Photo Credit: Instagram
Recently, Willie D, spoke emphatically about his beliefs concerning the paradoxical concept embedded into the American justice system. Within the continuation of his exclusive interview, the legendary lyricist speaks candidly about his thoughts concerning the plight that many U.S. citizens continue to experience on a daily basis.
Wrapped in warm skin that embraces melanin, many people of color are stereotyped due to their skin that’s seen as a sin. Read along and gain more insight into this Geto Boys’ mindset as he reflects upon the strained race relations in the U.S., the necessity of revolution, and American embracing its responsibility.
Historically people of color have marched and prayed; what’s the next step in fighting our current battles against American oppression?
We’ve got to give them a taste of their own medicine. That’s the next step and they know it. They know nothing else is going to work. All that other sh*t – the wheels of justice – that’s some bullsh*t; if there’s a wheel of justice that motherf**ker is rotten. It’s too f**king rusty to roll. Let me tell you something. The only way to deal with a bully is to bully a bully. They don’t respect nothing else. Bullies don’t respect nothing else; I know, I was a bully. I was a bully. I didn’t stop being a bully because all of a sudden I got compassion. Somebody bullied my ass back…Bullies don’t like people who fight back; they don’t. Even if the bully wins the fight, if you put a few scratches on his ass or a few cuts on his ass, bullies don’t like that type of s###.
When was the last time you heard about Al Capone getting beat up, or getting a cut on his face or losing something? It didn’t happen, because they don’t take that sh*t. Bullies don’t like adversaries who are worthy. If you put something on they ass—you gotta give them back what they give—and when they start feeling that same kind of pain. When their wives start crying, when their sons and daughters start getting it, then they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, sh*t; we gotta stop that sh*t, because I don’t want to f**king die. I don’t want to bury my son or daughter. We gotta stop. We gotta stop f**king with these people, because these motherf**kers ain’t having it no more. They’re not letting us do this sh*t no more.’
That’s the way you do it. It ain’t no other way. We’ve been sitting up here doing this sh*t, you know, for hundreds of years. It’s no other way. That sh*t don’t work. You can’t ask your oppressor for freedom. You can’t go to your captive and say, ‘Can you free me; will you please free me? Well, I just don’t feel like you’ve done enough to earn your freedom, Sir. Just give it a little bit more time. Do some more nice sh*t and I’ll decide when I’ll free you.’ How much sense does that make? When was the last time that you actually knew somebody who went to jail and asked the bailiff to let him go? ‘Excuse me bailiff, can you open the gate and let me go? Can you open these f**king bars and let me out of here?’ It don’t happen; oppressor don’t stop oppressing voluntarily. They have to be forced. They don’t stop. Bullies don’t stop bullying voluntarily; they have to be forced. They have to be bullied. They have to feel the same kind of pain that you feel. When they start feeling the same kind of pain as the person that they’re bullying that’s when it’s going to change.
We got born in these United States of America that’s supposed to protect the innocent. They’re supposed to protect its citizens of America. But, when then those laws are not used then they’re useless. It doesn’t make sense to have them if you’re not going to enforce them. The first law of nature is self-preservation. If you’re not going to protect me then I have to protect myself. That’s why I don’t have a bodyguard out here on the road, because Tupac and Biggie had bodyguards and both of them are dead. Tupac and Biggie had bodyguards and they’re both in the ground. Well, Tupac was cremated and his ashes were thrown in the ocean, I heard. What I’m saying is they’re both gone and not with us anymore and they both had bodyguards. So, can’t nobody guard my body better than I can. When I walk out the door I’m not counting on the next man to guard me from a jacker. I’m not counting on the next guy to warn me of danger; or, to be the eyes for me if somebody is trying to run up on me with a pistol and rob me. I’m watching at all times. Nobody can guard my body better than me. I’m watching at all times. It’s nobody that can protect you and your family better than you can; nobody.
If somebody puts their foot in your daughter’s back, or slams your teenage daughter to the ground who’s in a swimsuit and puts a foot in her back, you got to get at that b####. You can’t let them break you; f**k the law. The law is not going to do nothing for you. You can’t let him make it. If the law is not going to work for you then you have to take the law into your own hands. That’s how it’s done. That’s how America does it. America does the same thing. America puts laws in place, and when the law’s are being violated and nobody wants to bring a certain person to justice, America says, ‘F**k it. We’re going to put a bond on that motherf**ker’s head and we’re going to get him.’ They do the same thing.
I’m an American. I’m a full-blooded American. I come from American I was raised by the beast.
“It’s been open season on black folks. You just have, you know, a bunch of killings being – a bunch of one–sided killings going on. And a revolution takes place when you arm yourself and fight back. That’s when a revolution happens; that’s when change happens. It happened with the American Revolution and the Spanish Revolution, the British Revolution – every revolution that you can think of –when the people felt that they were being oppressed; they fought back. That’s the only way revolution happens, and change occurs.” -Willie D
You know, no revolution has ever been had without bloodshed. There’s no such thing as a non-violent revolution. Anybody that thing it is, they’re just saying that sh*t to make themselves feel good. I’m a realist. I wish it didn’t have to be like that. The problem with revolution is that a lot of good people end up getting killed along with the bad people. That’s one of the biggest problems with revolution.
Is that a necessary evil for change to actually occur?
Yes, it is. It is a necessary evil; it just has to happen. That’s the only way. It has to happen, because it’s not going to stop. You got too many evil people out there who are in charge of American. The President is not the primary person that’s in charge; he’s a figurehead. There’s way too many vices out there that makes America what it is and makes it run. Everybody’s focused on the President, but these judges got more power than anybody in the country. Every single day—the judges – they’re in control of people’s lives. That’s too much power when they can say.
I was just saying that it can’t be done without bloodshed. Otherwise – we’ve been marching and praying and marching and praying – and we can just hope that they won’t beat the sh*t out you. And we can just hope that they stop killing us, and hope that the stop beating us. We can continue with the hoping and praying and leave it in the hands of the politicians. These are politicians who get into office based on popularity and popular vote – based on the premise of being tough on crime. When you think of crime in America, they got us so brainwashed that many Americans when they think about crime they immediately think about Blacks. When the say “tough on crime,” really that’s code for being tough on Blacks.
That’s how they get in office. It’s not in their best interest to assist us. So, damn going back to f**king Africa. We ain’t never been to Africa. This is where we were born; this is where we’re from. We’re from America; we’re Americans. We’re not no African-Americans. We’re f**king Americans. So, you know, we got just as much right as anybody else to fight for any single premises in this country. We got just as much right to fight back against anybody that’s trying to take our freedom. That’s including anyone that’s in this country that’s trying to take our freedom. We got just as much right, as anybody else, to fight for that freedom and to preserve that freedom. We have a right to preserve life and to protect our children. Our wives, our sons, our daughters, our grandmothers – we have just as much right as anybody else – to fight for that. After all, that’s the American way.
Is that an inalienable right or an inherent responsibility to fight back against the oppressor?
That’s a right and a responsibility.