‘Black’ – Dave

Gill writes:

I’m the parent of a teenager. Before he hit his teens (and being a person with ‘green’ tendencies), I used to moan about parents ferrying their children around in cars. I still do sometimes but we’ve settled for a balance between foot, bike and car – and that’s because some of the most crucial conversations with teenagers happen in cars. This should have been no surprise to me really – as a youth worker by profession, it was the minibus moments that were the most insightful and engaging!

A key issue in parent and teenager travel is the ‘music in the car’ debate – and tempting though it is to say ‘my car, my music’, I’d have missed out on a whole load of musical education in the last 18 months if I’d had that rule.

In 2018, British rap and grime music entered my life and became the soundtrack to many a journey (and background to conversation) with my adolescent offspring. And for much of 2019, the Mercury Prize Winning album ‘Psychodrama’ by Dave formed the backdrop to our journeys.

When I heard ‘Black’, I was driving Max somewhere and I was blown away by what I was hearing. The opening words are so powerful:

‘Look, black is beautiful, black is excellent
Black is pain, black is joy, black is evident‘

I kept playing it and watching the official video of it (which is not the one above – that’s his performance at the Brits 2020 which is very powerful in a different way). It is refreshingly honest, eye-opening, poetic, intelligent, thought-provoking and the challenge that I needed to hear as a white, privileged person.

‘Our heritage been severed, you never got to experiment
With family trees, ’cause they teach you ’bout famine and greed
And show you pictures of our fam on their knees
Tell us we used to be barbaric, we had actual queens‘

Of course, the song has courted controversy with some white people, particularly on Twitter, who felt threatened by a black man celebrating his identity and people – with comments along the ‘imagine if it was a white man singing about being white’ type of lines.

This led to DJ Annie Mac responding on Twitter with “It’s so very frustrating to see so many negative comments from listeners when I, and other BBC Radio One DJs play the Dave track ‘Black’. Let me get this straight, if you are genuinely offended by a man talking about the colour of his skin and how it has shaped his identity…then that is a problem for you. It’s a real issue that a song so intelligent, so thought provoking so excellently put together can actually offend you. It’s not just okay to talk about race. It is crucial. Listen to the song with open ears. Please.”

The gospels show how Jesus spoke out against inequality, how he helped those who were oppressed, how he condemned those who oppressed and how he embraced those on the fringes.

If we really want to follow Jesus, this means being more like him and not burying our head in the sand or shrugging our shoulders or denying that racism is not integral in our world. It means speaking up, asking questions and using the power that we have to bring about a world where nobody ever feels valueless.

Find out more about Dave at https://santandave.com/collections/all