'Extremely offensive' songs with lyrics about whips, slavery flagged to school board for investigation
A handful of songs published on the popular online music-sharing platformSoundCloud are under investigation by a Maryland school board after teachers were made aware of racist lyrics.
Students at Mardela Middle and High School in Mardela Springs, Md., recently brought the songs to the attention of school officials, who then alerted the Wicomico County Board of Education. The racially insensitive tracks include “Whips Don’t Hurt Them” and “Whip Hands Free,” according to local news station WBOC, which reported that the songs were originally posted by a SoundCloud account, Lil Plantation. The songs have since been scrubbed from the account, but the user seems to have liked another racist song, “All Slaves Are the Same ‘Juice Wrld’ Remix,” which appears to belong to a SoundCloud user, Big John.
Now, the Wicomico County Board of Education is investigating the offensive media, which some in the community suspect was recorded and shared by a Mardela Middle and High School student. “Omg you are disgusting! r u the boy who goes to mardela middle n high who made this song!,” one SoundCloud user commented. “I’m disgusted sound cloud needs to remove this n delete this profile!”
On Facebook, some users are pointing fingers at a possible student too, though no one has been officially identified. “At least it made it to the board of ed ….we cant let this be ok on any level,” one person commented. “Those lyrics contain hate speech, but it’s obvious that there are those out there who don’t agree, or want to ignore that fact and that’s showing something bad on their part,” another wrote. “I’m glad my parents didn’t raise a racist. Side note, you can change your views, but your refusal to do so shows just how blind and ignorant you really are.”
The lyrics for “All Slaves Are the Same” are practically incoherent, but comments about whipping slaves as well as racial slurs can be heard. “Whips Don’t Hurt Them,” however, includes lyrics that are clearly shocking, including, “The whips won’t hurt them. New n******* keep picking my crops, but the slaves can’t touch me so I’m not worried. All alone, living on my own so I show no mercy, I show no mercy,” according to WBOC. The song also includes the lines, “Whip my plants and the slaves keep screaming ‘please don’t whip me, please don’t whip me.’ Yeah.”
One Mardela Middle and High School graduate, Jaamad Gould, whose relatives still attend the school, told WBOC that the songs are obviously “extremely offensive” and said of the songs’ author, “The fact that you’re comfortable telling people to listen to something that you know is derogatory, that you know is offensive, that you know is something that you know you should not be saying. And you’re laughing and joking about it that, to me, speaks on what his mind state is.”
Another person, who identified as a sometime teacher at the school, commented, “That’s so upsetting I love subbing there, hope that guy gets caught and expelled from the school. Mardela is an excellent school to be at, I know for a fact the teachers and administrators won’t tolerate that.”
Gould said he hopes the silver lining of the controversy is that it starts a positive dialogue within the community. “This is in our community because kids don’t hate people based on the color of their skin from birth, it’s something that they learned. Which means that their parents who live in this community are teaching that to their kids,” he said to WBOC.
A spokesperson for the Wicomico County Board of Education told WBOC that once its investigation is complete, any consequences for the culprit “will be in accordance with [its] code of conduct.”
Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to the director of communications for the Wicomico County School Board and will update this post when new information becomes available.
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