Bruce Springsteen Dedicates ‘American Skin (41 Shots)’ To The U.S. ‘For Justice For Trayvon Martin’
"During his concert in Limerick, Ireland last night, Bruce Springsteen dedicated “American Skin (41 Shots),” a song he debuted in 2000 about the February 4, 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo by four plainclothes New York City police officers, as “a letter back home…for justice for Trayvon Martin.” If you haven’t heard the song before, part of what’s chilling about hearing it again in this context is that the lyrics, which describe a black woman talking to her child about how not to get killed by the police, remain as applicable now as they were a decade and a half ago. When Springsteen sings “Lena gets her son ready for school / She says ‘On these streets, Charles / You’ve got to understand the rules / If an officer stops you, / promise me you’ll always be polite / And that you’ll never ever run away / Promise Mama you’ll keep your hands in sight,’” he could be quoting Levar Burton explaining the tactics he uses to try to avoid a deadly outcome during traffic stops by the police."
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/07/17/2315381/bruce-springsteen-dedicates-american-skin-41-shots-to-the-us-for-justice-for-trayvon-martin/
One may imagine that a handful of Springsteen fans will illustrate themselves as mere hacks by boycotting him after this. Idiots.
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