Mississippi Goddam
The song “Mississippi Goddam” by the artist Nina Simone is a powerful folk protest song about the conditions of discrimination and segregation that African Americans were living in the south of the United States. The state of Mississippi in my concept symbolizes all the social South system and its violence function in the song as the day by day of common racial aggressions. Also Nina calls attention to the contradictions and the hypocrisy of the public opinion, but at the same time she demands equality for herself and the black community.
It is important to mention that artists like Bob Dylan and Nina Simone were aware as well known artists, they were capable of reaching into the hearts of millions Americans so I believe the audience for this specific song it was very diverse. For this reasons, it could be a song of self-determination, warning, inequality, struggle, responsibility, racial discrimination, authority, unhappiness, loneliness, etc.
I think this song was very successful because Nina’s Simone voice and lyrics rest next to the actions of those young people who dared fifty years ago to organize the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later in April of 1964 found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the brutality of American racism. And also artist like her, successfully inspire their listeners to not only have sympathy for the victims mentioned in the songs, but to make a decision not to stand idly by and let such atrocities to take place in the American society.
Interesting - I agree with your last paragrap 0 as we discussed with Strange Fruit, the audience is probably not hard core racists, but people who are somewhat sympathetic to civil rights but don't see it as priority or aren't willing to take action - Martin Luther King wrote his famous letter from a Birmingham Jail directred at white 'moderates' saying that their inaction was a bigger obstacle than the hard core racists.
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