Connecting pop culture and politics.

Connecting pop culture and politics
The songs “Run Red Run” and What About Us” by the Coasters indicates the way African Americans have faced racism for years and are now trying to be equal with society in the time period. The songs also touched on the inequalities that African American face. After World War II came a period of the second reconstruction where the nation decided to rectify its views on civil rights (“The Civil Rights Movement and The Second Reconstruction, 1945—1968,” n.d.) One instant deal with Rosa Parks, an African American woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man. To popular belief Rosa Parks was not an accidental activist, she had been working with the civil rights movement for years prior to her act. She was a member of the NAACP, and prior to her faithful day she had been working behind the scenes with the NAACP to get teens to join in on their cause. After her act of activism, Rosa Parks was arrested but was bailed out by E.D. Nixon and Clifford Durrs and her case was used as a “respectable plaintiff to challenge segregation” (Schmitz, 2015) Her actions ultimately led to the Montgomery bus boycott, a movement in which African Americans stop taking the city buses in Montgomery Alabama to go against segregated seating in the buses.
The song “Run Red Run” by the coasters is a metaphor for the injustices of African Americans. “Red” refers to the white man, while “monkey” refers to the black man. The song discusses how Red bought a monkey and taught him how to play poker, after a while the monkey figures out that Red was cheating. The monkey revolts stating, “I’m going to shoot you dead” (jukejointjohnny48, 2014) The monkey finding out that read was cheating is the same thing as the African Americans finding out how unfair the system is. During this period “whites” and “blacks” were separated by color, the whites had more rights than the blacks and more privileges than the blacks. Just how the monkey’s eyes opened to Reds cheating is the same way that African American eyes opened to the injustices and racism they face. Over time the monkey got the rules of the game and figured it out is the same way the African Americans over time learned that they too should have the freedom to do as they please in society.
The song “What About Us” by the coasters is a song that speaks on the injustices in America during that time period. The song refers to the white man as “He”. The song talks about how the white man has everything and can do anything while they (African Americans) cannot. The song explains different scenarios that the white man goes through such as having a “house made of glass” (barrygioportmorien1, 2008) that comes with nothing, while African Americans do not have any of that privilege. Another scenario is that the white man eats steak at the Ritz while African Americans eat “hominy grits from a bag” (barrygioportmorien1, 2008). They say, “What About Us” (barrygioportmorien1, 2008) as to say can we have the same privilege and rights as the white man. They also say, “Don’t want to cause no fuss” (barrygioportmorien1, 2008) as to say that African Americans are not looking for trouble, just equal rights. One example of this takes place in the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, this was a case which went against the “separate but equal” saying. The case argued that separate does not mean equal and that segregation has no place in the learning environment (Chan et al, n.d.)
These two songs focus on the injustices between white and black people. They speak on African American having their rights and finding the truth on racism. They also point out that all African Americans want is equal rights nothing less nothing more.