Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine:

To a naive suburban teenager in 1992, “Some of those that work forces / Are the same that burn crosses” seemed a little over the top, if also challenging and thought-provoking, while “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” seemed like a fun and exciting thing to chant along with.  Now that open racists, white supremacists, and kleptocrats are joining the White House cabinet with each new day; police keep killing unarmed black men, women and children; and the National Guard is hosing, gassing and shooting Native Americans trying to protect their lawful land and everyone’s clean water supply; well, I hope to naive suburban teenagers in 2016 the lyrics don’t seem so outlandish, and the fuck you seems a little less fun and a little more urgent.  Rage Against the Machine’s lyrics often seem embarrassingly straightforward, but at some point you realize the embarrassment is the discomfort of being confronted by a truth that’s difficult to look into.