Gil Scott-Heron
The King Alfred Plan
[Intro]
Um, it’s 1972, an election year, and once again, black people are running for their lives. Reasons are things like the King Alfred Plan. The concentration camps that were used during the second World War to house oriental-Americans are now being refurbished to, um, confine their new residents—i.e. black people. Brothers and sisters, there is a place for you in America. This is the King Alfred Plan.
[Rap]
Ha! Brothers and sisters, there is a place for you in America
Places are being prepared and readied
Night and day, night and day
The white boy's plan is being readied
Night and day, night and day
Listen close to what Rap say about traps like Allenwood P.A.
Already legal in D.C. to preventively detain you and me
How long you think it's going to be
Before even our dreams ain't free?
You think I exaggerate?
Check out Allenwood P.A.
Night and day, night and day
The white boy's scheming night and day
The Jews and Hitler come to mind
The thought of slavery far behind
But white paranoia is here to stay
The white boy's scheming night and day
What you think about the King Alfred Plan?
You ain't heard? Where you been, man?
If I may paraphrase the government notice reads:
"Should there at anytime become a clear and present danger initiated by any radical element threatening the operation of the government of the United States of America, members of this radical element shall be transported to detention centers until such time as their threat has been eliminated—code King Alfred."
"Bullshit" I bet you say
"There ain't no Allenwood P.A."
And people ain't waiting night and day
Night and day, night and day
There will be without the Motown sound and Thunderbird
Wallowing in the echoes of Malcolm's words
There must be black unity
There must be black unity
For in the end, unity will be thrust upon us
And we upon it and each other
Locked in cages, pens, hemmed in, shoulder-to-shoulder
Arms outstretched for just a crust of bread
Watermelon mirages, an oasis that does not exist
Conjured up by the bubbling stench
Unwashed bodies in unsanitary quarters
Concrete and barbed wire, babies screaming
Stumbling around in a mental circle
Because you never cared enough to be black
In the end, unity will be thrust upon us
Blanketed, stifled, a salty taste in your mouth
From blood oozing from cracks and wooly heads
Red pools becoming thicker than syrup slow down your face
Birds matted by the life force sprung loose from wells
Welled deep by the enforcers of mock justice
Of the red, white, and blue
In the end, unity will be thrust upon us
Let us unite because of love and not hate
Let us unite on our own and not because of barbed-wire death
You dare not ignore the things I say
Whitey's waiting night and day, night and day
Night and day, night and day