Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE AFTER DARK
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 May 15 - 03:30 PM

There are other threads about songs of the civil rights movement as such. In this thread, I hope to collect songs that treat the problem on a more personal, less political level.

You can hear this song at YouTube.


YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE AFTER DARK
Maceo Pinkard
As sung by Alberta Hunter on "Alberta Hunter Vol. 4 (1927-c.1946)" - Document Records.

Look what the sun has done to me
It seems there's no more fun due me.
Why must all the boys act so shy?
I have guessed the reason why.

I may be as brown as a berry,
But that's only secondary,
And you can't tell the difference after dark.

I may not be so appealin',
But I've got that certain feelin',
And you can't tell the difference after dark.

They say that gentlemen prefer the blonde-haired ladies.
Tell me: am I out of style just because I'm slightly shady?

Wait until I've won ya,
And my love drops down upon ya.
You can't tell the difference after dark.

*
There are more recent recordings by—
Sure Thing on "Uptown & Down Home" (2006)
Joyce Cobb on "Beale Street Saturday Night" (2013)
Nina Van Horn on "Hell of a Woman" (2009)
Topsy Chapman and Magnolia Jazzband on "Fine and Mellow" (2000)

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 May 15 - 03:39 PM

Also:

LITTLE BLACK ME written by Thurland Chattaway (1899)

JUST BECAUSE MY FACE AIN'T WHITE written by Thurland Chattaway (1901)

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 May 15 - 06:41 PM

Great project Jim!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 May 15 - 07:25 PM

Eric Bogle's "I HATE WOGS".

Subject: LYR ADD - Pat Drummond - Who is that refugee?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 May 15 - 09:48 PM

Pat drummond - Who is that refugee?

Pat singing 'Who is that refugee?'


Matthew, 1 - 28
The angel came to Joseph late
one night
And said, "You must be gone
Gather up your wife and infant son
for you must leave this place
Herod seeks you, death awaits
Through Israel's dark and bloodstained gates
to Egypt you must flee!"
Jesus was a child when he became a refugee

Chorus:
At the mercy of the stranger
Seeking shelter from 'The Fates'
From certain death and danger
To where uncertainty awaits
Speak to me my country
Tell me what you see
Underneath the razor wire
In those same dark frightened eyes
Tell me if you recognize
Who is that refugee?


The Bible tells us Herod slew
each child below the age of two
years old
to save his dynasty
Political expediency
really isn't something new
Politicians always do
what their ambitions tell them to
and truth is sacrificed
but shame is all a nation buys
when children pay the price

Chorus:

They did not speak the language
but they prayed God would provide
through the kindness of the stranger
and there they stayed
till the day
that Herod died
And if they'd sold all they that owned
to pay for their escape...
look at your children,
and if you love them
tell me then which of you would even hesitate?

Hundreds of children, heaven sent
have been living in imprisonment
for years;
for the crime of being poor
fleeing famine, poverty and war
I hear you say to me
"They're not our responsibility
They came unasked across the sea"
Yes... and so did we.
And if we lived back in Egypt when
that family fled from Herod's men
would we have imprisoned them
among the refugees?

Chorus

"What you do to these, the least of them
you surely do to me."
Underneath the razor wire
In those same dark frightened eyes
Tell me if you recognize
Who is that refugee?

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 May 15 - 10:25 PM

In Australia in 1967 90% of the population voted in the referendum in favour of deleting sections of the Constitution discriminating against Aborigines.

Singer/songwriter Phyl Vinnocombe (later Lobl) released an EP, Dark eyed daughter the following year for the Aboriginal Advancement League of Victoria. All proceeds went to the League.

MP3s are available at the link

=============

My first recorded song, almost my first song, was sparked by media coverage of the student bus ride led by Charles Perkins Aboriginal activist and University students in 1965.

An old traditional rhyme gave a frame for the song.

'Mother may I go out to swim?'
'Yes my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on a Hickory limb,
But don't go near the water.'

The last verse of the song was born not from a belief, but from realisation and dismay that many of those who did profess to believe could also hold racist views.


