No Rest For The Weary Summary

The song No Rest for the Weary by the Blue Scholars addresses many important topics and issues. These issues include the themes of capitalism, and its connection to urbanization, escapism and the pursuit of money as escapism, and resistance within a system designed to benefit European colonizers and denigrate all non-Europeans.
The song addresses capitalism with lyrics like “There’s no rest for the weary just another day grinding up stones”, “I bent the spine of the track until it snaps/ pops working overtime and he got a broken back”, and “descendants of a long lineage of proletariat and peasant”. These connect to what we have been discussing regarding the capitalist system and urbanization and how the two are intrinsically linked with the purpose of privileging the wealthy and disenfranchising the poor who are disproportionally non-European people. Black and brown people are targeted in this system and this can be observed through studies regarding employment opportunities- such as the privileging of persons applying for employment with “white” sounding names- and studies done of the wage earnings of white people in comparison to that of non-white people.
The perpetuation of this system is propelled by the present day constant state of war that
This addresses escapism and the pursuit of money as a means of immediate satisfaction. Money acts as a distraction from the corrupted system. This is not an accident. Wilson speaks about the disconnect between people of African descent and their history. He discusses the connections between history, power and economics. Do not be fooled- if these things were not connected “why is it that the European wants to rewrite our history and distort it?” We will continue to be controlled by an oppressive system if we do resort to escapism and “historical amnesia”. Like you said Dr. X- “which pill are you going to