Monday, July 21, 2008

Woman Is The Nigger Of The World?!

Woman is the Nigger of the World
By John Lennon


Woman is the nigger of the world
Yes she is...think about it
Woman is the nigger of the world
Think about it...do something about it

We make her paint her face and dance
If she won’t be slave, we say that she don’t love us
If she’s real, we say she’s trying to be a man
While putting her down we pretend that she is above us

Woman is the nigger of the world...yes she is
If you don’t believe me take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slaves of the slaves
Ah yeah...better scream about it

We make her bear and raise our children
And then we leave her flat for being a fat old mother then
We tell her home is the only place she would be
Then we complain that she’s too unworldly to be our friend

Woman is the nigger of the world...yes she is
If you don’t believe me take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slaves of the slaves
Yeah (think about it)

We insult her everyday on TV
And wonder why she has no guts or confidence
When she’s young we kill her will to be free
While telling her not to be so smart we put her down for being so dumb

Woman is the nigger of the world...yes she is
If you don’t believe me take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slaves of the slaves
Yes she is...if you believe me, you better scream about it.

We make her paint her face and dance
We make her paint her face and dance
We make her paint her face and dance

Now could I have gotten away with saying that? The only reason John Lennon got away with it in 1972 was that Yoko said it first. Some black people, like Dick Gregory or Ron Dellums, felt OK with it. If I knew any black people, I might ask them about it. But it's actually all past. If we talk about it at all, it won't be because anyone plays this angry yet regretful song any more. Anyway, I am culturally and racially deprived. I don't know any blacks or niggers! And at this late date, it'll probably stay that way. I used to have a very good black friend in Austin thirty years ago and at least knew a few other blacks. None of them were inhuman or subhuman or superhuman, as far as I could tell. These days, everything has changed. Everyone I know is white, and I'm lucky if I have full knowledge of the bottoms of my feet! (What if I step on a pin or a staple?!)

I'm so cool.
I'm a perfect fool.
I lay in wait or lunge
For prey
Like any other sage or savage soul
In pursuit of words or food.

The older I get, the meaner I get
About what's sage or savage
And I wonder what is food and what isn't...
Time goes on too fast, too slow,
To chew it properly—
And either way I miss John Lennon's art,
Which was both fierce and fine--
It raised us high and laid us gently down
In so many crucial moments of our anxious youth...

He was not a Pied Piper,
But he might have been
Had he and we been only
Slightly better than we are.

4 comments:

  1. "Fierce and fine" - I like that, Ron - and very true, as is (still) just about anything Lennon wrote.

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  2. I used to listen to that song over & over again. I was one of those who thought Yoko was good for John.

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  3. PS: I meant to say I like the new yellow boxes you've added.

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  4. Debbie: Those are GOLD boxes you see! I tried yellow, but it looked garish.

    I barely ever paid any attention to the song. I thought it was cool that thee was a song with that title, but radio didn't play it and people I knew didn't have the record, so that was that. Culturally deprived then as well as now!

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