A White Dude's Introduction to Critical Race Theory

Well, there's a lot going on in the news A lotta people are pretty concerned about a theory I'm white, but I'm not blank slate A lotta ideas delineate Nate Middle-class, cis-white-male, kinda straight A cracker on the platter of the appetizer plate of the United States And in that space What should I say as I raise my pale face To gaze on the pains that my ancestors placed on the land that I come from? Can I love my own race? So let's talk race, right on this track What is the construct of white race and black, and all in between? Let us state clearly what this all means It's Critical Race Theory, it's the CRT Oh shit, why dude? You're gonna explain this to me? You're a white dude Aren't you the reason it's needed? Why do it, why? So dudes like me just might get the vibe too So this is for you with a view and a voice Whatever race you're called, by convention or choice But especially my melanin-delimitated boys We need to read W.E.B. Du Bois Drawing on Du Bois and Douglass and truth Critical Race Theory endeavors to prove That racism isn't just a hatred for a group It's a complicated system that is woven in the roots of society itself And it isn't ourselves that make us fear difference And make us tear and tell one another apart For that part's played well by our history books Our American tales And so these theorists like Kimberlé Crenshaw And Derrick Bell and others study policy and law And how in spite of these our latent ideologies Have all kept racism stuck in our society's craw But it's not all designed to attack you, my dude Just because your skin's white, that's not accurate, dude What they actually do is unshackle the truth from the patterns of the past Don't get your facts from Ted Cruz The origin of race, as we know it, is recent It's traced to Andalusia along the Iberian Peninsula The place of modern Portugal and Spain At the end of the Islamic-Era, Umayyad reign When the Christians reconquered, they aimed to rebrand it This place is Christian now, it ain't Islamic And banished the resident Muslims, and Jews in the year of our lord 1492 Now the few that remained when they tried to Convert were denied on the basis their blood wasn't pure And such as they were, some considered them other And difference in blood became difference in color So yes indeed brother, every race is a construction Yeah, but just because it was one Doesn't mean it doesn't function in the system And it's made up and constructed alright But every prison begins from a construction site I don't bring this to light to annoy you, my dude I'm just tryna make a point, I'm not pointing at you The point is to use the knowledge as a tool Why would you not want to teach that at school? Now you might say, fine, but this is not for me I'd prefer if everybody here was equal and free But it may equally be that this is really preferred Only when their liberation and your interests converge Under layers of dirt in the subconscious brain It's hard when all's well not to want it the same When the system is yours, do you want it to change? Is that a virtue signal, or are you trying to switch lanes? But if nothing but critique is what everyone speaks When they meet with a complexion that's white, beige or bleached Then they would run the risk using critical speech For estranging just those people that the theory must teach Because just because a person may deserve a verbal lashing Doesn't mean it doesn't lead them to an adverse reaction If they get served it in the service of the truth We may try to shut down liars, but that makes them double down on their lies And so the lonely white guy in his corner or Reddit Starts to feel himself cornered by some kind of vendetta His identity vetted, and his whiteness as wedded to an idea Of oppression as it fits in his essence And he feels the left's left him, and he feels, right or wrong That the right's the only place he'd be embraced or made strong And he's faced with the illusion of a binary choice Of being anti-anti-racist or deprived of his voice Well, the good news is the binary's not real You can criticize yourself and carry pride as you feel And we can satirize ourselves, "I'm white, I suck, hardy hard" But satire's an easy start, transformation is hard And it's okay that it's hard when your part has been snubbed To suck it up within your soul and serve the others with love Because it wasn't you that stole, but you've been given the stuff And there's times when stepping down is the way to step up So let us be real and let us feel seen As we collectively awake from the American Dream Being critical of self and then cold and cool kind But still loving both, both critical and kind