I'm Not Racist by Joyner Lucas (2017)

From blackwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
I'm Not Racist Cover

I’m Not Racist is a hip hop song released under Atlantic Records on November 28, 2017. The song features a discussion about race and society from the perspective of either black or white man. I’m Not Racist performed by American hip hop recording artist, Joyner Lucas, said that the lyrics represent the uncomfortable topic of race that people are shy away from. Coming from biracial origins, the track features Lucas rapping from both a white and a black man’s point of views. [1]

Joyner Lucas

Key Lyrics

With all due respect

I don't have pity for you black niggas, that's the way I feel

Screamin', "Black Lives Matter"

All the black guys'd rather be deadbeats than pay your bills

Yellin', "Nigga," this, and, "Nigga," that

Call everybody, "Nigga," and get a nigga mad

As soon as I say, "Nigga," then everyone react

And wanna swing at me and call me racist 'cause I ain't black

Well pound that, then

Talkin' 'bout slavery like you was around back then

Like you was pickin' cotton off the fuckin' ground back then

Like you was on the plantation gettin' down back then [2]

Black Empowerment

The song opens with a white man in a “Make America Great Again”: How African Americans are lazy, aimless, shiftless. How there's a double standard when it comes to using the N-word.

In the second verse, a young man in dreadlocks responds, rebutting the generalizations, recounting being stopped by the police and rebuffed for jobs.

I’m Not Racist drives conversation about race relations in the States and how both communities, Blacks and Whites are seeing things in the country right now.

"I wish we could trade shoes or we could change lives So we could understand each other more, but that'd take time I'm not racist, it's like we livin' in the same buildin', but splittin' the both sides I'm not racist, but there's two sides to every story and now you know mine."

On the song’s clip both men switch in response as they sit across from each other. The white man pours his frustrations and his views on Black Lives Matters, the NFL anthem protests, as well as potshots taken against Eminem and 2Pac. While on the opposite side, the black man reacts of white privilege, cultural appropriation, and attacks against former President Barack Obama.

Both men throughout the song insist "I'm not racist." [3]

References

  1. I'm Not Racist. wikipedia.org. Retrieved January 27, 2021
  2. I’m Not Racist Joyner Lucas. genius.com. Retrieved January 27, 2020
  3. Criss, Doug. 'I'm Not Racist' is the brutal race conversation nobody wants to have. November 30, 2017. edition.cnn.com. Retreived January 27, 2021