Is It Because I’m Black Songtext
von Syl Johnson

The dark brown shades of my skin, only add colour to my tears
That splash against my hollow bones, that rocks my soul
Looking back over my false dreams, that I once knew
Wondering why my dreams never came true

Is it because I'm black?
Somebody tell me, what can I do
Something is holding me back
Is it because I'm black?
In this world of no pity
I was raised in the ghetto of the city
Momma, she works so hard
To earn every penny
Something is holding me back
Is it because I'm black?


Like a child stealing candy for the first time, and got caught
Thiefing around life's corner somewhere I got lost
Something is holding me back
I wonder, is it because I'm black?
Somebody tell me what can I do
Will I survive, or will I die?

You keep on holding me back
You keep on holding on
You keep on picking on me
You keep on holding me back
You keep on holding on
You keep on holding on
You're holding me back
I wonder why, you do me like that
But you keep on holding me back
You keep on putting your foot on me
But I, I've got to break away
Somehow and someday
Cause I wanna be somebody so bad, so bad
I wanna be somebody, I wanna be somebody so bad


You see, I want diamond rings and things, like you do
And I wanna drive Cadillac cars
I wanna be somebody so bad
But you keep on putting your foot on me
And I, I believe, I believe I can break away
And be somebody, somehow, and someway

Ya see, I heard somebody say one time
You can make it, if you try
And some of us, we tried so hard, we tried so hard
I want you to know that I don't speak for myself
But I speak for y'all too right now
Ya see, if you have white-like brown skin and a high yeller
You're still black
So we all got to stick together right now
This I wanna say to you my sisters and my brothers
Right on sister
Right on brother

Dig this
And we keep on pushing down
We've got to make it a little bit further
We've got to make it a little further
All we got to do is try, try, try
And some of us, we've tried so hard
We've tried so hard, we've tried so hard
We've tried so hard, so hard to be somebody
We've tried so hard, although, they're holding us back
And it stairs the reason, that they're doing us like that
You know what? It is
I believe, it is because we are black
But hey, we can't stop now, we can't stop now
We've got to keep on, keep on, keep on, keeping on
We've got to keep on keeping on
I know and I know and I know that you know that I know it ain't right
Oh, it ain't right, it ain't right, it ain't right
That they hold us, hold us, hold us back
They're holding us back, they're holding us back
I wonder, sometimes I sit down, sit down and I wonder