The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #89464 Message #1688785
Posted By: Azizi
08-Mar-06 - 10:22 PM
Thread Name: Origin: if your skin is brown...skin is black
Subject: RE: anyone know this song? - skin is brown/black
Deckman,
I'm sure that I'm not alone in thanking you for the honesty of your post.
It would seem to me that if you had the interest, and courage to participate in that Black theater group than you were well on the way to facing up to & eradicating any ideas/feelings of racism that you might have had. I'm also betting {and hoping}that those members of that Black theater group learned from you and worked through their racism as much as you learned from them.
Bob, you wrote that "My dim memory recalls this as a "song' ... but more of a "liteny" (sp?)." I guess you mean "litany" LOL!
But I'm not sure which song you mean-"We Shall Overcome"? or "If you're white...
I think you might have meant "If you're white"...because I'm sure you know that "We Shall Overcome" was a {Black} gospel song called
"We'll Overcome". That song was more uptempo than the civil rights version.
I don't recall "If you're white" ever being sung. That verse was usually inserted as spoken word into adult conversations as a statement of fact commentary on the reality of race in the USA.
I said "was" but this verse is still heard nowadays.
As to you seeing only shades of gray, I wish there was some way to change that condition so that you can see the colors in the world. But you are ahead of alot of people in that you recognize that skin colors aren't important at all-or at least you know that they shouldn't be important.
Best wishes, Azizi