Smoking Gun, by Katherine Parent

Song at Bandcamp: https://katherineparent.bandcamp.com/track/smoking-gun

About the Song: I wrote a PhD dissertation about white Lutherans and racism in MN, and at almost every meeting my professor would tell me that I would "never find a smoking gun" of proof. In a lot of the histories by white authors that I read, the denial went so deep that it was disorienting. I started writing this song to affirm what I knew was true.
Smoking Gun 

He leans back in his easy chair
Says, "I can't deny what has been done...
but you need more proof! It's not quite there
And you'll never find a smoking gun..."

These big white lies on every page
Find a nicer word for "hit and run"
If you tell enough you change the frame
To a hole the shape of a smoking gun

(No one here pulled the trigger!
Better get your facts straight, hun
Yeah so buy it, we deny there's
Ever been a smoking gun)

Who bought the shares? Who planned the war?
Oh my ancestors, what have you done?
It's the same old tale you told before:
that the other side "had a smoking gun"

(All the big shots made a killin'
We're still trying to hide the fun
Point the finger, still it lingers
This whole town's a smoking gun)

So fan the flame and spread the smoke
Try to silence every truthful tongue
But it's obvious, the whole world knows
That America is a smoking gun

creditsreleased October 16, 2020
Original song by Katherine Parent
Produced by SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE

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