‘They Don’t Care About Us’ Is More Than A Michael Jackson Song
By Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
For decades now, folks have tried to figure out who the ‘They’ was as well as the ‘Us’ was in Michael Jackson’s song, They Don’t Care About Us. Many persons believed Michael was referring to Black people as the Us until Mr. Jackson released several videos of the same song with different groups of persons providing the background or the audience.
In one video, Michael was shown recording the video with a group of men who were dressed in blue prison garb and appeared to be in some sort of detention or incarceration center. In another video promoting the same song, he performed the song in a ghetto or impoverished area of a city that looked somewhat like Brazil. In clips of the video, one could clearly see one theme that seemed to imply was that people were being treated differently because of their skin color, financial status or their criminal standing within or outside of the law enforcement system.
I am not exactly sure but for me, the Us in the song meant deprivation of a person’s basic rights to freedom, justice and a fair and unbiased attainment to a clean and healthy environment and equitable treatment for all.
And, that is why it is so hard for me to read a local newspaper’s editorial where it was asking our NYS Governor, Kathy Hochul, for a fast and fair resolution for the residents in the city of North Tonawanda who have suffered from the loud noise in their community coming from a procedure called BitCoin Mining. Now, I will admit that I know little to nothing regarding the mining of these ‘Bit Coin’ but I am pretty sure there is no shoveling or digging involved. What I do know is that a company, that has been operating their business in North Tonawanda, for a couple of years, has been using computers or super computers that are extremely noisy and use a lot of fossil fuel that is emitting a lot of carbon monoxide or other pollutants.
The good thing the good people of North Tonawanda can look forward to is assistance from their elected officials in bringing relief and possibly a workable solution. The very young and seemingly progressive mayor of the city has called for a moratorium on the expansion of the operation the BitCoin company’s owners have requested. The governor has weighed in by stating that the residents have put up with a lot of noise and pollution in their community for a number of years and solutions must be explored.
Excuse me, but the residents of Humboldt Parkway have put up with death, illnesses, noise and pollutants coming from the community dividing 33 Kensington Expressway for over 70 years. And yet, instead of coming to their aid, the governor, New York State Department of Transportation and the officials from the NY State Legislature are making a 70 years-old mistake worse by putting a toxic tunnel on only 1/4 of the Expressway covering Humboldt Parkway.
I am not reluctant to use race and economic status as the reasons the two groups of citizens cited here were treated differently by the governor. We all know that the makeup of households on Humboldt Parkway are majority African American and are low to middle class to struggling. We also know that many long time residents are sick or have died from diseases and illnesses that can be attributed to their houses proximity to the carbon monoxide laden Expressway. But in spite of all that we know, the state authorities in charge of the ‘Cap and Stitch’ Tunnel Project have not surveyed the homeowners for a health care check or called for an Environmental Impact Statement to be implemented.
Michael Jackson was absolutely right in saying “They don’t care about us” but he was lack in explicitly saying who the US was. So I shall say who I believe he was talking about. It is people like the poor, elderly and sick residents of Humboldt Parkway who had to be driven to file lawsuits for clean air and a noncancer causing or toxic free environment, in order for the government to acknowledge and to listen to their demands and concerns.