Find No Enemy

Song by Akala ‧ 2010

Apparently I'm second generation black Caribbean

And half white Scottish whatever that means

See lately I feel confused with the boxes

Cause to me all they do is breed conflict

It's not that I've lost touch with the reality

Racism, sexism and nationality

Just to me it all seems like insanity

Why must I rob you of your humanity

To feel good about mine?

It's all about crime

Dehumanizing is how I justify it

So I must keep on lying about the history of Africa

So I can live the with massacres

And repeat my mantra of Muslim and terrorist

So I can sleep at night as bombs take flight

Eyes wide but I'm blind to the sight

Too busy chasing the perfect life

And the working class keep them uneducated

Truly educated men could never be racist

To educate is to draw out what is within

Are we not all not the same under the skin?

I got a heart like yours that pumps blood and oxygen

And insecurities are a whole lot of them I'm scared like you deep down

I really do care that world is not fair like you

But I don't even believe my own prayers like you

Chasing career going nowhere like you

Lost in a fog of my own insecurities

I hold myself up as a image of purity

And I judge everybody else

By the color of their skin or the size of their wealth

But it's not good for my health

As the only one I ever really judge is myself

The oppressor must suffer like the oppressed

Though I pretend I'm in control of this mess

By inflating my ego, puffing my chest

I see my weakness, and need to show strength

Or what we think strong is because if we're honest?

True strength is the strength to be honest

And if I'm honest I am just tired

If I'm honest I am just tired

Tired of everyday filling up my car and knowing that

I'm paying for the bombs in Iraq

Tired of pretending like it don't hurt my heart

Of wanting change but not knowing where to start

Tired of listening to all the conditioning

And all the forms they have me filling in

Next time you see what is a thug and despise him

Please know I was just like him

Cause I was like eight the first time I saw crack

Same time I first smoked weed choking on blowbacks

First time I saw knifes penetrate flesh

It was meat cleavers to the back of the head

As I grew and teenage years passed

Many more knifes pierced and the shots blast

And I not saying I had the worst upbringing

But there's a million young men just like me in prison

We complain about racism and elevate clowns

With their trousers down swinging their dicks round

Maybe that is not quite literal

But everything they do is just as stereotypical

To my real fans I feel your pain

And I get the messages, but don't complain

That we ain't got more fame for paying our part

They can keep the charts all I want is your hearts

They can keep the charts all I want is your hearts

They can keep the charts all I want is your hearts

Calling it black radio, don't make laugh

So is black music all about tits and arse?

You don't represent nothing, you're just pretending

When was the last time you ever played Hendrix?

Or Miles Davis or John Coltrane?

Or Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday?

We can call it urban to me that's cool

If urban means street, that includes jazz too

And rock for that matter

Go ask Mick Jagger or Jimmy Page what they were listening to - the blues

Not discrediting, love Zeppelin too, just giving credit where credit is due

That blood soaked word rappers still use

All it really shows is that we still self abuse

That was the word that was used to kill Kelso Cochrane and Emmett Till

That was the word that the conscience eased

And made people pleased to hung you from trees

That was the word that let the whips crack

No matter what you say you can't take it back

And I can say their black so I feel their pain easier

But 1915 look at Armenia

If the whole world is human stupidity

Though we choke ourselves to death quite literally

And I can talk with my comfortable mouth

With my comfortable clothes and my comfortable house

The tables will turn, we can but stall them

Every empire on this earth has fallen

So unless we can find another way

Maybe not today, but it will come one day

It may sound like I'm bitter but in fact truth be told I am quite the opposite

I wake everyday and am overwhelmed

Just to be alive and be like no one else

And the sheer weight of the thought of space

Is enough to keep my little ego in place

All that we chase and try to replace all along it was right in our face

The only way we can ever change anything

Is to look in the mirror and find no enemy

The only way we can ever change anything

Look in the mirror and find no enemy

Songwriters: Richard Cassell / Jodi Milliner / Daley Maclean / Angelo Kyriacos Kangellaris

https://open.spotify.com/track/0UT9cz6GFmcLv9G2EjqnFh?si=KAxpOjKHQxWcFcV5YAU7qQ