DARK-EYED DAUGHTER, Words & Music: Phyl Lobl

Mother may I go out to swim?
Yes my dark-eyed daughter,
Mother I would go out to swim
but at the pool I can't get in,
Because of the colour of my skin
because I'm your dark-eyed daughter.

Mother may I go to the show?
Yes my dark-eyed daughter.
Mother tell me do you know
which side of the theatre I should go?
Go where the colour of your skin won't show
my darling dark-eyed daughter.

Mother will I go to school?
Yes my dark-eyed daughter.
Mother when I go to school
will the children treat me cruel?
Children follow their parents' rule
my darling dark-eyed daughter.

Mother when will all this end?
I don't know my daughter.
Maybe it will end the day
when heaven and earth will pass away
And we will hear a great voice say
you're welcome here …… my daughter.

===========================

The song tells of an incident in November 1963 when police made a surprise arrest of 10 aboriginal leaders from Old Mapoon Queensland. The leaders were transferred to a settlement 90 miles from their home. The official explanation was that the leaders were having undue influence on the rest of the community. A typical reaction to Aboriginal claims to ownership of traditional land and freedom of settlement.

WHOSE HAND

Words: Hills, Tune: Kitamura

It was late one Friday afternoon. Whose hand?
The prison boat came silently down stood a little out of town
Its purpose they would learn too soon.

They came upon them after dark. Whose hand?
'Pack your bags' the order ran 'We'll take your leaders child and man.'
And not a dog had time to bark.

Two policemen lay at head and toe. Whose hand?
The reason why no one could tell before the dawn they knew quite well.
And women and children were next to go.

Their house burned or taken down. Whose hand?
To the Government dip like a cattle herd, songs and tears within them stirred
With one last look at their former home.

They protest with fear and woe. Whose hand?
Have we no rights no race no land we are people you understand.
Have we no say in where we go? Whose hand? Whose hand?

===================

Renowned aboriginal poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal went by the name of Kath Walker in the sixties when she demonstrated wry Aboriginal humour at modern displacement of traditional customs.


NO MORE BOOMERANG

Words: Walker (Noonuccal) Tune: Lobl

No more boomerang no more spear,
Now all civilised colour bar and beer,
No more corroboree gay dance and din,
Now we got movies and pay to go in.

No more sharing what the hunter brings,
Now we work for money and pay it back for things,
Now we track bosses to catch a few bob,
Now we go walkabout on bus to the job.

One time naked who never knew shame,
Now we put clothes on to hide whatsaname.
No more gunyah now bungalow,
Paid by hire purchase in twenty years or so.

Lay down the stone axe take up the steel,
Work like a nigger for a white man's meal,
No more firestick that made whites scoff,
Now all electric and no better off.

Bunyip he finish got now instead,
White-fella bunyip call him red.
Abstract pictures now, what they comin' at
Cripes in our caves we did better than that.

Black hunted wallaby, white hunt dollar.
White-fella witch-doctor wear dog collar.
No more message lubras and lads,
Got television now, mostly ads,

Lay down the woomera, lay down the waddy,
Now we got atom bomb. End everybody.

List of English words from many Australian Aboriginal languages

======================

Efforts of Aboriginal groups for self determination prompted the writing of this song.

WILL YOU FIGHT WILL YOU DARE?

Words & Music: Phyl Lobl

The dreamtime folk are stirring now and they have laid a claim
To a part of the land their fathers' roamed that carries their tribal name.
Where Vestey's cattle brands are scored, where stockmen's whips are cracked,
The dreamtime folk are holding out and there'll be no going back.

Chorus
Will you fight will you dare?
Will you give will you care?
Will you help to mend wrong?
Will you stand up now the for the dreamtime folk
By joining their freedom song?

Where the muddy Murray waters pour, red tomatoes rule the weed,
And the dreamtime folk who planted them can see where their road could lead.
They could leave behind the pickers' huts, they could leave the fringe of the town.
They could take their place in this lucky land, if we let them then they can.

