"Cynical" by Propaganda ft. Aaron Marsh & Sho Baraka, Wednesday, June 19, 2024 (reworked post)

Jason Emmanuel Petty, known as Propaganda, is a poet, pastor, and spoken-word rapper whose 2017 album Crooked made a definitive turn into the discussion of where politics and Christianity intersect.  In the constant Fox News cycle of 2024, it’s hard to remember everything that was happening in 2017, although the politicians and the American people have only become more shameless. Much of the lyrics on Crooked come from a personal and political disappointment, particularly in how Christianity is used to oppress people of color in America. The album's third single, "Cynical" encapsulates this disappointment succinctly.

WHY DO YOU LOVE YOUR GUNS MORE THAN OUR SONS? “Cynical” starts with a morose electric guitar which plays the same chords throughout the song. Several of the tracks on Crooked use electric guitar, but the melodies are kept to a minimum, keeping the focus on Propagada’s words. “Cynical,” though has a chorus--albeit a simple one--sung by Copeland’s Aaron Marsh. The lyrics don’t hold back on the cynicism Petty feels. It’s a similar feeling that progressive and so-called ex-vangelicals feel, but Propaganda is addressing the concerns of black Americans and immigrants who are most vulnerable to the political policies that mainstream Christians are leveraging in politics. Propaganda specifically calls out Christians who are “flying to Trump rallies” while people who don’t look like them are dying. He asks the Christians why they will not get involved with racial justice, and why instead they “love [their] guns more than our sons.” The series of questions Propaganda asks in the song are not new or original--many of us have been asking these questions at various stages of the Christian Right, but the willful blindness by the other side leads the speaker to feel more cynical than ever before.

PRAY TO MY SAVIOR, AND MIDDLE FINGER TO MY NEIGHBOR. Seven years later, what has changed? The polarization Propaganda raps about in “Cynical” is more pronounced. Voters are once again forced into choosing between Trump and Biden. Both candidates are more interested in wielding political power than addressing the needs of the nation, though Trump has promised a frightening Project 2025 which should scare anyone interested in a state with free democratic elections. We’re in the middle of maybe the hottest year on record and in the middle of two wars. Personal freedoms are constantly under fire as a stacked Supreme Court decides a theocratic future. And while it’s bad for me, I can’t even imagine what this level of cynicism feels like for an immigrant, a refugee, a person of color in America, or a member of the trans community. Today is Juneteenth, a day when we celebrate the end of slavery, specifically the end of slavery in the Confederate states. Why didn’t it become a federal holiday until 2021? And why is it a point of political contention? Why does racism feel so much more mainstream and more overt than ever? 








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