Teaching About Race and Racism with Springsteen Songs

Teaching Social Studies: Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer-Fall 2019 Teaching about Race and Racism with Springsteen Songs Mark T. Kissling Penn State University—University Park At first thought, it might seem odd to teach about and race was central to what he found there” race and racism in the United States with the (2011, paragraph 7). music of Bruce Springsteen. One of the more famous long-time musicians in this country and With Springsteen’s voice as one of the around the world, Springsteen is likely not often more prominent American cultural voices over associated with these topics, perhaps foremost the past several decades, it is relevant to most all because he is White. Yet race and racism are social issues, but this doesn’t mean it’s the lone important topics in and across his music. voice to consider about race and racism. Indeed, Further, many of his musical influences—like the voices of people of color must be central to James Brown and Curtis Mayfield—were Black, social studies teaching about race and racism. as was his most influential musical collaborator, The curriculum cannot be directed solely by Clarence Clemons, his longstanding friend and White voices, especially those attached to great band-mate known as “the Big Man.” fame and wealth. For decades, Springsteen has written and Yet, famous, wealthy, White voices are sung about race and racism, particularly America not useless. Racial justice cannot come about struggling with racism. Yes, he writes about cars without progress in all corners of society, and love and the Jersey Shore, too, but race and including—maybe even particularly—White racism are, importantly, also there in the mix. America. Toward this end, White voices calling He has often uttered a line in interviews that his for racial justice need to be heard and considered music charts the gap between the American (and undoubtedly not just those of famous, dream and everyday living in America (e.g., wealthy, White men). Springsteen’s voice Pelley, 2007). In doing this he takes up the reaches the ears of many, particularly in White question, what does it mean to be an American? America, in ways that most other voices do not. This work includes—sometimes explicitly, It can be an important model for White students sometimes implicitly—race and racism. Shortly to learn to speak out against racism, and it can be after the death of Clemons in 2011, Springsteen an important example for students of color of biographer Dave Marsh noted that “Springsteen how some well-known White people do speak set out to write about the heart of the country, out in favor of racial justice. 101 Teaching Social Studies: Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer-Fall 2019 Teaching about Race and Racism—with Race and Racism in Springsteen’s Life and Music Songsi In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Born in 1949, Springsteen grew up in Coates writes about learning to “ruthlessly Freehold, New Jersey. Issues of race and racism interrogate” (2015, p. 29) his social world. Such were not foreign to him. In “My Hometown” critical investigation is central to powerful social (1984) he writes and sings, studies teaching and learning. The United States was founded on—and today, in 2019, remains In '65 tension was running high at my structured by—racism. The evidence is strewn high school across the country’s history (e.g., Kendi, 2016; There was a lot of fights between the Lepore, 2018), including 400 years ago, when black and white the first ship with Africans landed at the There was nothing you could do Jamestown colonial settlement. The evidence is Two cars at a light on a Saturday night in also strewn across contemporary America, in the the back seat there was a gun form of staggering gaps in wealth, education, Words were passed in a shotgun blast incarceration, housing, and other areas between Troubled times had come to my White and non-White (e.g., Alexander, 2012; hometown Rothstein, 2017). Social studies teachers have Freehold, like many others, was a struggling the precious responsibility of shining a light on American town and racial tension was one of its this evidence and wrestling with questions of struggles. Like his hometown, Springsteen why and how. personally struggled. In “Tenth Avenue Freeze- Because teaching about race and racism Out” (1975) he writes and sings, is not easy, music is a great avenue for inquiring Tear drops on the city into and discussing these topics. Songs Bad Scooter searching for his groove introduce stories, characters, and ideas that make Seem like the whole world walking pretty us feel and think, consider and investigate. For And you can't find the room to move example, for many teachers addressing the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the mid-Twentieth Scooter is Springsteen, a working-class White Century, spirituals and protest songs—freedom male trying to find his way as a young musician songs—sung primarily by the participants (“stranded in the jungle,” he sings in the next themselves are foundational resources in their stanza), not buying into the rhetoric of his father, lessons. Songs like “Oh Freedom” and “We schooling, or the mainstream establishment Shall Overcome” are examples of the larger calling for him to cut his hair and get a theme that music has a long and important traditional job. His prospects seemingly change history (and present) in the United States of when he partners up with an older, massive, calling for and activating wheels of social saxophone-blowing Black male—Clarence change. Clemons, the Big Man. As “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” turns triumphant, Springsteen exclaims, 102 Teaching Social Studies: Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer-Fall 2019 When the change was made uptown Sessions Band played the New Orleans Jazz and And the Big Man joined the band Heritage Festival. Reviewing the performance From the coastline to the city for the Times-Picayune, music writer Keith All the little pretties raise their hands Spera wrote, I'm gonna sit back right easy and laugh When Scooter and the Big Man bust this “No other artist could have spoken to, and for, city in half the city of New Orleans at this most important of Jazzfests more purposefully, more passionately To be sure, the E Street Band, Springsteen’s and more effectively than Bruce Springsteen and band, was not simply Scooter and the Big Man the Seeger Sessions Band” (Spera, 2012). but it revolved around and was built upon their dynamism. The cover of Springsteen’s breakout One song Springsteen sang was “How album, Born to Run, in which a bemused Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live,” Springsteen with his guitar leans on Clemons as an adaptation of Blind Alfred Reed’s Great he plays his sax, is telling. Year later, reflecting Depression-era song of the same name. After on the relationship between Clemons and singing Reed’s opening stanza about a doctor Springsteen in a society marked by racism, the and his “humbug pill,” Springsteen departed biographer Marsh wrote, from Reed’s story in order to tell a story about New Orleans post-Katrina: Bruce and Clarence could not pull down the tower in which America is shackled, "Me and my old school pals had some no two humans could do that, but they mighty high times down here inflicted their share of damage…They And what happened to you poor black were these two guys who imagined that if folks, well it just ain't fair" they acted free, then other people would He took a look around, gave a little pep understand better that it was possible to talk, said "I'm with you" then he took a be free. (2011, paragraph 15) little walk Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live “Gonna be a judgment that's a fact” There's bodies floatin' on Canal and the Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans levees gone to Hell and the surrounding Gulf area in late August of Martha, get me my sixteen gauge and 2005. The aftermath of the hurricane was some dry shells environmentally and socially disastrous. Not Them who's got out of town and them only was New Orleans flooded, social relations who ain't got left to drown within the city were characterized by utter Tell me how can a poor man stand such disregard of the city’s poorest people, times and live particularly people of color. Nine months after Katrina hit, Springsteen and his accompanying Got family scattered from Texas all the group of musicians known as the Seeger way to Baltimore Yeah and I ain't got no home in this 103 Teaching Social Studies: Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer-Fall 2019 world no more “It ain’t no secret” Gonna be a judgment that's a fact, a righteous train rollin' down this track In February of 1999, a 23-year old Tell me how can a poor man stand such Guinean immigrant named Amadou Diallo was times and live shot 19 times by four police officers while he stood in the entryway of his apartment building The second stanza focuses on the in the Bronx in New York City. Diallo was response by then-President George Bush. The unarmed. The officers shot 41 times. Diallo president metaphorically takes a walk, signifying died. the way in which the people most struggling in New Orleans, many of whom were poor and At the time, Springsteen and the E Street Black, were left behind by all levels of Band were in the midst of a reunion tour.

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