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The Chris Chandler Show

  • The Race Problem/ (What’s so Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding (7:44)

    The Race Problem

    I say Comedy,
    You say Tragedy
    I say Tragedy
    You say Comedy
    Tragedy
    Comedy
    Comedy
    Tragedy

    And each time I feel like this inside,
    There's one thing i wanna know:
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Yeah!
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

    People say we have a race problem in this country.
    I say yea, it is a race problem because YOU call it a race.

    It is a race problem because ya start off one group of people 20 miles behind the starting line and call it a race.

    And as soon as they start to catch up and ya slap on a fashionable set of leg irons and still call it a race...

    It’s not a race problem - it is a problem with the race.

    You wonder why impoverished youth will kill each other over a pair of running shoes - it is because you call it a race.

    But I say this is not a race - because the world is round - and if it were a race who ever is in first place is slightly behind the guy in last... and if I were you I would be looking over my shoulder...

    My Name is Michael Brown.

    As I walk through
    This wicked world
    Lookin' for light in the darkness of insanity.

    I ask myself
    Is all hope lost?
    Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

    Comedy
    Tragedy
    I am Stephon Clark
    Comedy
    Tragedy
    I am Oscar Grant
    Comedy
    Tragedy
    I am Rodney King
    Tragedy
    Comedy
    Can’t We all just get along...
    Stick and beat the hell out of each other?

    And each time i feel like this inside,
    There's one thing i wanna know:
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

    You say there is a race problem I say there is a problem with the Race. All over the country the poor are disenfranchised by persistent redistricting - known as Gerrymandering.

    When I look at a congressional district map it looks like a giant Rorshak test --- and when i look at that Rorshak test.
    I see nothing but a giant Col Sanders standing next to a tiny Uncle Ben
    and an even tinier Aunt Jamima.

    It is not a race problem, it is a problem with the race.

    Mississippi has 40% black population and 8 % of it’s elected officials are black.

    and don’t get me started on election reform, PAC money... Citizens United...

    Who can run against that?

    It is not a race problem it is a problem with the race.

    As I walk on
    through troubled times
    My spirit gets so down hearted sometimes.

    Where are the strong?
    And who are the trusted?
    And where is the harmony?
    Sweet harmony.

    If it is heritage not hate - show me just how much heritage you have by...being a southern gentleman .. and apologizing.

    Being a southern gentleman is the only part of my heritage I don’t hate...

    I am southern, too. My ancestors too fought in the Civil War... I know first hand we have a long tradition of... surrendering...

    So come on Mississippi - take that flag down... Let us take those confederate monuments down!
    Georgia did it - even south Carolina...
    Let us be gentleman about it.

    Why don’t we do it?



    Because, you know as I do...

    if it had been a lone black guy
    in Charleston, South Carolina
    shooting white people in a poor white church...

    The one thing we’d have is...
    ...gun control.

    ....If you want real gun control in this country,
    the way to obtain it
    would be to form
    “a well regulated militia”

    of poor people!

    protecting themselves against the thievery of the rich.

    But as long as it remains poor people killing poor people
    - for chump change -
    they’ll let you keep your guns...

    But I don’t follow your logic on gun control..
    isn’t an armed street gang
    alot closer to a “Well regulated Militia?”

    than a neighborhood watch group...
    My Name is...

    Trevon Martin






    'cause each time i feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Yeah!
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

    It’s not a race problem - it is a problem with the race.
    
One in three black men will wind up in state or federal prison - 1 in 25 whites will go there - and of those whites that go to prison 75% live under the poverty line.

    Make sure you curb your dog, people gotta sleep on these streets...

    Today in America, we have a greater income gap today than there was in South Africa at the heart of apartheid...

    And that income gap has grown by 40% in my lifetime.

    We are moving backwards as The Supreme Court demolishes the voting rights laws we fought so hard for during the so called civil-rights-era.

    Tragedy / Comedy
    I am Clarence Thomas
    Comedy / Tragedy
    I am Sandra Bland

    'cause each time i feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Yeah!
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Yeah!
    What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?




    It is not a black problem or a white problem,
    it is a class problem...
    but systemic racial prejudice
    has kept far too many blacks below the poverty line...

    So that it is not just a class problem...

    It is an American problem.

    But ladies and gentleman...
    I have a dream!
    I dream of a day...

    when a man is judged by the contents of his character....

    ...and not the content of his wallet.

    It is not a race Problem.

    It is a problem with the race.

    Credits:

    "A rat race is for Rats, we are not rats." Jimmy Reid

    Chris Chandler / Nick Lowe
    Ninth Wave Publishing / Licensed through Harry Fox

    Chandler: Spoken Word
    Paul Benoit: Guitar Vocals Bass

    Additional Vocals: Grace Park, John Elliott
    Drums: Dan Weber
    Organ: Jordan Feinstein
    Recorded mixed and mastered at Lost and Found by Blake Harkins, additional tracks by Jordan Feinstein, and Michael Mcleod
    Chandler recorded at the Monkey House by Ira Marlowe