Society's Child Lyrics
Face is clean and shining black as night.
My mother went to answer you know
That you looked so fine.
She called you "boy" instead of your name.
When she wouldn't let you inside,
When she turned and said
"But honey, he's not our kind."
Can't see you anymore.
Everybody's acting deaf and blind.
Until they turn and say,
"Why don't you stick to your own kind."
Cutting deep down in our affairs.
Preachers of equality,
Think they believe it,
Then why won't they just let us be?
Can't see you anymore.
Gonna raise my head up high.
One of these days I'm gonna raise up my glistening wings and fly.
Baby I'm only society's child.
When we're older things may change,
But for now this is the way they must remain.
Can't see you anymore.
No, I don't want to see you anymore, baby.
This song discussed the often forgotten topic of racism. Musicians don’t often write songs about this, as they may fear that it may be taken as controversial. A white girl and a black boy are dating, however their relationship is frowned upon because of the era that the song was written in. “Society’s Child” is referring to the couple being a victim of their time. The main character will one day “raise up (her) glistening wings and fly.” This is alluding to the fact that she believes that she needs to fight injustice in the world in order to refine society. I can’t imagine racism being part of everyday life. Why must we discriminate against other people simply because of their skin color? After all, we all stem from the world. Perhaps we have some differences, but we are fundamentally the same. We all share the same anatomy as others, we all were born on the same planet, but most importantly, we are all human. Regardless of skin color, we must learn to see things beyond society’s perspective. As we have seen in recent years, racism has greatly decreased, though it is still there. People must stop regarding each other by religion, skin tone, and who we are.