Its called Work Your Way Out, and here’s an excerpt of the lyrics:

i don't need to tell you
what this is about
you just start on the inside
and work your way out
we are all polylingual
but some of us pretend
there's virtue in relying
on not trying to understand
we're all citizens of the womb
before we subdivide
into sexes and shades
this side
that side
and i don't need to tell you
what this is about
you just start on the inside
and work your way out

Lyrics in head, I took a walk through Brooklyn, passed a storefront and remembered a story about it: the store had put up a display of tall bikes and a bunch of Brooklyn biketivists had vandalized the storefront in protest of the store appropriating/commodifying their culture. In the end, the store apologized, saying that they hadn’t intended to commodify the bikes or the culture, and had meant the display as respectful tribute.

Walking, remembering, thinking- those biketivists were probably white, as were, probably, the storeowners. And forever, throughout history, white people have been appropriating/ commodifying people of color culture, and I’m not sure how often people of color have protested through vandalism and received apologies. If they were truly starting from the inside and working our way out, would those kids really be putting their energy into vandalizing storefronts displaying tall bikes instead of strategizing systemic change?

But it’s a difficult thing – starting from the inside and working your way out – because doing that kind of rocks you to your core, and maybe its impossible to even know where to start- where inside really is- because we have so many walls up blocking/protecting our centers- walls we’ve put up intentionally, walls that have been forced into us, walls we never even thought to question, and then they’re firmly rooted, and its true that you can’t be neutral on a moving train, but jumping yourself off the train is no easy task.

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