The lyrics have some truth to them quite a bit actually. Even though slavery was stopped about 140 years ago racism still persists. However, I think it persists for different reasons other then the suppression by the "The Man" up top. I think, just my lil opinion, that with popular culture todays youth are I guess "comfortable" into slipping into their stereotypical roles. They point to certain structures in society as is predetermined by society and blame them, for example politicians lie, lawyers s***w you etc. Its whats expected. But when this is done its not really fighting racism rather it actually devalues it because your acts have no meaning. You are no longer the shepherd but a sheep. In the past the actions of African Americans echoed that it was the time for a change, time for them to be treated as equals. The decision was black and white, no pun intended. So with todays youth although they would want to equalize whatever socioeconomic factors might influence them they are approaching this from a ancient method still focusing on differences when they should be focusing on similarities. .:-) cheers that's my opinion.