Do they have to reach some famous height before you'll let them grow?
Would you shelter first the tall gum tree or the spring flowers from the snow?
The plant is young but the plant will know and its fruit will sweeten the tongue
Of the dreamtime folk whose bitter bread has choked their freedom song.

======================

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 16 May 15 - 10:48 AM

THE WHITE BUCK OF EPPING by Sydney Carter.

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 16 May 15 - 01:39 PM

"Ofay And Oxford Grey" by Louis Jordan, currently on youtube.

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 May 15 - 02:45 PM

Shawn Mullins' Ballad of Kathryn Johnston. I'm not sure if I already posted lyrics (to which I added), but here's the YT video-- I'll check later when I get back to desktop:

https://youtu.be/dK9hJUYfIxk

~S~

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 May 15 - 04:06 AM

strange fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: GUEST,ifor
Date: 17 May 15 - 10:45 AM

Nasra
Nasra lived with her family
In a two roomed apartment
She goes to St Mary's
on the far side of town
She'd hurry to school
To the sound of bells ringing
Last friday five men came
And broke her door down

When she came to this country
She was constantly crying
But i last saw her smiling
As she played in the park
Now she is a number
Locked up in detention
She'll be flown out of London
Like some thief in the dark.

CHORUS
They took you without warning
In the dark hours of the morning
What they did was so shameful
They could not pretend
But we will not hurt you
And we won't desrt you
Though they call you illegal
You're our refugee friend .

In school we were told
In our morning assembly
How Mary took Jesus
And to Egypt did flee
Nasra listened in silence
Remembered the violence
And whispered a prayer
For all refugees

If i had the power
I would open the border
Grant refuge to those
Who needed to stay
And school bells would ring
Break through the silence
And sing out a welcome
At the start of each day.

repeat chorus twice

song by
Huw Pudner and Chris Hastings
South Wales

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 May 15 - 12:46 PM

Leon Rosselson, "The Ballad of Rivka and Mohammed":

http://www.leonrosselson.co.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSCsEOk_DO4

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BALLAD OF JIMMY WILSON (Ewan MacColl)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 May 15 - 01:12 PM

BALLAD OF JIMMY WILSON
Written by Ewan MacColl in the 1950s, based on an actual event in the U.S.

1. In Alabama, nineteen fifty-eight.
The cost of human life is very low
A man that's black is trampled down,
Just like men were a thousand years ago.

CHORUS: These are more enlightened days,
The cruel men and savage ways
We left long-ago.
Now every man may walk his road in peace for all are free,

2. Five thousand years ago, a million men
Were gathered into royal Egypt's hands,
Were bound together, forced to build
Pyramids of stone in desert sands, (cho.)

3. Mary's son walked through a land of woe,
Dreaming of the world as it could be,
The good and lawful men of Rome
Nailed him like a robber to the tree, (cho,)

4. In Britain just a hundred years ago,
The jails were full of poor and hungry men,
Diggers, Chartists, many more,
Fought and died and rose to fight again, (cho.)

5. Last year, a Negro stole a dollar bill.
The judge ho said, "We mustn't be severe,
"Instead of death we'll give him life
Imprisonment to show there's justice here,"(cho,)

6. And so throughout the ages we have seen
How progress marches over on its way,
No rack, no wheel, no Spanish boot
For Alabama's prisoners today, (cho,)

7. The plague still runs in nineteen-fifty eight,
Johannesburg to Notting Hill and back,
A plague of ignorance and hate,
Men walk in fear because their skin is black,

FINAL CHORUS-:
In these more enlightened days,
No room for all these savage ways,
Leave then, let them go.
Now every man should walk his road in peace
LET MEN BE FREE!

This song was written in protest against the sentencing to death of James Wilson, an Alabama Negro janitor who stole the equivalent of fourteen shillings. Upon world protest, this Alabama court reduced the sentence to life imprisonment.

