Analysis and Evaluation of an Argument
Mississippi Goddam is a politically charged song of 1964 sung by Nina Simone. Simone performed the song at Carnegie Hall in New York to a predominantly white audience. The song is filled with political statements, anger, frustration and solidarity with the civil rights movements that was at its peak in America. Although New york city did not witness the struggle of the civil rights activists and the southern government's’ brutal response to it, Simone felt it was time to take the song to a newer and wider audience. Simone’s song is a reaction to the civil rights movements and the persecution of the civil rights leaders and activists.
Simone introduces the song in a dramatic fashion. Not only does she say the name of the song, but her intent on singing this song is quite evident in the next lines. When Simone sings Mississippi Goddam, she deplores whatever has happened in the city. Goddam here stands both for her anger as well as frustration about the events in Mississippi. Medgar Evers, a prominent civil rights activist was shot dead in his driveway in Mississippi and by naming the song after the incident and by using it in the first line, Simone makes her stance very clear. The incident has affected her and she wants everyone to know about it. When she says she means every word , she means she not only believes in what she sings but her conviction too remains unchanged.
The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam (Simone, 1-5)
In lines 3 and 4, she sings about Alabama and Tennessee. Both these places were sites of the civil rights resistance where the state had come down quite hard on the protestors. Simone says that she cannot take it anymore as the events have deeply disturbed and hurt her. Simone just names the places where the incidents had taken place. She does not go into detail about the incidents. This makes the song quite effective. The aim of her song is to inform as well as shock the audience, not give them a lecture. The song has to be crisp as well as drive home the point to its audience and the mention of the names and the reaction it has caused is enough information. She uses words sparingly to make the audience aware of the incident as well as let them know that it is something that has affected her.
Having made her point in the first lines of the song, Simone goes on to sing more about her fears. The lyrics become more apocalyptic and give out a sense of doom where the fear is palpable. She says, ‘everyday is going to be her last’ (22). The song isn’t just about her, but for all the black people during that time, where they were not sure about their security, where any sort of protest against the system was met with brutal violence. Her lyrics convey the pain and anguish of the entire black population that had been subjected to systemic social and political oppression by the state. Hound dogs and Black cates in the previous lines refer to the songs of the other blues singers who echo her own fears about her people. School children in jail is about the segregation in schools and their attempts to go to the same classes as the white children. In short sentences, she brings out histories of pain and struggle and the years spent living in fear. It is a political song as much as it is emotional. She also sings about a situation that offers her no hope and where she lives in a sort of limbo. She feels like she does not belong anywhere. Neither belonging here nor there refers to the plight of the black people in America. Stripped off their history and their identity, they live in a new country that does not accept them and treat them as second class citizens. She cannot get back to her roots as she has been brought up in an alien country, she cannot assimilate herself in the new country because they refuse to accept her as an equal. The lyrics are powerful and brings out the effects of racism. Institutional racism had been a part of American culture for so long and by the time the song was written it had shown so signs of abating. Although laws were framed that would penalize racism, the southern states were not going to give up easily. The song is for all the black people who suffered the unjust system that would not accept them or treat them with respect. They were not left alone either.
“Do it slow” is a line that appears most frequently in the song. The ‘they’ that she refers to in the song is the white majority that had been lying to them for years. About how they had moulded the black population to change and look like themselves but still not accept them. Her people had changed their appearances, speech patterns and the way they had dressed to look more like their oppressors and yet they were not treated as equals. The only result of this moulding process was a loss of identity. They were made to think that achieving the ‘white’ ideal would make them better off, but it was not to be so. They were to ‘do it slow’ for that would keep them trying for long to get something. It would always keep them trying and not really achieving what they really wanted. Her people were asked to take it slow about everything, right from the beginning where they were treated as slaves to where they started fighting for equality and respect. In the final lines of the song, Simone loses the trust and the hope she had had in change. She sings,
“ You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality” (Simone, 83-84)
At the end, she does not even want them to be friends or live together, but what she yearns for is equality. She wants to be treated as a person, as an equal who is not persecuted or ridiculed for her appearance or for what she is.
The lyrics of Mississippi Goddam are powerful, politically charged and filled with a gamut of emotions. There is anger on having been betrayed for so long, anger for having been oppressed and penalized for looking different, there is despair that there seems to be no end to this unjust and unequal practice. There is a loss of hope for a better future. There is sadness that things have to go on this way. There is sadness for all the children that have been denied an equal education owing to their skin color, sadness for all the lives lost only because they wanted equality. She makes her political statements too, saying it as it is. She sings that it is out there, the atrocities, for everyone to see and know and yet nothing’s been done about it. There is no hope for change in the horizon.
Simone’s song is about the oppression of the black people. When she sings, she sings for her people and for herself. The song is effective in conveying the long history of oppression and struggle. And her argument that there is no happy ending or a future of equality any time soon is effectively brought out through her lyrics. The repetition of some of the lines over and over again only serves to heighten the sentiments that she feels. Simone brings out what she truly feels about the struggles of the people and the state of things. Her argument for equality comes out in every line. The lyrics are quite effective in communicating to her audience, the anguish, the hope and despair of years. Having condensed the history of the black people into a few lines, she hopes in spite of the let down that one day they would be equal. This is a very powerful song and serves as an anthem for the civil rights movement.
Works Cited
Simone, Nina. “Mississippi Goddam”. Az Lyrics. n.d Web. 27 Feb, 2016.
