Talk:Rednecks (song)

Untitled[edit]

I don't want to get into an edit war here, but I completely disagree with the interpretation that the line "free to be put in a cage" means to be jailed. The cage here is not the literal cage of jail, but rather the figurative cage of poor and predominately black neighbourhoods. The lyrics mention Harlem in New York City, the south side of Chicago, Roxbury in Boston, Fillmore in San Francisco, etc. Those aren't jails, those are neighbourhoods. In the era of segregation — and even when the song was written, and some would argue continuing to today — the ability of underprivileged blacks to cross "colour lines" into better neighbourhoods was just as difficult as if someone had built jail walls around the ghetto. Kevin Forsyth 18:27, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Your comment is quite right. The song's final two verses refer to historically black neighborhoods in northern cities and doesn't mention a single jail:

Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free

Yes he's free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage on the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the niggers down [1].Bali ultimate (talk) 16:45, 12 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]