Songs About Justice

The traditional depiction of justice is a blindfolded woman holding scales in her right hand, a sword in the left. The blindfold represents impartiality.

But blind justice is not always colour blind in western countries. Even the successful black man faces systemic racism. Mos Def’s protagonist in Mista Nigga wears Armani, for instance. And yet “the po-po stop him and show no respect. ‘Is there a problem officer?’ Damn straight, it’s called race.”

The pair of scales represents a weighing of the evidence.

In The Court Room, Clarence Carter relates a court case involving a black preacher accused of rape. “Hang him! He guilty!” the crowd cries. But a witness speaks, “He got shot up so bad back there in the war that he couldn’t even take him a wife. You know what I’m talking about.” The preacher is acquitted.

And the sword represents vengeance and retribution.

Vengeance is the demand of New Model Army. Justice served to Nazis, drug dealers, polluters and corrupt businessmen. “I believe in justice! I believe in vengeance. I believe in getting the bastard!” they sing.

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy tell of a bunch of homophobic thugs who beat an innocent 15-year-old to death. One of the thugs is tried and convicted. In prison he is gang-raped. Both the thugs and the inmates speak a Language of Violence that dehumanizes the victim. Rough justice?

In western society, justice also includes basic human rights. Equality before the law, equality of opportunity, freedom of speech and assembly. A just society implements these rights.

Sometimes these rights have to be fought for. Paul Kelly tells of an eight-year battle for aboriginal land rights in Australia, a story of “how power and privilege cannot move a people who know where they stand”. From Little Things Big Things Grow!

Fela Kuti sings of a thousand Nigerian soldiers raiding the compound where Fela and his extended family lived. They break, they steal, they rape and they throw Fela’s 78-year-old mama out of the window as they burn the place down. An inquiry whitewashes the affair, blaming an Unknown Soldier for her death. Another government critic silenced. Not!

Peter Gabriel’s sings of the torture and murder of Steve Biko in South Africa. His 1980 song and worldwide pressure eventually saw apartheid dismantled and free elections in 1994.

And back in the United States, the struggle to end systemic racism took a major turn in 1962 when James Meredith became the first black man to attend the University of Mississippi. Richie Havens celebrates this landmark case with Oxford Town, the home of Ole Miss.

Military justice might seem like an oxymoron. Les Morts Dansant tells of a soldier executed by firing squad. Magnum is the band.

In The War Criminal Rises and Speaks, his arrest after 30 years on the lam is actually a relief. “Does the heart want to atone? Oh, I believe that it’s so, because if I could climb back through time, I’d restore their lives and then give back my own. Every night I’m still crying, entirely alone.” For this man, the most implacable sword of justice is wielded not by the court but by his own conscience. Okkervil River tells the story.

Justice is not always served. But as long as there are people to speak for the victims, their stories will speak to us. “What happens under darkness shall come to light. You can never avoid the Voices of the Voiceless,” sings Lowkey.

Benjamin Franklin once famously said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” But that is what the American government did in the wake of 9/11. Esperanza Spalding’s We Are America is an impassioned plea to close Guantanamo Bay, the symbol of all that is wrong with America. Watch the video. It is a powerful call for a return to the principles of justice in the United States.

The Playlist

1. Mista Nigga - Mos Def featuring Q-Tip

2. The Court Room - Clarence Carter

3. Vengeance - New Model Army

4. Language of Violence - Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

5. From Little Things Big Things Grow - Paul Kelly

6. Unknown Soldier Parts 1 and 2 - Fela Kuti

7. Biko - Peter Gabriel

8. Oxford Town - Richie Havens

9. Les Morts Dansant - Magnum

10. The War Criminal Rises and Speaks - Okkervil River

11. Voices of the Voiceless - Lowkey featuring Immortal Technique

12. We are America - Esperanza Spalding

This column was originally published at The Guardian music blog on Sept. 18, 2014. For a complete index to my essays, stories and poems on Vocal, click INDEX.