The Love (feat. Jennifer Hudson)

Good evening

Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement

Left us with this wisdom

Give people light, and they will find the way

Give people light (hmm)

Those are words for our time

Just a week ago yesterday

It was the third anniversary

Of the events in Charlottesville (yeah, yeah)

Close your eyes, remember what you saw on the television

Remember seeing those Neo-Nazis

Remember seeing those clansmen, remember

Coming out a field with lighted torches, veins bulging

Spewing the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the thirties (hate, hate, hate!)

Remember the violent clash that ensued

Between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it

And remember what the President said when asked?

He said there were quote: Very fine people on both sides

It was a wake-up call for us as a country (oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

And for me a call to action (uhm-hmm)

People killing, people dying

Children hurting, you hear them crying

Can you practice what you preach?

And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us

Send some guidance from above

'Cause people got me, got me questionin'

Where is the love?

What's wrong with the world, mama?

People livin' like they ain't got no mamas

I think the whole world's addicted to the drama

Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma

Overseas yeah we trying to stop terrorism

But we still got terrorists here livin'

In the USA, the KKK

I can’t believe they’re still hating blacks today

But if you only have love for your own race

Then you only leave space to discriminate

And to discriminate only generates hate

And when you hate, then you're bound to get irate, yeah

Madness is what you demonstrate

And that's exactly how hate works and operates

Man you gotta have love just to set it straight

Take control of your mind and meditate

Let your soul gravitate to the love

So the question for us is simple: Are we ready?

I believe we are, we must be

We can choose a path of becoming angrier, less hopeful, more divided

A path of shadow and suspicion

Or, or we can choose a different path

And together (ah-ah), take this chance to heal, to reform, to unite (hmm)

A path of hope and light (umm-hmm)

This is a life-changing election

This will determine what America is gonna look like for a long, long time (yes it is)

Character is on the ballot

Compassion is on the ballot (compassion)

Decency, science, democracy (yeah)

They're all on the ballot

Who we are as a nation, what we stand for

And most importantly we want to be

That's all on the ballot

And the choice could not be more clear