Whitey on the Moon: Difference between revisions

{{short description|1970 spoken -word poem by Gil Scott-Heron}}

"'''Whitey on the Moon'''" is a [[spoken -word]] poem by [[Gil Scott-Heron]], released as the ninth track on his debut album ''[[Small Talk at 125th and Lenox]]'' in 1970. Accompanied by [[conga]] drums, Scott-Heron's narrative tells of [[medical debt]], high taxes and poverty experienced at the time of the [[List of Apollo missions#Manned Apollo missions|Apollo Moon landings]]. The poem critiques the resources spent on the space program while [[African Americans|Black Americans]] were experiencing social and economic disparities at home. "Whitey on the Moon" was prominently featured in the 2018 [[biographical film]] about [[Neil Armstrong]], ''[[First Man (film)|First Man]]'', and the second episode of [[HBO]]'s television series ''[[Lovecraft Country (TV series)|Lovecraft Country]]''. It received renewed interest in 2021 following spaceflights by billionaires [[Jeff Bezos]] and [[Richard Branson]], which were seen as emblematic of the inequities highlighted by the poem.<ref name="Mitchell 2021">{{cite news |last1=Mitchell |first1=Taiyler Simone |title='Whitey on the Moon' poem garners social media attention on anniversary of moon landing, Bezos's spaceflight |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/whitey-on-the-moon-poem-resurfaces-amid-bezos-branson-spaceflight-2021-7 |access-date=December 30, 2021 |work=Business Insider |date=July 20, 2021 |archive-date=December 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230230155/https://www.businessinsider.com/whitey-on-the-moon-poem-resurfaces-amid-bezos-branson-spaceflight-2021-7 |url-status=live }}</ref>

"Whitey on the Moon" was released as the ninth track on ''Small Talk at 125th and Lenox'',<ref name="Bush 2020">{{cite web |last1=Bush |first1=John |title=Gil Scott-Heron Small Talk at 125th and Lenox |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/small-talk-at-125th-and-lenox-mw0000175340 |website=AllMusic |accessdate=June 4, 2020 |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122232511/https://www.allmusic.com/album/small-talk-at-125th-and-lenox-mw0000175340 |url-status=live }}</ref> which was recorded late in the summer of 1970 in a studio belonging to [[Atlantic Records]].<ref name="Baram 2014" /> Scott-Heron [[Spoken word|speaks the poem]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Gil Scott-Heron Whitey on the Moon |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/whitey-on-the-moon-mt0010949799 |website=AllMusic |accessdate=June 4, 2020 |archive-date=June 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604210449/https://www.allmusic.com/song/whitey-on-the-moon-mt0010949799 |url-status=live }}</ref> alongside a [[bongo drum]] accompaniment of a sort common in street poetry, and used by contemporaneous artists such as [[The Last Poets]]. The track is just under two minutes long.<ref name="Loyd 2015">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Mobile Desires: The Politics and Erotics of Mobility Justice|editor-last1=Montegary|editor-first1=Liz|editor-last2=White|editor-first2=Melissa Autumn|title='Whitey on the Moon': Space, Race, and the Crisis of Black Mobility|first=Jenna M.|last=Loyd|url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137464217_4|pages=41–52|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2015|doi=10.1057/9781137464217_4|isbn=978-1-349-56684-6|access-date=June 1, 2020|archive-date=November 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101032347/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137464217_4|url-status=live}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name="Bongo">{{cite book|first=Iain |last=Ellis |title=Rebels wit attitude: subversive rock humorists |year=2008|publisher=Soft Skull Press|isbn=978-1593762063|pages=170–171}}</ref> Although the album has been frequently described as being [[live recording|recorded live]] in a [[nightclub]] in [[New York City]], it was in fact recorded in a studio, with an audience present to simulate a live crowd.<ref name="Baram 2014"/> "Whitey on the Moon" narrates the story of Scott-Heron's "sister Nell," who is bitten by a rat while [[Neil Armstrong]] lands on the Moon. It then talks of medical debt that is incurred for her treatment, and rising costs of basic necessities as a result of the [[Apollo program|Moon landings]]. It ends with the sarcastic promise that when the next bills arrive, Scott-Heron would send them by "air mail special to Whitey on the Moon".<ref name="Loyd 2015"/> Due to an error by the musicians, the punchline is barely audible over the drums.<ref name="Baram 2014" /> The first lines of the poem run as follows:

