Posts
This video is self-explanatory. It shows scenes of the aftermath of typhoon Catarina (hope I'm not wrong) which devastated South Eastern USA especially New Orleans when George W Bush was still American President. He was criticised by the American people for his slow response to the natural disaster. But that's not the reason why I'm blogging this. The reason is the song or background music sung by Bruce Springsteen. The title of the song is 'We Shall Overcome', a song made famous by black Americans at the height of their fight for Civil Rights between the 1950s-60s. One of those responsible for making this song famous was Joan Baez - though she is white. Since then, many other singers had recorded their own versions of the song - Bruce being one of them. This song was also sung during the famous March to Washington which culminated in the late Rev. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Indeed, together with another song called A Change Is Gonna Come made famous by Sam Cooke, We Shall Overcome became an anthem for the civil rights movement. At least one former (white) US Presidents also used this rallying cry of We Shall Overcome in his speeches. By the way, I can't help but notice that most of the victims of New Orleans typhoon were blacks and I guess that's why the video producer appropriately chose this song. Hope you like the song. Enjoy and please feel free to comment.
-
2 comments:
I think the storm's actually called Katrina instead of Catarina. And I wouldn't say that there are lots of blacks in Louisiana, but there are a lot of them from countries in Central America; they're not black as in African American descendance, just off-white :) At least that's what I've experienced after living in neighboring Alabama for a couple of years.
Thanks Lorna for correcting me. I never studied or stayed in the US although I attended an international communications conference at the Uni. of Penn at Philadelphia in the early 1980s as a young man. I based my comments partly based on what I saw on TV following the storm and of course I stand to be corrected. No offense meant to the whites, I was symphatising with the non-whites which I think I'm perfectly entitled to, that's all. That was also why I supported Obama in 2008 through my blog. When I mentioned the blacks in New Orleans, I also meant to also include the non-whites or "off-whites", to borrow your words. Anyway, thanks once again.
Post a Comment