In the style of a Stephen Foster 19th Century parlor song, Plug Your Ears and Sing! is about how the U.S.’s history of race relations makes some people so uncomfortable that they don’t want it to be taught at all. I’m looking at you, state governments of Florida, Virginia, Texas, and too many others!
But if we don’t learn about what happened in the past we’ll never understand how we arrived at the way things are now. So let’s get over ourselves and not freak out every time a history lesson makes us uncomfortable!
From my latest album and show The American Songbook: Redacted
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Lyrics:
Plug Your Ears and Sing!
When you’re talking history
The stories can be sad
Slaves and segregation
Can make White folks feel bad
So let’s pretend that bondage
Wasn’t as bad as they say
And let’s not try to tie the past
To what we have today
So don’t learn your history
Just plug your ears and sing!
Ignore unhappy subjects
Which is almost everything
We don’t like the stories
When the villains look like us
If we feel some discomfort
We’ll raise an angry fuss
We want to feel better
About evils done before
We’ll even change the reasons why
There was a Civil War
Oh, don’t learn your history
Just plug your ears and sing!
Ignore unhappy subjects
Which is almost everything
White folks’ past transgressions
Can put White folks on defense
Just by saying ‘White folks’
Most White folks take offense
So let’s avoid the subject
Let’s all get along
Let’s center our own voices
As we sing a happy song
Oh, don’t learn your history
Just plug your ears and sing!
Ignore unhappy subjects
Which is almost everything
We’ll only take our history
When we’ve removed all the warts
If teachers hurt our feelings
We’ll take them all to court
For it’s not proper manners
To frankly talk of race
We’d treat everyone equally
If they just knew their place
Oh, don’t learn your history
Just plug your ears and sing!
Ignore unhappy subjects
Which is almost everything
Oh, don’t learn your history
Just plug your ears and sing!
Ignore unhappy subjects
Which is almost everything
29 сен 2024
