'em see your golden hair."

"If you're really that down, then act what you say
KRS and Chuck need support today
I see you posing with the Dr. King hanging on your wall
Only difference is Chuck might give you that call to march on Friday
Yeah, it's kinda frightening
Let me move so I don't get hit by the bolt of lightning
Striking you down because you're frontin'"

"My mom said not to bring her around
Cause she's black
My family will put her down
I'll break the white-trash ties that bind
Trade a love so pure for a hate so blind"

"Cause I ain't moving from my face, from my race, from my history
I ain't movin' from my love my peaceful dove, it means too much to me
Loving self can be so hard
Honesty can be be demanding
Learn to love yourself it's a great, great feeling"

"We are one,
But we are many,
And from all the lands on earth we come.
We'll share a dream,
And sing with one voice,
I am, you are, we are Australian"

"I've been seeing Lisa now for a little over a year
She says she's never been so happy but Lisa lives in fear
That one day daddy's gonna find out she's in love
With a nigger from the streets"

"They took the whole Cherokee nation, put us on this reservation
Took away our ways of life, the tomahawk and bow and knife
Took away our native toungue, and taught their English to our young"

"My heart belongs in an Indian world
A place that I can call my home
I've been livin' in a white man's world
Taught nothing of my own"

"And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood
In the night when his children should sleep
But, they slip to their window and they see him
And they think that white hood's all they need"

"Why so cut and dry
A simple concept missed
Give tolerance a try
This confusion still exists"

"Recollect when I was just fourteen
Freedom use to be my biggest dream
I'm older now, lot wiser too
If I was free what would I do"

"Tha sun ablaze as Maria's foot
Touches tha surface of sand
On northern land
As human contraband
Some rico from Jalisco
Passed her name to tha boss
She stuffed ten to a truckbed
She clutches her cross"

"Mr. Cab Driver wont you stop to let me in.
Mr. Cab Driver dont like my kind of skin.
Mr. Cab Driver dont like the way I look.
He dont like dreads he thinks were all crooks."

"I never knew that my skin was too Black
I never knew that my nose was too flat
I never knew that my clothes didnt fit
And I never knew there were things that I missed
And the beauty of everything
Was in her eyes."

"The goal is to be unified,
Take my hand be my brother...
Society blind by color,
Why hold down one to raise another...
One, Oh, one the only way is one"

"I'm proud to be Black y'all
And that's a fact y'all
And if you try to take what's mine
I'll take it back y'all
It's like that"

"Can you feel it
Tension in the air
Racism, violence everywhere
Davis, Howard Beach
Bumpers and Brawley
It appalls me
Now is there really racial justice
It's time that we discussed this
I'm disgusted and I don't trust this"

"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
Cause none of them can stop the time"

"Sacrifice your freedom, Sacrifice your prayer
Take away your language, Cut off all your hair
Sacrifice the loved ones, Who always stood by me
Stranded in the wasteland, Set my spirit free "

Society's Child
performed by Janis Ian
from the album Society's Child: The Verve Recordings (Purchase from Amazon.com)
about racial oppression and the struggles of an interracial couple:

"My mother went to answer, you know,
And you looked so fine.
Now I can understand your tears and your shame.
She called you "boy" instead of your name."

"Alas, said an Indian,
I once had a home,
In a fair forest glade,
Where the wild deer did roam,
Where the sacalait feast,
On a festival day,
But the steals of a White Man,
Have took them away."

"Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swingin' in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees."

"Why are the rainbows stolen from the sky and
locked up in boxes: yellow, red, black and white?
Like birds in their cages,
beating their wings on the bars..."

"They said I should
Learn to speak a little bit of English
Maybe practise birth control
Keep away from controversial politics
So to save my Third World soul
You should speak a little bit of English
Don't be scared of a suit and tie
Learn to walk in the dreams of the foreigner
I am a Third World child"

"Listen....I ain't black
but there's lots of times I wish I could say
I ain't white"

"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior,
and another inferior,
is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned,
everywhere is war."

"If this is the same avenue my ancestors fought 2 liberate
How come I can't buy a piece of it even if my credit's straight?
If all the water's dirty and I wanna labor by my dammy
The river that I drink from will it be the same as your mammy? "

"What Color is God's skin?
What color is God's skin?
I said, "It's black, brown, it's yellow, it's red
It is white.
Everyone's the same in the good Lord's sight."

"The color the color
The color of your skin don't matter to me
As long as as long as
As long as we can live in harmony"

"I stood in line
Down at the county hall
I heard the man say
We're going to build some new apartments for y'all
And everybody wants to know why I sing the blues
I've been around a long time
I've really paid my dues"

"This is where the party ends
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
but I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
You and your racist friend"

"Terceiro mundo se for
Piada no exterior
Mas o Brasil vai ficar rico
Vamos faturar um milhão
Quando vendermos todas as almas
Dos nossos índios em um leilão
Que país é este"