"Whitey on the Moon" became exceptionally popular among African-Americans in [[inner city]] neighborhoods in New York, [[Detroit]], and [[Los Angeles]].<ref name="Maher 2017">{{cite book |last1=Maher |first1=Neil M. |title=Apollo in the Age of Aquarius |date=2007 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674971998 |pages=28–30}}</ref> While the album, described by ''[[AllMusic]]'' as a "volcanic upheaval of intellectualism and social critique", did not receive much airtime, it received considerable attention in Black and progressive neighborhoods across the US.<ref name="Baram 2014" /> Its criticism of the [[Space Race]] was broadly similar to that featured by the Black-owned print media, but drew far greater attention among that community.<ref name="Maher 2017"/> It featured thematic commonalities with [[Marvin Gaye]]'s 1971 song "[[Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)]]", and [[Faith Ringgold]]'s 1969 painting titled "Flag for the Moon: Die Nigger".<ref name="Loyd 2015" /> The poem's popularity was described as evidence of growing awareness of the struggles of [[urban blight]] in the US.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Maher |first1=Neil M. |title=Grounding the Space Race |journal=Modern American History |date=2018 |volume=1 |pages=141–146 |doi=10.1017/mah.2017.4|s2cid=135115637 }}</ref> TheWhile album''Small itTalk wasat on125th alsoand became popular: itLenox'' did not [[Record chart|chart]], butit earned enough attention for [[Flying Dutchman Records]] to supportauthorize a second Scott-Heron album, ''[[Pieces of a Man]]''.<ref name="Baram 2014"/>

"Whitey on the Moon" is described as exemplifying [[afrofuturism]], or "Black social thought concerning 'culture, technology, and things to come'."<ref name="Loyd 2015" /> Scott-Heron saw the Apollo landings as exemplifying racial disparities in the US.<ref name="Chaikin 2007">{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Chaikin |first1=Andrew |editor1-last=Dick |editor1-first=Steven J. |title=Live from the moon: The societal impact of Apollo |encyclopedia = Societal Impact of Spaceflight| date=2007 |publisher=Government Printing Office |author-link = Andrew Chaikin|isbn=9780160867170}}</ref> The poem critiques the US space program by connecting its use of government funds to the marginalization of [[African Americans|Black Americans]].<ref name="Loyd 2015" /> The poem identifies government neglect as the root cause of poverty andwhile questioning the benefits and beneficiaries of the space program..<ref name="Rao 2018">{{cite news|title=Why 'First Man' prominently features Gil Scott-Heron's spoken-word poem 'Whitey on the Moon'|first=Sonia|last=Rao|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/10/13/why-first-man-prominently-features-gil-scott-herons-spoken-word-poem-whitey-moon/|date=October 13, 2018|accessdate=June 4, 2020|archive-date=November 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101183501/https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/10/13/why-first-man-prominently-features-gil-scott-herons-spoken-word-poem-whitey-moon/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Regard 2015"/> The connection that Scott-Heron implies between [[capitalism]] in the US and poverty, environmental destruction, and militarism, is a theme found in many of his other works.<ref name="Loyd 2015" /> During the 1970s, the view that the country was spending too much on its space program was widespread in the US, and was shared by politicians including President [[Richard Nixon]].<ref name="Rao 2018" /><ref name="Crotts 2014">{{cite book|author=Arlin Crotts|title=The New Moon: Water, Exploration, and Future Habitation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a0pCBAAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-76224-3|pages=71–72}}</ref> This criticism of the space program has been described as reaching its epitome in "Whitey on the Moon."<ref name="Regard 2015">{{cite book|author=Frédéric Regard|title=Arctic Exploration in the Nineteenth Century: Discovering the Northwest Passage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tJVECgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-32152-1|pages=11–12}}</ref>