At first I thought I would just leave what I had to say about this song on my face book page, but the more I hear negative remarks about it the more I have to say. So, here goes my thoughts on the song.
First, I must say that the music, I love all kinds of music, is very catchy and easy to listen to.
Second, I listened as this man poured out his heart about his choice of t-shirt for the day and what it meant to him, and how he thought about what it meant to the guy that served him at Starbucks, and I thought to myself “okay this starts off pretty good.”
I listened as he talked about being proud of where he comes from, Southern born, but not so proud of the past that comes with it. He spoke about how our generation isn’t responsible for the things that our forefathers did and how we are still fighting over the past. He gave acknowledgement to the fact that he’s not able to walk in another man’s skin (color) and how we as people really need to just take the time to learn each other for who we are and not for where or who we come from. He makes the point of not being able to fix what happen in the past and how his being proud of where he comes from comes with a little bit of blame too.
Me personally, I really liked the song, lyrics and music, and don’t see why it would spark so much controversy in the world we live in today with so much other stuff going on that we could spend our time worrying about. The issues at hand today have increased to be far greater than what any of our ancestors would be proud of. Even as a black woman I look and see other black women mistreating each other, men not honoring women or their own children, children not honoring parents, government not really taking a real stand for the rights of all “religion,” and just the general lack of common courtesy and compassion from human to human.
It pains me to see how quickly people will jump to help animals, I don’t have anything against animals, but will turn their backs on people in need. When I say people in need I’m talking about all people, homeless, depressed, hungry, jobless, uneducated, promiscuity among teens, sick, hurting, and dying people. This song sparked so much controversy and it seems that everybody missed the point of what they (Brad & LL) were trying to say. I don’t believe either one of them wants us to just get over the past of slavery and all other forms of hate, but what I got out of the song is that we should acknowledge what happened and get on with the business of allowing ourselves to heal. Get on with the business of helping each other and building a better society for ourselves and our children and their children. After all if we don’t move on past the past we will continue to be bitter and not better which will ultimately lead to the exact thing that The Stop Violence Movement talked about in that song many years ago; Self Destruction.
I welcome all comments, but nasty and degrading comments will be deleted. Thanks.
Robyn Peoples 