How Calypso Music Fought For Black Freedom
Are You White? Here’s how A Black Person’s life really is like
“There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.”
Crooned songwriter and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte in his 1961 ballad.
Liza dutifully responds,
“So fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
So fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it.”
And Henry who doesn’t know what to do about the hole asks;
“With what should I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what should I fix it, dear Liza, with what”
Liza’s sarcastic answer is swift;
“With straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, with straw.”
You must be wondering where I am going with all this musical talk. It's Black History month so let me go back to Black History — throw some light on what the song is about.
First a little introduction to Harry Belafonte.
Harry was born in Harlem, New York, His Parents were immigrants from Jamaica.
Musically gifted, he popularized Calypso, a Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style.
Now for all Hip Hop aficionados asking, “Wat kind o’ music is thaat?”
Calypso Music was born out of Black Power struggles, which culminated in the civil rights movement. The music is a political satire, throwing barbs at White oppressors.
And to my white family — yes I have white relatives — The weapon for fighting for black liberty was hidden in plain sight. Calypso music’s mantra was, — “the Power of the Word in the rhythm of the Word”.
Oh… and one last thing, Harry Belafonte, was a close confidant of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Now that you are enlightened in Black history — let’s see if you can decipher the meaning behind the song;
Here are the lyrics;
“With what should I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what should I fix it, dear Liza, with what
But the straw is too long, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The straw is too long, dear Liza, too long.
So cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
So cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it!
With what should I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what should I cut it, dear Liza, with what?
With an axe, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With an axe, dear Henry, an axe.
But the axe is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The axe is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.
So, sharpen it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
So sharpen it dear Henry, dear Henry, sharpen it!
With what should I sharpen it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what should I sharpen, dear Liza, with what?
Use the stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Use the stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, the stone.
But the stone is too dry, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The stone is too dry, dear Liza, too dry.
So wet it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
So wet it dear Henry, dear Henry, wet it.
With what should I wet it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what should I wet it, dear Liza, with what?
With water, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With water, dear Henry, dear Henry, water.
With what should I carry it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
With what should I carry it dear Liza, with what?
Use the bucket dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Use the bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, the bucket!
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.”
We’ve come the whole hog. Liza’s solutions just lead to new problems. And Henry still doesn’t know how to extract himself from the unpleasant water fetching lurch.
Don’t worry if you skipped over the lines, because you are simply wondering what this article is about.
I’ll answer that for you, the article is about bare-knuckled truth — the truth about racism written from a Black person’s perspective.
Thankfully we aren’t living in the 60s anymore, I don’t have to look over my shoulder, or throw satirical barbs in a song.
To all my Black readers, (What’s up Bro! — What’s up Sis!) — To my curious White relatives — Yes, all black people are brothers and sisters, I don’t know how, but we are — and welcome to the hood!
Back to the unpalatable racism truth, that doesn’t see the light of day in print.
It's Black History Month, celebrating Black Lives Matter, revisiting horrors of the past — Come to think of it… Why don’t we have White History Month? — Just thinking….
The bare-knuckled truth I’m talking about is Wealth — distribution of wealth… Okay, let’s be real — Denial of wealth creation tools to black people…
Let me take the bull’s horns and explain. There is a racism virus present in American systems. It was present at the nation’s birth. It's present right now. Efforts to destroy and eradicate it have largely failed.
Over the years the virus has mutated. It’s now institutionalized, nurtured, and decimated into different facades. It has resisted diversity and has overwhelmed affirmative action.
But wait a minute, just before somebody takes my words out of context, let an experienced Economist and Strategist, Michael Every, Head of Financial Markets Research — RaboResearch tell us why the poor get poorer and the rich get richer — He is quoted saying,
“Could we please have the intellectual honesty just to admit the system as it exists today functions to give more money to ultra-rich people?”
I know — the ultra-rich are neither Black nor White, they come in all colors, Black White, Brown, and Yellow. But mostly White.
The poor are mostly black, and here is why. ‘There is poverty then there is negro poverty” noted President Lyndon Johnson in a 1965 civil rights speech at Howard University. He explained, “Negro poverty is not white poverty, it’s a special, particularly destructive, form of American poverty.” Said the President.
That was 1965 just before affirmative action. Fast forward to 2020, — a bludgeoning black middle class has not daunted, ‘Negro Poverty.’ — 1 in 7 white families are millionaires, compared to 1 in 50 for black families.
That’s NOT my data.
The data reveals that you have to combine the net worth of 11.5 black households to get the net worth of one white household.
That data is from The Historical Survey of Consumer Finances, which found out that the financial gap between black and white people is still as wide in 2020 as it was in 1968.
