Who’ll Pay Reparations on My Soul?

Lyrics

[Intro: Gil Scott-Heron] "Who'll pay reparations on my soul?" [Verse: Gil Scott-Heron, David Barnes] Many suggestions And documents written Many directions For the end that was given They gave us Pieces of silver And pieces of gold Now, 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 in the summer was there And the freezing winter's cold Now, tell me – Who'll pay reparations on my soul? Call my brother a junkie, said 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) And 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? Yeah... uh... wooo-wee! (Uh, uh!) (Uh, uh, aah-aah...!) Call my brother a junkie, say 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's 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 (Ah yeah) From the White House desk (Uh-huh) Written on the cue cards That were never really there Yes, but the Heat in the summer were there And, um – 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?