Systematic Racism In Bob Vylan's We Live Here

Bob Vylan’s album We Live Here speaks on a pattern of systematic racism in the UK that is paralled within the US. The album as a whole provides a lens into life in Britain as a Black person. He displays this through his lyrics on various tracks, most prominent in, “We Live Here”, and “Pulled Pork”. Within each of these songs, Vylan connects listeners by identifying the struggles of systematic racism exhibited by casual racism, and police brutality. These themes can be connected to the course reading of Living While Black by PR Lockhart.

He starts the album strong with the title track “We Live Here”, speaking on the experiences of casual racism and the feeling of estrangment from one’s own country. He explains the origin of this experience

This idea that someone may not feel like they belong in the place where they grew up, connects with the themes of P.R Lockhart’s Living While Black as it discusses the criminalization of Blackness. The phrase “Living while black” in itself has been used in numerous contexts of discussing how just simply living becomes a challenge. It encompasses the ways that black people are viewed with suspicion, are profiled, and immediately judged when just living. This is reflected in Vylan’s lyrics “Didn't know I was a sinner / But if they say so, well I must be / Big lips, wide nose / God knows no one will trust me” (Vylan 5-6). These lyrics allude to how Black people are treated unfairly, not just on a large scale level but also in their day to day lives. Eventually, this build up of casual racism becomes engrained in their (the Black community’s) minds.Vylan explains this as he says in his lyrics, “Didn’t know I was a sinner / But if they say so, well I must be” (Vylan 5-6). As explained by his lyricism, the constant belittment and

This mindset declares that when someone is constantly exposed to casual racism and downputting remarks they will start to believe them. Yet this is being overlooked, because through the eyes of the law there is equality for all, and there is nothing left to fight for. Vylan pokes at this notion with the line “We've got the right to vote / I mean, what more could we want?” (Vylan 27-28). This is the idea of abstract liberalism, the ideology that preaches that everyone has equal opportunity and if you are not where you want to be, is simply due to lack of merit. The sarcasm that Vylan gives off from the second line in this lyric, is supported by the endless examples of discrimination that Black people face. He references an example by mentioning Steven Lawrence. Stating that “He too was free to roam / Eighteen years old at the bus stop / Murdered on his way home” (Vylan 34-36). The case of Steven Lawrence he was in South East London with a friend, when he was attacked by a group of white kids at a bus stop. He unfortunately did not survive, but his friend did. Even though his friend was a direct witness of the attack,