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 May 15 - 01:19 PM

I didn't know about that case. He stayed in prison for 16 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wilson_%28laborer%29

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BALLAD OF KATHRYN JOHNSTON (Mullins)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 May 15 - 02:33 PM

Video: https://youtu.be/dK9hJUYfIxk

THE BALLAD OF KATHRYN JOHNSTON
By Shawn Eric Mullins and Matthew Kahler

Old Miss Johnston lived all alone
On the sorry side of town
Broke down cars and burglar bars
On the windows and doors
In case danger comes around

Sittin' in her yellow kitchen
Listenin' to bad news on a Radiant radio
It used to be Louis Armstrong
Then Martin Luther King
Where did everybody go?

Out the window where her garden was
It's not safe to go outside
Old Miss Johnston in the eye of the storm
It was the safest place to hide

And life's a gamble for the broken and the weak
Dealin' with the bangers and the drugs
The winos weave and amble
And shuffle on down the street
Steerin' clear of all the thugs

And now my city hangs her head in shame
You can't tell the truth from all the lies
Everything changed forever and everything stayed the same
On the night Miss Johnston died

SH

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: GUEST,Lew Becker
Date: 17 May 15 - 04:45 PM

Here I am from Donegal
I feel quite discontented
To see the way that we're run down
Not highly represented
For it seems it is a general rule
To make out Pat a knave or fool
But never mind he'll play it cool
And stand up for old Ireland

Refrain:
Do me justice, treat me fair
And I won't be discontented
And I won't be laughed at anywhere
But highly represented

Now Mr. Punch with his literature
He treats us very badly
And when he draws our caricature
He depicts us rather sadly
With crooked limbs and villainous face
He thus depicts the Irish race
We think it is a sad disgrace
And we say so in old Ireland

When on the stage I do appear
With a thundering big shillelagh
In a ragged coat and a tattered hat
You think I come out gaily
With not a word of common sense
They don't know when they give offense
But carry on at Pat's expense
Why don't they come to Ireland

They say we are dirty and lazy got
But where's the use to grumble
And if they visit an Irish cot
They're made welcome though tis humble
But in public works the country round
Or where hard work it is to be found
In the railway tunnels underground
You'll find the boys from Ireland

Tis very true I like a glass
It makes me feel quite frisky
I am very fond of an Irish lass
But I'm partial to the whiskey
I am very quiet when left alone
But I do what I want with what's my own
And woe be to the foes of home
Who would dare run down old Ireland

Subject: Lyr Add: BLACK AND BLUE (Waller/Brooks/Razaf)
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 18 May 15 - 06:41 AM

I'm surprised no-one has yet mentioned the Fats Waller/Harry Brooks/Andy Razaf composition, Black and Blue. Here it is with a couple of verses you don't hear that often.

Out in the street, shufflin' feet
Couples passin' two by two
While here am I, left high and dry
Black, and 'cause I'm black I'm blue

Browns and yellers, all have fellers
Gentlemen prefer them light
Wish I could fade, can't make the grade
Nothing but dark days in sight

Cold, empty bed, springs hard as lead
Pains in my head, feel like old Ned
What did I do to be so black and blue?

No joys for me, no company
Even the mouse ran from my house
All my life through I've been so black and blue

I'm white inside, it don't help my case
'Cause I can't hide, what is on my face, oh!

I'm so forlorn, life's just a thorn
My heart is torn, why was I born?
What did I do to be so black and blue?

'Cause you're black, folks think you lack
They laugh at you, and scorn you too
What did I do to be so black and blue?

When you are near, they laugh and sneer
Set you aside and you're denied
What did I do to be so black and blue?

How sad I am, each day I feel worse
My mark of Ham seems to be a curse, oh

How will it end? ain't got a friend
My only sin is my skin
What did I do to be so black and blue?

Subject: Lyr Add: ANGER IN THE LAND (Don West)
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 18 May 15 - 06:51 AM

I'd just pressed send button when I remembered Anger in the Land, by Don West. As an anti-racist elegy, I think it deserves a place along Strange Fruit.

O, there's grieving in the plum-grove
And there's weeping in the weeds,
There is sorrow in the shanty
Where a broken body bleeds.

