Few Things I Learned Growing Up North (Rated PG-13)

*Reader/viewer/listener discretion advised. This song contains harsh subject matter.

This song is a “ghost track” on Missing: What It Was Like. It wasn’t recorded with the rest of the songs on that album, but it’s nestled in there with the others in spirit. There’s a version on YouTube should you care to listen.

Now that I’m older and I know so much,
I’ve been looking back and reflecting
On the things I’ve learned and such.
Take a knee as I start dissecting
Just a few things I learned growing up.

There are no black people living in Middle Earth,
There’s only one black guy in outer space,
And watch out, he might steal your purse.
No black heroes wearing any capes -
I swear they’re onscreen, but you really have to search.

A teacher once told our class back in grade school,
“Black people often live in shacks -
They prioritize clothes, cars and jewels,
But hey, that’s OK, nothing wrong with that -
Black people are still pretty cool.”

We lived with my grandma and she loved a man
Who loved her and helped her get around.
One day we all piled in our van,
I spoke a friend’s quote, driving through his old town,
And he put his head in his hands.

Gram and Mr. T put our troubles on their backs,
They looked out for us and my ma,
They kept us from falling through the cracks,
But we never called him “Grandpa.”
I wonder, would we if his skin wasn’t black?

“Wiggers” were whites who wished they were black,
They looked silly and wore baggy jeans,
I had a black friend, he was listening to rap
And acting differently when we were teens,
And I thought, “Man, who the hell is that?”

Fast forward a few years to junior high,
Our global studies teacher once quipped,
“Asians can fix their eyes -
It’s common, easy, just a simple snip.”
Looking back, I’d say he crossed the line.

An adopted kid sat next to me - imagine his surprise,
I wonder what he must have thought -
Could he look his white family in the eyes
And tell them what he had just been taught
Now that he had been Americanized?

I guess it’s in my blood,
The same is all I see,
Like my daddy before me,
I learned all these things growing up.

There are two types of people: whites and minorities.
They were inhuman before the civil war,
But then they marched in different cities,
And now we all walk through the exact same door
Because equality is what they achieved.

Some black people don’t mind your racist jokes
But you shouldn’t say it around them -
They won’t laugh at all the tropes.
Unless you have that one black friend,
If he were here, you know he’d love the roast.

In New York, most squirrels are gray,
But sometimes black ones run around -
They’re the same in almost every way,
But when they come scurrying about,
“Monkey squirrels” is what some northerners say.

When you pass the smoke and it’s too wet to hit,
That’s a party foul, an epic fail,
You see, you’ve gone and monkey-lipped it,
And when you MacGyver to no avail,
You’ve gone and monkey-rigged it.

I spent one summer on a plantation in the southern air,
Worked fields with rednecks in S.C.
So racism was everywhere.
The first question they asked me
Was, “What y’all think of monkeys up there?”

I changed the subject and then I looked away -
How dare he say something racist like that.
Up north we don’t discriminate -
We won the war, we know just how to act,
We’re all the same, every single race.

Of course, up here we can improve,
For example, avoid the south side -
If there’s one thing that they can do,
It’s reduce their own homicides
And keep their gangs locked up in school.

Well anyway, I tripped again down memory lane,
Fell down and I skinned my knee.
I guess I’ll grab another Band-Aid.
Even though it’s all bloody,
We’ll just cover up the pain.

And so henceforth,
Strive to be like us.
Take a seat on the bus,
‘Cause we’re not racists in the north.

I guess it’s in my blood,
The same is all I see,
Like my daddy before me,
I learned all these things growing up.