Music

Rage Against the Machine lyrics land Arizona high school teacher in hot water

by Mark Teo

If you haven’t yet blocked out all memories of high school, you’ll surely remember that you had a few cool, goateed, just-out-of-college teachers. They were the ones who, when you were learning the Outsiders, wore greaser-worthy leather jackets to class, complete with a Ramones pin that hinted to their punk-rock past. When you went through your brief, regrettable Pink Floyd obsession, they made comparisons between “The Wall” and anti-establishment, phony-killing anti-heroics of Holden Caulfield. And when it came to teach the War of 1812, Mr. Fitzgerald surprised everyone by playing Rage Against the Machine. Right there in history class. And when he did, you got goosebumps every time Zach de la Rocha said the word—right after the wah-wah-chk-wah-wah-chka-chka-chka—”fuck.”

Those teachers taught you how to be punk, man. They taught you how to challenge authority, stand up for your God- or state-given rights, and, when applicable, question / criticize / smash the state. Laugh as you might, those teachers were essential, and Arizona’s Corey Jones one of the good guys.

As such, though, he ran into a few issues. Jones, who was teaching U.S. history at Cholla Magnet High school, was teaching Mexican-American history—and was instructing his students about events from a Mexican perspective. And to accompany his class, he chose to play Rage Against the Machine’s “Take the Power Back,” a track that features the lyric “Motherfuck Uncle Sam.”

Pretty fitting, right? We certainly think so. The only problem was that Jones was teaching in Arizona, a state that has—in a feat of shocking bullshit—banned so-called “ethnic studies.” And thanks to Arizona’s state superindendent of public education, John Huppenthal, Jones teaching Mexican-American history violated that ban. Huppenthal sent a note of non-compliance to the Tucson Unified School District to complain.

According to AZ Central, a state law was passed in 2011 banning classes that promote the overthrow of government, a resentment for a certain group of people, classes geared towards certain background, or “advocating ethnic solidarity.” Jones’ decision to play a Rage Against the Machine song—as well as another teacher’s decision to play KRS-One in class—supposedly violated Arizona law. Or, should we say, Arizona’s shockingly racist law.

Huppenthal’s lengthy letter took issue to Jones’ decision to teach the class from a Mexican-American perspective, and as an example of so-called “problematic content,” he quoted Rage Against the Machine in full.

When Tom Morello heard of the news, he took to Twitter to post a photo in solidarity.

Read the lyrics to Rage Against the Machine’s “Take the Power Back” below. Problematic? You be the one to decide.

Bring that shit in! Uggh!
Yeah, the movement’s in motion with mass militant poetry
Now check this out…uggh!

In the right light, study becomes insight
But the system that dissed us
Teaches us to read and right

So called facts are fraud
They want us to allege and pledge
And bow down to their God
Lost the culture, the culture lost
Spun our minds and through time
Ignorance has taken over
Yo, we gotta take the power back!
Bam! Here’s the plan
Motherfuck Uncle Sam
Step back, I know who I am
Raise up your ear, I’ll drop the style and clear
It’s the beats and the lyrics they fear
The rage is relentless
We need a movement with a quickness
You are the witness of change
And to counteract
We gotta take the power back

Yeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power back

The present curriculum
I put my fist in ’em
Eurocentric every last one of ’em
See right through the red, white and blue disguise
With lecture I puncture the structure of lies
Installed in our minds and attempting
To hold us back
We’ve got to take it back
Holes in our spirit causin’ tears and fears
One-sided stories for years and years and years
I’m inferior? Who’s inferior?
Yeah, we need to check the interior
Of the system that cares about only one culture
And that is why
We gotta take the power back

Yeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power back

Hey yo check, we’re gonna have to break it, break it,
break it down
Awww shit!

Uggh!

And like this…uggh!

Come on, yeah! Bring it back the other way!

The teacher stands in front of the class
But the lesson plan he can’t recall
The student’s eyes don’t perceive the lies
Bouning off every fucking wall
His composure is well kept
I guess he fears playing the fool
The complacent students sit and listen to some of that
Bullshit that he learned in school

Europe ain’t my rope to swing on
Can’t learn a thing from it
Yet we hang from it
Gotta get it, gotta get it together then
Like the motherfuckin’ weathermen
To expose and close the doors on those who try
To strangle and mangle the truth
‘Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react
We gotta take the power back

Yeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power back

No more lies

Uggh!

Yeah!

Take it back y’all
Take it back, a-take it back
A-take it back y’all, come on!
Take it back y’all
Take it back, a-take it back
A-take it back y’all, come on!

Uggh!

Yeah!

[H/T Metalsucks]