Later today there will be a Senate election in Alabama. The Republican nominee Roy Moore is not only an accused child molester, but he has a long history of promoting racist and homophobic behavior. One example was when asked by a black man during a September campaign rally when he thought that America was last great and he responded with: “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery. They cared for one another. People were strong in the families. Our families were strong. Our country had a direction.” This summed up the issue many have with MAGA. Most within that movement associate America greatness to a time of either slavery or segregation.
The regressiveness of MAGA and the mindset that elected Trump and could elect Moore is well summed up by “Letter to the Free” from Common’s 2016 album, Black America Again. The tune is a 4-minute oratory about the development of race relations in America. It highlights that the more things change the more they stay the same. The song also draws upon the rich tradition of civil rights protest music by containing allusions to the Billie Holiday classic anti-lynching tune, “Strange Fruit”.
References to Trump and MAGA includes: “Shot me with your ray gun now you want to Trump me” and “stare in the face of hate again, the same hate that will make America great again”. The song also examines the US industrial prison complex and the 13th amendment: “The new Jim Crow is stop, search and arrest our soul” and “instead of nigger, they use the word criminal”.
The song was also featured in Ava DuVernay 2016 thought-provoking documentary 13th.