University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Land of the Free is Not So Free for People of Color

Zachary Daily

Sociology 134

Kaan Jittiang

1 October 2017
 Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, better known by his stage name Joey Bada$$, is an up and

coming American rapper. What makes his music so special is that he has the ability enlighten

people out of their melancholic mindset, one imposed on them by the limitations of society. Joey

speaks of the people's ability to be the change they wish to see, for he too has been in their shoes,

a feeling of being powerless to change the world. Like many of his fans, Joey lived a less than

perfect life and didn't have the luxury of finding his identity free of the limitations of society

(Waters). He had to find it within the hardships, like coming "...home from school to see....

eviction notices on...[his families']...door" (Bada$$), as well as dealing with the everyday

struggles of being a black teenager. Through all these obstacles Joey was able to overcome all

that stood in his way, and this is why his words resonate so well with today's youth. His words

are an inspiration; a motivation to change our dysfunctional American society into one where

children can grow up without having to face the harsh conditions that many, like him, have to

grow up in. Joey's newest album, All Amerikkkan Bada$$, does just that, especially his powerful

song Land of the Free. In Joey Bada$$'s song Land of the Free, America is put under a

microscope, revealing the fallacies that exist in the minds of the people and the covert

racism embedded within the intuitions themselves.

Joey's song is examined through the lenses of the anti-history fallacy, the tokenistic

fallacy, and covert racism. The Anti-history fallacy is the tendency of people to forget past

events and assume that people's past actions don't affect the present. On another note, the
tokenistic fallacy is a fallacy where people believe that because a person of color has a powerful

position racism must no longer exist or is fading away (Nolen). Lastly, covert racism is racism

that is hidden, unable to be an outright act of racism, unlike overt racism. Using these lenses,

Joey is able to display problems that still exist in America today.

Interested in the origins of his last names, Virginie and Scott, Joey Bada$$ looked them

up and was shocked to find that they traced back to surnames given to slaves. At that moment,

Joey discovered the far-reaching extent of the anti-history fallacy. As Joey began to see more and

more of how the anti-history fallacy has worked its way into the minds of the American people,

he started to "...feel...[his]...ancestors inside of...[him]" (Bada$$). He then looked back into the

past to remember the "300 plus years of them cold shoulders" and the way in which whites

"...disorganized my people, made us all loners" (Bada$$). With these lyrics, Joey touches on

something important, especially with his use of the word "loners." This line is a reference to the

historical and societal duality in which African-Americans feel to be loners. Forced from their

families and separated from their motherland, as well as distanced from the new society they

were mandated to live in during Jim Crow (Chafe et al.).

Joey also says the lines "All our history hidden, ain't no liberty given, we all fit the

description of what the documents written" (Bada$$) in reference to the lack of attention to the

positive involvement of blacks in America's history. As Peggy McIntosh believes, whites have

the sole privilege of seeing themselves represented in the history books (McIntosh). He also

points to the fact that just because his skin is brown doesn't mean that his rights in the

constitution are any less than those of white people's. By taking notice as Joey did, one can see

the multitude of factors that have made blacks feel like loners in America.
 Like the anti-history fallacy, the tokenistic fallacy also has disorganized the black

community. A perfect example of the tokenistic fallacy relates to the days of Martin Luther King

Jr. Back in those days, the black community had a common goal of changing the societal

oppression that they had to face. After that goal was achieved and the civil rights bills were put

in place, the black community started to drift apart, thinking that because MLK was in power and

he alone was able to change things, and other black leaders would rise to the occasion on their

behalf. Joey points to this idea in his lyrics "Obama just wasn't enough, I just need some more

closure" (Bada$$), stating in an interview that Obama's presidency "...put us to sleep"

(RapGeniusVideo). Joey feels that though Obama was a good thing for the black community,

though it made people believe that he would solve all their problems and that the three-hundred

plus years of oppression and racism would just disappear in only eight years under the Obama

presidency. This false notion caused the black community to lose focus, which in reference Joey

states "we been lacking a vision and barely making a living" (Bada$$). Due to the fallacies that

became engrained in the minds of the American people, the black community has become

disorganized and lacks a strong vision of the future. This allows others the ability to take

advantage of this disorganization and of the people themselves who lack vision.

