Grammys’ Song of the Year is a Protest Poem
I can’t Breathe were George Floyd’s last words- he was asphyxiated by a police officer who kneeled on his neck for nine minutes before he passed away. I Can’t Breathe has become synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement. H.E.R’s song of the same name won the song of the year 2021. The song questions American Pride that does not treat all Americans as equal and instead negates the suffering of Black Americans by declaring that All Lives Matter.
The song’s music video is black and white footage of people marching in protest. The song breaks into a spoken-word verse as ‘George Floyd’ appears in-font on-screen, followed by the names of other Black Americans who lost their lives to Police Brutality. Soon enough the screen is filled with names and the screen slowly zooms out to accommodate more names.
The song makes a reference to the iconic spoken-word artist Gill Scott Heron’s The Revolution will not be Televised, which talks about the control of the media to manipulate public perception. It is bringing into perspective the role of media in public discourse, though the revolution may not be televised, we are seeing more and more of systemic brutality being caught on camera, and being televised. With more freedom in publishing and sharing news over the internet, the media is beyond the control of a few, but this has brought a new challenge amidst the people, misinformation.
In another line, the song talks about Strange Fruits, a metaphor for Black bodies hanging in public spaces from a Poplar tree. A Billie Holiday song, that was also famously covered by Nina Simone. The Simone version was my first encounter with those goosebumps raising words. The song is also sampled in Kanye West’s Blood on the leaves, but that version is more pop than political. I am aware that Billie Holiday’s Biographical film the United States vs. Billie released in 2021. I am yet to see it.
I Can’t Breathe is a protest song, that reminds the listener of the historic suffering of Black Americans, and their continued struggle in pursuit of justice.
