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It’s
time to replace Black America’s National Anthem, Lift
Every Voice and Sing,
with a song which was penned half a century ago in the midst of the
struggle for
Black Power,
in the heat of the battle, James Brown’s “Say
it loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud!,”
co-written with Alfred (Pee Wee) James Ellis, I believe it to be more
apropos and fitting for the cultural wars ahead, the battles to be
fought in not just the US Courts, or the courts of public opinion,
but in the streets of these no longer honestly, seriously considered
to be the “United” States of America.
We
should play sing it and play it as General Santa Anna’s Mexican
Army played El
Degüello
before they attacked the settlers/explorers/slaveholding imperialists
who were held up in the other European imperialist’s (Spanish)
mission, the Alamo,
as they were attempting to recklessly and carelessly expand the
American Empire’s unique use of slave labor to construct this
country virtually overnight.
The
Degüello (Spanish:
El toque a degüello) is a bugle call, notable in the US for its
use as a march by Mexican Army buglers during the 1836 Siege and
Battle of the Alamo to signal to those inside, Davey Crockett, Sam
Houston, Jim Bowie, and their men, that they would receive
no quarter
by the attacking Mexican Army under General Antonio López de
Santa Anna.
Unquestionably
Soul Brother #1’s anthem encompasses a rebellious and
confrontation theme, (I think that is what we’re going for,
right?) a protest type vibe, and that funky revolutionary 1968 feel,
flavor, texture, and sound - which enable it to remain relevant and
pathetically still today, applicable.
James
Brown/Alfred (Pee Wee) James Ellis, “Say It Loud (I'm Black and
I'm Proud)” Performed by James Brown, 1968
Uh!
With your bad self!
Say
it loud
I'm
black and I'm proud!
Say
it loud
I'm
black and I'm proud!
Some
people say we’ve got a lot of malice
Some
say it’s a lot of nerve
But
I say we won’t quit moving
Til
we get what we deserve
We’ve
been buked and we’ve been scorned
We’ve
been treated bad, talked about
As
just as sure as you’re born
But
just as it takes
Two
eyes to make a pair, huh
Brother,
we can’t quit until we get our share
Say
it loud
I'm
black and I'm proud!
Say
it loud
I'm
black and I'm proud!
One
more time!
Say
it loud
I'm
black and I'm proud!
I
worked on jobs with my feet and my hands
But
all the work I did was for the other man
Now
we demand a chance
To
do things for ourselves
We’re
tired of beatin’ our head against the wall
And
workin’ for someone else
Say
it loud,
I'm
black and I'm proud
Say
it loud,
I'm
black and I'm proud
Say
it loud,
I'm
black and I'm proud …
I
also like the beat and you can groove to it….I give it a 100!
It’s
simple, direct, to the point, and there exists the possibility we
could all learn the words to it, seriously, it’s been well over
a century and I guarantee not 35% of Black America can sing along
with
Lift Every Voice especially
after that first verse...
Now
granted I know that those who know the anthem, that pathetically low
percentage of “enlightened/woke” brothers and sisters -
are the sad minority of Black America who also know who Huey
P Newton
and
Angela Davis are,
Bobby Seale and
Shiley
Chislom…actually
know what the Tuskeegee Experiment was, why the Civil War was fought,
hell, when and where it was fought. Our lack of knowledge about
ourselves (illiterate
of self) is tragic and trifling and comes with a price we must pay,
which is losing ground and being shoved backward. But
alas, it is what it is...
and where we stand as a group of lost, self-destructive people who’ve
been undereducated by design. Unfortunately, we still know
our assigned place.
To
top it off, we dwell in an unfriendly land where the White slight
majority…
does not like us.
Look,
we need a rapturous rallying call, we need something that we can belt
out with conviction, passion, and enthusiasm, all be on the same
chapter n’ verse. Sing with confidence, not fear of forgetting
the next word.
Some
people say we’ve got a lot of malice
Some
say it’s a lot of nerve
But
I say we won’t quit moving
Til
we get what we deserve
We’ve
been buked and we’ve been scorned
We’ve
been treated bad, talked about
As
just as sure as you’re born
But
just as it takes
Two
eyes to make a pair, huh
Brother,
we can’t quit until we get our share
Wow,
it fits like it was made for Black America this morning!
What
Black America is demanding now is the right to participate in the
political process, we are standing up against what will result in, if
nothing else … Taxation
without representation,
the initial core conflict of the American Revolution. Trump and his
Storm Troopers are trying to take away the political power Blacks and
Latino’s weld at the ballot box, we cannot let them steal away
hard fought for, well earned, and long, long ...long overdue
human/civil rights bestowed upon us children of the Gods and earned
with blood, sweat, and tears over hundreds of years, we are the
generations saddled with the responsibility of keeping us free. Our
baby boomer parents and the Great Generation before them came up
outta those cotton, sugar, and tobacco fields for a reason, and they
paid the price and fought the battle in the streets, helped Obama
paint the White House Black, and now we, you and I, must fight back
the vented-up white supremacy-fueled hatred which has boiled right
beneath the surface of White America since the 1960s.
Push
has come to shove
on our watch.
It’s
one thing to achieve the status of human… it’s quite
another to maintain it… in a loveless land, honestly, a vastly
hostile land called America.
Say
it loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud!!!
Check
it, if this sinister clown gets back in power, check it now - you and
I will be shouting “Free Obama!” Or Rather Free the
Obamas!” This cat will arrest Michelle and perhaps her momma
and the girls…you watch. And that will be on day one. What
will play-out, will blow our minds.
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