People have benefited from this disorder in the black community, and now covert racism

reigns supreme. Since the banning of segregation and the enactment of the civil rights bills overt

racism has slowly faded into the distance and has transformed into something more sinister,

covert racism. Covert racism has become embedded in our institutions, and because it's, as its

name suggests, mostly hidden, the actual extent of which it exists is unknown. Joey captures this

idea perfectly with the line "Three K's, Two A's in Amerikkka" (Bada$$), signaling to the racism

concealed within the American institutions. The line also indicates to the very fact that the overt
racism once flaunted by the Ku Klux Klan has adapted and become covert, hence Joey's idea of

changing the word "America" to "Amerikkka."

In his song, Joey also brings to light one of the ways in which people of color are

currently subjected to covert racism "Trickery in the system, put my niggas in prison" (Bada$$).

He brings up the point that blacks are disproportionately represented in the prison system, an

example being the statistic that youth between the ages of nineteen to twenty-five, black men are

three times as likely to be incarcerated for marijuana use when nearly the same percentage of

blacks and whites smoked marijuana (Nolen). This causes prisons to be overcrowded which Joey

notes with the line "...not enough pots to piss in, too many murder convictions" (Bada$$).

Though the jury system was put in place to give everyone a fair shot, many times, due to their

prejudices, an all-white jury determines a black man to be guilty of something he didn't commit

just because of the connotations associated with the color of his skin. Then, instead of getting out

and starting over, many prisons keep people locked up like pigs in a pen instead of being put on

parole, just to gain money, because in fact, the prison system itself is mostly a private institution.

This institution that Joey touches on is just the tip of the iceberg, used to help people picture in

their minds the extent to which covert racism is embedded in America.

In the song Land of the Free, by Joey Bada$$, America is carefully examined, which

brings to light the misconceptions about racism and the ways in which racism has transformed in

the modern area. As the name implies, the anti-history fallacy causes people to become detached

from the past, to forget that racism from the past still lingers in today's society. Another fallacy,

the tokenistic fallacy, is when people assume that when people of color, like Obama or MLK,

come into power racism must not exist anymore and whatever remains will be soon gotten rid of.

These misconceptions effectively disorganized the black community, allowing for covert racism
to seep into the major institutions that help run America, such as the Justice system or the

housing system. Taking notice and understand the underlying concepts in Joey's song is the first

step to seeing the injustice that happens on a daily basis. That is why Joey's song is meant to

reach out to the youth, still coming to terms with what racism truly is and wake us up from the

ideas of a perfect America. He does all this because he understands that it is up to us, the youth,

to write the next chapter in America's history, one free from racism and inequality, for we "can't

change the world unless we change ourselves" (Bada$$).

 Work Cited

Bada$$, Joey. Joey Badass. Joey Badass - #IUsedToFeelSoDevastated... I remember being...,

22 June 2016, www.facebook.com/fckingbadass/posts/1029367880451790:0. Accessed 1
Oct. 2017.

Bada$$, Joey. YouTube, YouTube, 6 Mar. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQW-9Cg8qs.

Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.

Chafe, William Henry., et al. Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans tell about life in the
segregated South.

McIntosh, Peggy. White Privileged: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack. 1989.

Nolen, Jason. "History of Race, Ethnicity, and Racial Domination." Sociology 134. Madison,
Wisconsin. 15 Sept. 2017. Lecture.

Nolen, Jason. "History of Race, Ethnicity, and Racial Domination." Sociology 134. Madison,
Wisconsin. 18 Sept. 2017. Lecture.

Nolen, Jason. "Privilege, Prejudice and Discrimination." Sociology 134. Madison, Wisconsin. 27
Sept. 2017. Lecture.

RapGeniusVideo. YouTube, YouTube, 23 Feb. 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCnL7hxiEs. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.

Waters, Mary C. Optional ethnicities for whites only? Mary Waters OPTIONAL
ETHNICITIES: FOR WHITES ONLY, May 9ADAD,
www.pages.drexel.edu/~jc3962/COR/Racism/Racism_1.pdf. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.