For there's been another lynching
And another grain of sand
Swells the mountain of resentment—
O, there's anger in the land!

And a woman broods in silence
Close beside an open door
Flung across the flimsy door-step
Lies a corpse upon the floor!

You'll not ask me why I'm silent;
Thus the woman spoke to me.
Her two eyes blazed hot with anger
And her throat throbbed agony.

Let the wind go crying yonder
In the tree-tops by the spring,
Let its voice be soft and feeling
Like it was a living thing.

Once my heart could cry in sorrow
Now it lies there in the floor
In the ashes by the hearth-stone—
They can't hurt it anymore!

Did you ever see a lynching,
Ever see a frenzied mob
Mill around a swaying body
When it's done the hellish job?

O, there's grieving in the plum-grove
And there's sobbing in the sands,
There is sorrow in the shanties—
And there's anger in the land!

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: Greg F.
Date: 18 May 15 - 08:33 AM

Ochs - Links On The Chain

Subject: Add: Racism is a Hump
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 May 15 - 05:13 PM

At an anti-racism workshop:

Ray-cizz-um is a Hump, a Humpty Dumpty Dump!
Ray-cizz-um is a Hump, a Humpty Dumpty Dump!
Racism sat on the wall,
Racism had a great fall--
A Hump, a Humpty Dumpty Dump!

Succeeding verses:
Classism
Sexism
Ageism
Able bodied ism
Homophobia
All isms

~S~

Subject: ADD: We were there when they crucified our Lord
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Jun 15 - 02:28 PM

WE WERE THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED OUR LORD


We were there when they crucified our Lord.
We were there when they crucified our Lord.
Oh, oh oh oh… sometimes…. it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
We were there-- and we crucified our Lord.
Many thousand gone.

We were there when they ran His playmates down.
We were there when they ran His playmates down.
Oh, oh oh oh… sometimes…. it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
We were there-- and we crucified our Lord.
Many thousand gone.

We were there when they killed them in the church.
We were there when they killed them in the church.
Oh, oh oh oh… sometimes…. it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
We were there-- and we crucified our Lord.
Many thousand gone.

We were there when they killed Him in the street.
We were there when they killed Him in the street.
Oh, oh oh oh… sometimes…. it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
We were there-- and we crucified our Lord.
Many thousand gone.

We were there when they hung Her from a tree.
We were there when they hung Her from a tree.
Oh, oh oh oh… sometimes…. it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
We were there-- and we crucified our Lord.
Many thousand gone.

We were there but we looked the other way.
We were there but we looked the other way.
Oh, oh oh oh… sometimes…. it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
We were there-- and we crucified our Lord.
Many thousand gone.

We were there but we never said a word.
We were there but we never said a word.
Oh, oh oh oh… sometimes…. it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
We were there-- and we crucified our Lord.
Many thousand gone.

We were there when we crucified our Lord.
We were there when we crucified our Lord.
Oh, oh oh oh… sometimes…. it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
We were there-- and we crucified our Lord.
Many thousand gone.
Many thousand gone.
Many thousand gone.

SH

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Jun 15 - 03:11 PM

Alternative titling/phrasing:

Where are you when they crucify our Lord?

~S~

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: Andrez
Date: 29 Jun 15 - 06:12 PM

The tragedy of all the above is that we still haven't learnt and sadly racism is alive and well today everywhere and its not just happening between polar opposites in colour.

You only have to read a newspaper or two to see its also happening with white on white, black on black, brown on brown, yellow on yellow and so it goes all that pain and suffering for what?

Exactly f*** all and more power and control for a so called 'privileged' few.

Andrez

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jun 15 - 07:50 PM

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

This is an old vacation Bible school song. Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=2132523

Kent Davis

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: Kent Davis
Date: 29 Jun 15 - 07:53 PM

Above post is me, apparently not signed in. Sorry.

Kent Davis

Subject: RE: Anti-racism, anti-prejudice songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Oct 15 - 06:11 AM

Negro Songs of Protest: Lawrence Gellert

~S~