“Don’t Call Me White!”
Lyrics: Henry J. Pfaff.
Tune: Unknown.
Call me red or call me brown.
Call me black or call me pink.
Call me yellow if you like;
But please, don’t call me white.
White is the shade of ghosts and sin
That lurk in the shadow of the night.
All live men have color in their skin,
Only dead men turn white.
But we light, brown or in between,
We’re all creatures of the Sun.
We’re dark because for millions of years
The hot sun tanned our hide.
We’re light because we early strayed
To the earth’s cool other side,
Where the sun just passed us by;
Slowly thus, our skin turned light.
If we all live in this same cold clime
For another million or so years,
Our skin will slowly change to light,
Before death turns us all white.
If we all returned to the cradle of the race,
We’d again turn brown, then black from light.
In the meantime call me pale or pink,
But please don’t call me white!