July 20, 2014, by Briana
Lenny Kravitz, Grammy award winner, decided to step outside of his comfort zone in 2011 when he wrote the song “Black and White America”. As a rock star, Kravitz would normally write strictly rock songs, but he decided to take a different approach with this one by combining different genres. Kravitz told sources that this piece was written after he observed a documentary he found one night while flipping through the television. This documentary was about a group of Americans that weren’t in agreement with how the United States was being run. They were not fond of President Barack Obama and they were not supportive of equality between different races. They wished for America to be how it was years ago.
Lenny grew up with interracial parents, so he wanted people to understand his viewpoint and how he lived. He wanted people to understand that this isn’t just America, its black and white America, no matter where you go. The lyrics of this song are trying to help people understand that we are all one, as people. We may have different color skin, but that does not make us any better than the next person.
Below are the lyrics of the song.
"Black And White America"
Martin Luther King, he had a vision
And that's a fact
He died so we could see that was his mission
So don't look back
There is no division, don't you understand
The future looks as though it has come around
And maybe we have finally found our common ground
We're the children of one father
If you're looking back don't bother
We're black and white America
Rob from Always on the run is bad bad bad
In nineteen sixty three my father married
A black woman
And when they walked the street they were in danger
Look what you've done
But they just kept on walking forward hand in hand
The future looks as though it has come around
And maybe we have finally found our common ground
We're the children of one father
If you're looking back don't bother
We're black and white America
The future looks as though it has come around
And maybe we have finally found our common ground
We're the children of one father
If you're looking back don't bother
We're black and white America
We've waited so long
We've waited so long
There is no division, don't you understand
The future looks as though it has come around
And maybe we have finally found our common ground
We're the children of one father
If you're looking back don't bother
We're black and white America
The future looks as though it has come around
And maybe we have finally found our common ground
We're the children of one father
If you're looking back don't bother
We're black and white America
The future looks as though it has come around
And maybe we have finally found our common ground
We're the children of one father
If you're looking back don't bother
We're black and white America
Oh, yeah
Black and white America
Gonna keep moving forward, oh
Blow Harold !
