Honing in on the disorienting epiphanies about American racism that she’s had as a bi-racial woman, Casey Malone’s debut single “Hey Amerika,” is an impassioned response to the emboldened nature of racists in this country.
The song was written in 2019 after Malone realized that a favorite holiday tradition — celebrating the 4th of July — was now marred by the fact that that same country was putting children in cages at the border. It was then that Malone understood the lengths at which she’d been blinded to some of the racism that had been occurring around her — but after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, it was clear that the spaces she’d occupied as a Black woman growing up were not as safe or free of racism as she’d perceived.
The music video for the powerful song, directed by Maiwenn Raoult, features other people of color joining Malone in her attempt to find a space in which they can truly express themselves. It is a necessary expression of the beauty, art, love, and creativity that enriches our world and is so dependent on the people of color in this country, and the world — and it rings true as a promise that they will never be silenced or erased.
“Before the tragedy of George Floyd, I thought I blended quite nicely into white society. However, with the cruel injustices that have been brought to the surface and the complete divide that our country is in woke me the f#*% up. It made me really look at who I am and what space I hold as a Black woman. It’s intense. I would never be fully accepted no matter how performatively ‘white’ I had been conditioned to be. The color of America is hypocrisy. It would never love me.”
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