Mississippi Goddam! Slavery and racial discriminations are both irremovable stain for the history of America. Not many American people are proud of these historical facts, and many were against the idea of slavery and racial discrimination. However, until the Civil rights act in 1964, which abolished racial segregation, there were few southern states who supported the racial segregation. The song “Mississippi Goddam” written and performed by Nina Simone in 1964, expresses the feeling of pressure from the southern racial segregation as an African American individual. The song talks about how those states treat people unequally and how difficult it was for people to live with the feeling that they are not safe from the white people. As Nina
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in the song Mississippi Goddam the singer sings “Can’t you feel it, it’s all in the air I can’t stand the pressure much longer somebody say a prayer” (Mississippi Goddam). Perhaps, the word “you” refers to a government official who promised to change the society. Moreover, the “word do it slow” is repeated several times in the song leads to a conclusion that maybe black people were instructed to wait and do things gradually until everything is changed. Unfortunately, nothing ever changed, therefore Simone says “I don’t trust you anymore”. As a result, black community stops believing in white people and understands that nothing will ever change if they wait, and they are aware of the fact that they are the one who have to take an action. Another fact that can explain this is the incident of “Freedom Riders”. According to the documentary about “Freedom Riders” people were severely beaten and even almost burned to death in the bus they were riding, and one man from the documentary recalled “only thing I could hear was ‘lets burn them niggers’”. It is surprising to think how people from 19th century could say such thing. The only thing that distinguishes humans from animal is intelligence, and people’s love toward each other. However, in this case, it is extremely hard to find any human intelligence and love from all those white people of the southern states. In consequence, instead of being afraid all these incidents, more and more people started to support freedom riders in order to them succeed what they started. Most importantly, awareness of racial segregation began to build up in many people’s minds, led to various civil right movements later
in the song Mississippi Goddam the singer sings “Can’t you feel it, it’s all in the air I can’t stand the pressure much longer somebody say a prayer” (Mississippi Goddam). Perhaps, the word “you” refers to a government official who promised to change the society. Moreover, the “word do it slow” is repeated several times in the song leads to a conclusion that maybe black people were instructed to wait and do things gradually until everything is changed. Unfortunately, nothing ever changed, therefore Simone says “I don’t trust you anymore”. As a result, black community stops believing in white people and understands that nothing will ever change if they wait, and they are aware of the fact that they are the one who have to take an action. Another fact that can explain this is the incident of “Freedom Riders”. According to the documentary about “Freedom Riders” people were severely beaten and even almost burned to death in the bus they were riding, and one man from the documentary recalled “only thing I could hear was ‘lets burn them niggers’”. It is surprising to think how people from 19th century could say such thing. The only thing that distinguishes humans from animal is intelligence, and people’s love toward each other. However, in this case, it is extremely hard to find any human intelligence and love from all those white people of the southern states. In consequence, instead of being afraid all these incidents, more and more people started to support freedom riders in order to them succeed what they started. Most importantly, awareness of racial segregation began to build up in many people’s minds, led to various civil right movements later