The "Goddam" in "America"
19/03/08 12:20
The following
essay was posted on Pop and Politics
on March 3, 2008.
An excerpt is attached. Read the full piece
here.
Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie
Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies…
I don't trust you any more…
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
--Nina Simone, “Mississippi Goddam”
A few weeks ago, Barack Obama had “transcended race.” A few weeks ago, conservative pundits were licking his fundament (whether in earnest or simply to boost the chances of the presumably beatable Democrat one will never know). A few weeks ago, any mention of anything that even suggested that Barack Obama was black got blasted by his camp and his supporters as inherently racist.
But Barack Obama adopted Afro-American culture (that of the American descendants of African slaves) a long time ago. His church and its preacher are very much in the Afro-American cultural tradition. So is his wife. To those of us old enough to have seen our father’s live in fear of being brutally reminded of the weakness of their middle class purchase, the word “Goddamn” slips easily from the lips. The word “America” might even be next to it.
Read the rest
Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie
Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies…
I don't trust you any more…
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
--Nina Simone, “Mississippi Goddam”
A few weeks ago, Barack Obama had “transcended race.” A few weeks ago, conservative pundits were licking his fundament (whether in earnest or simply to boost the chances of the presumably beatable Democrat one will never know). A few weeks ago, any mention of anything that even suggested that Barack Obama was black got blasted by his camp and his supporters as inherently racist.
But Barack Obama adopted Afro-American culture (that of the American descendants of African slaves) a long time ago. His church and its preacher are very much in the Afro-American cultural tradition. So is his wife. To those of us old enough to have seen our father’s live in fear of being brutally reminded of the weakness of their middle class purchase, the word “Goddamn” slips easily from the lips. The word “America” might even be next to it.
Read the rest