But the US Embassy is reminiscent of a villa
If poverty is chocolate and privilege vanilla

from Lupe Fiasco – Around My Way Lyrics on Genius


A villa is a high class country house, which all the higher-ups in the government have. U.S. embassies around the world are often villas even if the whole country is very poor, making the embassy an island of materialism and prosperity in the midst of a vast ocean of poverty.

Chocolate and vanilla are clear metaphors for the poverty in black communities and riches in white communities; this line also touches on the subject of white privilege, the advantages that whites have accrued in American society as a result of hundreds of years of disenfranchisement of/disadvantages towards people of color.

The recently built US embassy in Iraq (the largest in the world) cost over $500 million, equipped with swimming pool, tennis courts, gym, etc. Outside the embassy, Iraqis cannot even fulfill their basic needs.

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