In 1968, a middle-class black household had $6,674 in wealth compared to $70,786 for White households
In 2016, the typical middle-class black household had $13,024 in wealth compared to $149,703 for white households. If you are mathematically inclined, you should have noticed there was a huge leap in wealth disparity right there.
Data by The Economic Policy Institute revealed that in 2020 a middle-class Black household had $8,762 in cash or equivalent liquid assets as compared to $49,529 for white households.
The wealth gap between Black and White households keeps widening. Black households just got poorer.
“The historical data reveals that no progress has been made in reducing income and wealth inequalities between black and white households over the past 70 years,” — Noted economists Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick and Ulrike I. Steins in their analysis of U.S. incomes and wealth since World War II.
But before sounding like a long-winded professor and losing you with all these statistics. Let’s go back to what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about structural racism that denies black people wealth creation tools. An average black person has to work twice as hard to earn half of what a white person earns.
The racism card is firmly stuck against a black person. That’s the bare-knuckled truth.
For my naysaying white relatives, I want to invite you to come live in a black skin.
If you were born in the projects, you will definitely go to a public school, that’s according to Orfield & Lee, who reported that 60% of Black and Latino students have no option but to attend high poverty schools, a comparison of only 18% of white students.
If you wade through junior high school, dodge bullets, escape drugs. Somehow slide through the gang tentacles, live through gang wars, avoid teenage pregnancy, without being a victim of police brutality, and by some miracle get to senior high, you aren’t out of the woods yet.
Funding disparities pegged on local property taxes, limited resources in poor neighborhoods, and teachers with emergency credentials hired on short tenure will guarantee you never get into an ivy league college.
And because against all odds you are determined to succeed, you get to college and by God’s grace you escape the clutches of the criminal justice system and are not one of the statistics — Yes, the statics say, ‘one out of every three black youth will spend time in prison during their lifetime.”
Congratulations, there is still hope for you. Now that you eluded incarceration, and are walking the land of the free. You may just get employed after you graduate, thanks to diversity.
But don’t celebrate not just yet, your black-sounding name is about to become a problem. An experimental audit by Bertrand & Mullainathan found that White employers preferred White candidates to Black Candidates.
The researchers mailed resumes of similar qualifications to employers in Boston and Chicago. They used racially identifiable names to signal race. White names triggered a 50% higher callback than equally qualified candidates with black-sounding names.
At this point I should be grateful to somebody who gave me a shot at life — Thank you, Mr. Whitfield- my first White employer you didn’t care about my black-sounding name, long before diversity…, Mr. Whitfield is one of my White relatives….He was my first employer.
Okay, emotions were about to run high.
Back to you my white relative living in a black skin. Hope against hope, you send your resume.
Then it happens. You get that cherished email — “You are Hired.” –
It's celebration time — you should be escaping the hood soon, you think.
But wait not too quickly — there is just one little problem. The job offer isn’t what you are really qualified for, but you take it anyway, it's desperate times.
Then you bump into your white college mate, he is excited, he too has been hired, and interestingly by the same employer. He lets you peep at his email — he’s hired at a scale and salary that’s higher than yours, despite the fact that you scored higher grades in college.
Welcome to black life. It isn’t over yet.
You work hard, really hard, at three jobs plus your side gig. You are determined your children shouldn’t live in the projects.
But suburban life is draining. You are worn out, sleep-deprived, and stressed out. Then one day you pass out at the wheel of your car, fatigued.
You wake up in hospital. Thank God you are still alive. But the pain, that horrible pain, you raptured a spleen the Doctors tell you. You ask something for the pain, the doctors ignore you. You wonder why they are white you are black.
Race must be at play here. And you are right.
A 2016 study titled, “Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites” reported that Black Americans are less likely to be treated for pain, and are often given lower doses of pain medicine.
I didn’t make this up.
In December of 2020, a video went viral. It’s the video of a Black Medical Doctor, Dr. Susan Moore hospitalized for COVID-19 at Indiana University Health North Hospital (IU Health)
In the video she is seen begging for pain drugs from a white doctor –She later comments, “He made me feel like I was a drug addict and he knew I was a physician and I don’t take narcotics.” Dr. Moore was recorded saying.
Dr. Moore’s treatment was racist — “You have to show proof that you have something wrong with you for you to get the medicine. I put forth and I maintain that if I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that,” she said in the video.
Sadly, two weeks later Dr. Susan Moore, lost the battle to COVID-19.
Back to you my white relative in black skin. Do you now get the true meaning of White privilege?
Okay, let’s wrap this up with how we started.
Henry hasn’t solved his bucket problem yet. The bucket, The hole, and The straw don’t just fit. Hold on to that thought. There is a hidden meaning.
Here’s the key, “The Power of the Word in the rhythm of the Word”.
