Capitalism didn't just not develop "Africa" and America, and Asia. It
_under_-developed them. It put them in a worse socio-economic situation than
they were before colonialism and slavery. The aboriginal indigenous
socio-economic systems were better than the colonial ones. This is important
to note because capitalism is at root responsible for the famines and mass
poverty that occur periodically in Africa and elsewhere today, contra the
impression one gets from US propaganda ( in news reports as well as history
books) that Europeans saved "savages" from themselves in executing the White
Man's Burden. This is the vicious, profound lie in the whole concept of the
White Man's Burden and the "civilizing" mission of European colonialism. This
is the prevarication underlying Americans' bragging that America is the
greatest country in the world, and Americans rather live here than any place
else in the world. No shit. Over the last , 500 years, Europeans have
destroyed just about everybody else's Motherland or in the case of some like
the Indigenous North Americans destroyed the People themselves in genocide.
Africans weren't savages before the Europeans got there. They were savaged by
the white savages, the morally backward Europeans , who, unfortunately,
discovered advanced weaponry and were disease ridden, with their guns, germs
and steel, goddamn 'em.
Nonetheless, we have no choice but to appeal to white people's human side, the
Ballad for Americans, love of country, _e pluribus unum_, their universally
developed "individual" , as Ted would say.
John Henry
Ballad For Americans
"Ballad For Americans" (1939) is an American patriotic cantata with lyrics by
John La Touche and music by Earl Robinson. Originally titled "The Ballad for
Uncle Sam", it was originally written for a WPA theatre project called Sing for
Your Supper.[1]
The "Ballad" was performed on the CBS radio network by Paul Robeson,
accompanied by chorus and orchestra. Both Robeson and Bing Crosby had
commercially successful recordings of the piece. In the 1940 presidential
campaign it was played at both the Republican National Convention and that of
the Communist Party. Its popularity continued through the period of World War
II[2] - in autumn 1943, 200 African American soldiers performed the piece in a
benefit concert at London's Royal Albert Hall[3] - but because of Robinson and
Robeson's left-wing politics, it largely fell out of the general repertoire of
American popular music during the Second Red Scare of the late 1940s and early
1950s. It has, nonetheless, been periodically revived, notably during the
United States Bicentennial (1976).[2] There is also a well-known recording by
Odetta, recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1960.
Invoking the American Revolution (it names several prominent revolutionary
patriots and quotes the preamble of the Declaration of Independence), and the
freeing of the slaves in the American Civil War (there is a brief lyrical and
musical quotation of the spiritual "Go Down Moses"), as well as Lewis and
Clark, the Klondike Gold Rush, and Susan B. Anthony, the piece draws an
inclusive picture of America: "I'm just an Irish American, Negro, Jewish
American, Italian, French and English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Polish,
Scotch, Hungarian, Litwak, Swedish, Finnish American, Canadian, Greek and Turk
and Czech and double-check American - I was baptized Baptist, Methodist,
Congregationalist, Lutheran, Atheist, Roman Catholic - [etc.]"
The lyrics periodically point at elite skepticism toward its inclusive American
vision ("Nobody who was anybody believed it") before coming back to its refrain:
For I have always believed it,
And I believe it now,
And now you know who I am.
(Who are you?)
America! America!
Many performers of the "Ballad" have made minor changes in the lyrics. For
example, in the passage quoted above, the NYC Labor Chorus make several
changes, including changing "Negro" to "African" and substituting "Jamaican"
for "Litvak". Similarly, they add "Moslem" to the list of religions.[4] In a
passage near the end that begins "Out of the cheating, out of the shouting,"
Robeson in his 1940 recording adds "lynchings" to the list[5]; the NYC Labor
Chorus attempt to bring the piece up to date with:
Out of the greed and polluting,
Out of the massacre at Wounded Knee,
Out of the lies of McCarthy,
Out of the murders of Martin and John…[4]
[edit] Notes
^ Online notes from 2005 Paul Robeson Conference at Lafayette College. Accessed
31 January 2006.
^ a b Dreier & Flacks
^ "Ballad for Britons", Time, 11 October 1943
^ a b "Ballad For Americans" lyrics as given on the site of the NYC Labor
Chorus.
^ Paul Robeson recording, accessed on the Lafayette College site
[edit] References
Peter Dreier & Dick Flacks, "Patriotism's Secret History". The Nation, June 3,
2002 issue. Accessed 31 January 2006.
Paul Robeson Conference April 7-9, 2005 at Lafeyette College. Page includes a
link to Robeson's 1945 recording of "Ballad for Americans" in WMA format.
Accessed 31 January 2006.
"Ballad For Americans" lyrics by John La Touche (1939).
"Ballad For Americans" lyrics as given on the site of the NYC Labor Chorus.
Accessed 31 January 2006.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad_For_Americans";
Categories: American patriotic songs | American songs | Cantatas
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