Whitey’s on the Moon

Whitey’s on the Moon

September 25, 2006, 3:09 pm
Filed under: People of Color, Popular Culture

My senior year of high school, I ended up take an English class on Science Fiction and Fantasy because it was the only thing that fit in my schedule. Don’t get me wrong, I had always loved Sci-fi, so it was no chore, but it was not what I wanted to do with my time. However one day our teacher handed us a copy of this poem, written in 1972, that started with:

A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon.

Her face and arms began to swell and Whitey’s on the moon.

I can’t pay no doctor bills but Whitey’s on the moon.

Ten years from now I’ll be payin’ still while Whitey’s on the moon

And in a predominantly white school in a predominantly white suburb of a predominantly white city, we had a discussion about the morality-ethics of The United States of America in the 1950’s sinking millions into the space program while millions of people lived in poverty, people of color lacked basic civil rights, and problems like war, disease, and prejudice still raged. I don’t remember much about the conversation, probably the same old white-racist crap that circulated through any discussion in that town, but I remember that poem.

Today I saw this article pop up on my Yahoo News with the title “Branson unveils glimpse of Virgin civilian spaceship” and this picture of “billionaire adventurer Sir Richard Branson”.

Today I went looking for that poem. It is called Whitey on the Moon by Gill Scott Heron. I provide parts of both as a contrast.

Article:

British billionaire Richard Branson unveiled a mockup of his Virgin Galactic civilian spaceship, vowing to do his part to make space travel a reality for millions of people. “Our vision is to successfully build the world’s first environmentally benign space launch system and prove once and for all the commercial viability of a safe space launch system that we believe will eventually be capable of taking payload and science into space as well as people,” he said.

Gill Scott Heron:

The man just upped my rent last night cuz Whitey’s on the moon.

No hot water, no toilets, no lights but Whitey’s on the moon.

I wonder why he’s uppin me. Cuz Whitey’s on the moon?

I was already givin’ him fifty a week but now Whitey’s on the moon.

Article:

French designer Philippe Starck is the artistic designer for the project, including the space base that is to be built in the southwestern US state of New Mexico. “It’s a magnificent project that will go down in the annals of humankind’s history, from the dream of Icarus to the first flights,” the designer said in an interview with AFP.

Gill Scott Heron:

A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon.

Her face and arms began to swell but Whitey’s on the moon.

Was all that money I made last year for Whitey on the moon?

How come there ain’t no money here? Hmm! Whitey’s on the moon.

Article:

Tens of thousands of people have already expressed an interest in the Virgin voyage, with tickets running 200,000 dollars, and 200 have already made a deposit, the company said. Branson said “200,000 dollars is obviously still too expensive, but we’ve got lots of pioneers willing to pay.”

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