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Ignorance Isn't Bliss

from Into the Struggle by Renaissance The Poet

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lyrics

Troublin Horizon, who wants to see it comin
Like, if we don’t perceive them, the problems mount to nothing
Cops killing Brown and Black folx, sending us to prison,
Ignoring is complicit, and it’s giving them permission
to continue on their mission, to break us to submission,
Using legislation, erasing the gains, been made, changing
this racist system, but hate to listen to facts
22 states, have shredded, the Voters’ Rights Act
Slippery and conniving, the laws begin to stack
Like they did in Alabama where first they made a pact
that all voters, had to have a driver’s license
then closed the DMV’s, in the districts, mostly Black
In 20-15, please don’t think I going back
to the days of Assata, Rustin, and Malcom X
Yes, the problem is complex, and it’s really goona mess
With our comforts, and our stress
and we may be bouncing checks
but this racist, capitalist system hates our con-test
So it’s vital, to our survival, to manifest
more than apathetic resistance to their conquest
yet, I must confess, I don’t really know how to beat them.


I remember a time, when I thought ignorance was bliss
A time when I thought staying out of it, was best
I thought I could avoid some of the pitfalls ahead
If I just kept my head down, and stayed focused on my tasks
But then I got stopped, for driving while black
And I was beaten, by two cops, nearly to death
My brother received a double-maximum sentence
And he was suffering from a horrendous addiction to meth
And many of the friends I had while I was growing up
Were behind bars and had children they couldn’t caress
My mother’d gone to college and learned a machine press
But couldn’t get hired in the field and she was the top of her class
When I tried to get a job having a high school diploma
a degree from Job Corps and some college enrollment
I found the pavement a cold, desolate place of solace
cuz the places I put in applications never called back
Yeah, there was a time when I thought ignorance was bliss
but that was before, I came to see, the interconnectedness
of all our distresses, and the link between capitalism
and the racist ideology that oppressed us


Ignorance, isn’t bliss
nothing missed
will ever get fixed, while it’s in that abyss
just permissed to exist
expand to the cliffs
precipitate rifts, till we’re lost in the mist, of defeat
no retreat, from the streets
where apathy meets, tunnel vision, something eats
all ambition seeks, halted-incomplete
justify the streak, wit,
“It don’t affect me”
Lies in the cheeks
chippin at the teeth
Knockin out the truth till it’s bleedin at my feet
cuz I didn’t wanna see, and I, wouldn’t believe
That, I had the power and compulsion to achieve, relief
from the system,
and its mission, imposition of conditions, beat resistance to submission
in collision with how I perceive, myself
and the position of my wealth, of heart
I have, a part to play
cuz the problems, don’t fade
and they, don’t go away
they don’t trail off, and become better days
like rays of sunlight, cuz they never see the light of day

credits

from Into the Struggle, released November 20, 2016

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