In My Younger Days Lyrics

In my younger days I lived with black, white, and Japanese
But the school I went to was already black except for me
White folks were movin' up
And we moved on out
To the suburbs where we lived a life of ease
I was safe and warm
If not entirely blessed with funk

Oh, it was pretty there
Winding roads and not a care
Looking back it wasn't fair
We had it all

And when we left we sold the place
To a writer for the Times
First black family in the neighborhood

You can see the trees are thinning
You can see somebody's winning
But the rest of us are just beginning
To understand it all

Later on I had a teacher
Who helped me find things in my mind
She was subtle
....She kept her job

There was another who shared his views for all to hear
He had no fear
He should've
Powers that were shut him down, he taught no more
They would've locked him up
If they could've
He gave me hope
Showed me I was not alone

Everything worth knowing was left out
Only later did I learn
What they should have been talking about
All I know about democracy
I learned in that school
Mostly....Not.