The Racial Discrimination In Bob Dylan's Song
President John F. Kennedy delivered a powerful message to the American People on June 11th of 1963, calling Congress to view civil rights as a moral obligation instead of a legal issue. Four hours later, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated by a white supremecist on his driveway, with a bullet in the back of his head. This tragic event led to a famous singer, Bob Dylan, to write “Only a Pawn in Their Game” that echoed the concerns of the American all across the country. The song suggested a new perspective to the racial disconnect that ran rampant at the time: discrimination victimizes the poor white man or woman just as much as it victimizes the poor black. While the civil rights movement picked up steam, Bob Dylan goes against the grain, successfully asserting that discrimination and racism is a game run by “the man” and that the southern whites who were discriminating against minorities were nothing but pawns in the game.
The song starts with a reference to the murder of Medgar Evers, “A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers’ blood.” Before his days as a social activists, Medgar Evers served for the US army in World War II and participated in the Normandy Invasion, However, instead of being named a hero and receiving praise, Medgar Evers returned home from World War II as an outsider. Unable to enjoy simple rights such as the right to vote, Evers joined the Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and became the first state field secretary in Mississippi. He spent his time educating poor African Americans on their civil rights and coordinated voter-registration efforts. His work was monumental when investigating crimes against the black community, such as the Emmett Till murder case. His tragic death fueled the civil rights movement and soon revolutionized the concept of discrimination.
Bob Dylan’s dramatic opening to his song reflects the jagged edge of reality that he is singing about. Although he is just another “activist” within the civil rights movement, Bob Dylan’s song redefines segregation as a top-down problem. He suggests that poor whites are encouraged to blame the poor blacks while the people they most certainly should blame are the wealthy and powerful whites who have failed everyone in their economic and political leadership. Dylan gives three examples within his song. First, he explains how rich white politicians are put into positions of power by consoling the poor white southerners with their own agenda; “You got more than the blacks, don’t complain” and “You’re better than them, you been born with white skin.” Here Dylan exposes the rhetoric that whites in power used to continuously marginalize racial minorities. Dylan furthers that this issue is systematic and blames the government for continuously following the cycle instead of trying to break it. He warns that it is the people in society that we should be able to trust who are perpetuating the problem, “The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid. And the marshals and cops the same. But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool. He’s taught in his school from the start by the rule that the laws are with him, to protect his white skin. To keep up his hate.” Bob Dylan is able to effectively communicate his concerns with society; the people in power that are the ones to blame for racism and discrimination. He is scornful of the government and society for continuing this hatred between races that stems from what we are told to believe in as children. He reminds listeners that we are all the same, just taught different parts of the same story.
The final lesson Bob Dylan illustrates within his music is the effect socieoecnomic class has on racism and discrimination. Dylan claims that poverty fosters bad habits; “From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks. And the hoofbeats pound in his brain. And he’s taught how to walk in a pack, shoot in the back with his fist in a clinch. To hang and to lynch. To hide ‘neath the hood. To kill with no pain like a dog on a chain.” Bob Dylan degrades the bigots and racists by comparing them to the likes of a “dog on a chain.” He outwardly calls them cowards by reminding them that they are the ones hiding beneath their hoods. He shames them.
Bob Dylan continually reminds readers that we should not focus on the individuals in society, to not focus on the bad apples in a basket ytgbut to instead focus on how society influences our behaviour. He repeats the phrase “But it ain’t him to blame. He’s only a pawn in their game.” Never once does Bob Dylan put the blame of racism on the poor whites southerners as many at that time did. Instead he targets them as his audience, demonstrating that they are just as much of a victim of our highly racialized politics as are African Americans. He blames the power of state schooling in continuing the existence of inequality in society. He reminds the people that they have a common enemy; the government.
Even with his great accomplishments, american schooling still disregards Medgar Evers in their history textbooks. Thankfully, in 2014, President Barack Obama made the home of Medgar Evers a National Monument. While neither Medgar Evers nor Bob Dylan got to see the great advancements this country has made in terms of racial equality, they were both monumental in shifting the racial conflict at the time. “Only a Pawn in Their Game” was able to change a binary conflict where there was only black and white and no gray area in between to a much more approachable problem of bad governance.
