Tell me what has become of my rights
Am I invisible because you ignore me?
Your proclamation promised me free liberty, now
I’m tired of bein’ the victim of shame
They’re throwing me in a class with a bad name
I can’t believe this is the land from which I came
You know I do really hate to say it
The government don’t wanna see
but if Martin Luther was livin’
He wouldn’t let this be, no, no
The song “They Don’t Care about us” was censored in the US because the words “Jew me” and “Kike me” in the song were considered anti-semitic, even though Michael used the words “black or white me” in the same context, still, New York Time along with Steven Spielberg, considered the song anti-semitic.
I am thinking, Americans are like Arabs in many ways, for Arabs as well consider The Stranger by Albert Camus racist, and so they consider the song “Killing an Arab” by The Cure.
The controversy of Michael’s song did not stop there, the first video of the song, directed by Spike Lee and shot in a prison, was banned, that Michael and Lee had to make another video. The second video was shot in Brazil and the Brazilian politicians accused Michael of “exploiting poverty to make money”.
Few days ago I read a beautiful line: You have to stand for something or you’ll fall for everything. Michael in this very song, stood for something, and for that, he didn’t fall, but everyone else did.
Below is the banned video, watch the uncensored video here or read the full lyrics here.
R.I.P Michael.
