Who’ll Pay Reparations on My Soul? - Gil Scott-Heron

Many suggestions
And documents written.
Many directions
For the end that was given.
They gave us
Pieces of silver and pieces of gold.
Tell me
Who'll pay reparations on my soul
Many fine speeches
Oh yeah
From the White House desk
Uh huh
Written on the cue cards
That were never really there yes
But the heat and the summer were there
And the freezing winter's cold. Now
Tell me
Who'll pay reparations on my soul
Call my brother a junkie 'cause he ain't got no job
No job no job
.
Told my old man to leave me when times got hard
So hard
.
Told my mother she got to carry me all by herself.
And now that I want to be a man
Be a man
Who can depend on no one else
Oh yeah
.
What about the red man
Who met you at the coast
You never dig sharing
Always had to have the most.
And what about Mississippi
The boundary of old
Tell me
Who'll pay reparations on my soul
Call my brother a junkie 'cause he ain't got no job
Told my old man to leave me when times got hard
So hard
.
Told my mother she got to carry me all by herself.
Wanna be a man that can depend on no one else
Oh yeah
.
What about the red man
Who met you at the coast
You never dig sharing
Always had to have the most.
And what about Mississippi
The boundaries of old
Tell me
Who'll pay reparations on my soul
Many fine speeches
Oh yeah
From the White House desk
Uh huh
Written on the cue cards
That were never really there. Yes
But the heat and the summer were there
And the freezing winter's cold.
Tell me
Who'll pay reparations on my soul
Who'll pay reparations
'Cause I don't dig segregation but I
Can't get integration
I got to take it to the United Nations
Someone to help me away from this nation.
Tell me
Who'll pay reparations on my soul