''Racially Yours'' is an album by the band
the Frogs
''The Frogs'' (; , often abbreviated ''Ran.'' or ''Ra.'') is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus in Athens, in 405 BC and received first place.
The pla ...
, released in 2000.
The album was originally presented to Homestead Records in the early '90s, but they refused to release it due to its
controversial
Controversy (, ) is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin '' controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opp ...
subject matter.
At this point the album only consisted of the first 12 songs. After much delay, it was released in 2000 on Four Alarm Records with an additional 13 tracks, and a tongue-in-cheek sticker proclaiming it "the most controversial album of all time."
Unlike the sexually charged and comedic material on ''
It's Only Right and Natural'' and ''
My Daughter the Broad'', ''Racially Yours'' focuses on subjects such as American
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
,
genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
and
patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, politic ...
. The songs are sung from the point of view of both
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
s and
white American
White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person having ...
s. The lyrics are as serious as they are
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
; in the song "Blackman, Blackman", Dennis quips, "a black man's heaven is a white man's hell." In "The Flag", Jimmy urges, "brother, let's make
the flag red, white and 'black'."
Critical reception
''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' wrote that "at 60 musically primitive minutes, ''Racially Yours'' can feel as much like cultural homework as any number of albums that wear strident identity politics on their sleeve, but it's an audacious footnote that fully earns its notorious reputation." ''
SF Weekly
''SF Weekly'' is an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper ha ...
'' wrote: "Surprisingly, the album is less over-the-top parody than expected; in fact, it's relatively somber and serious, making interpretation even more difficult."
Track listing
# "Truth"
# "Holidays 4 King"
# "Sorry I'm White"
# "White Guy"
# "400 Years"
# "Racially Yours"
# "Now You Know You're Black"
# "White Like Me"
# "My Slave"
# "Freedom"
# "Whitefully Dead"
# "BlackMan, BlackMan"
# "Full of Monkeys"
# "I Had a Dream"
# "Revolution"
# "Massa"
# "Darkmeat 4 Sale"
# "The Flag"
# "An Unwanted Child & A Wanted Man"
# "2 Blacks Don't Make a White"
# "The Purification of the Race"
# "You're a Bigot"
# "The Blue-eyed Devil & Brown-eyed Angel"
# "Uncle Sam Loves U"
# "Prejudiced"
Personnel
*
Jimmy Flemion – Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals on 01–03, 05–10, 13, 15–23, 25
*
Dennis Flemion – Drums, Keyboards, Vocals on 04, 11–12, 14, 24
References
External links
Dennis Flemion 20 Questionson
Philadelphia City Paper
''Philadelphia City Paper'' was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The independently owned paper was free and published every Thursday in print and daily online at citypaper.net. Staff reporters focused on labor issues ...
2000 albums
The Frogs (band) albums
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