Black Boys on Mopeds by Sinead O'Connor (1989)

From blackwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Sinead O'Connor

Black Boys on Moped was released on March 1, 1990 and sung by an Irish singer-songwriter, Sinead O'Connor. The track is on her 1990’s 2nd album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got written and arranged by herself. The song was inspired by an incident of a black British man who died from a gunshot wound on January 12, 1983. Although the lyrics do not mention Colin Roach directly, it is dedicated to his family. [1]

According to Genius, the lyrics also refer to an incident where the police pursued Nicholas Bramble, a youth, who was riding a moped and mistaken belief that had stolen the moped. The incident was in England on May 17, 1989. [2]

Black Empowerment

Collin Roach died from a gunshot wound on January 12, 1983. The incident of the 21-year-old British black man took place inside the entrance of Stoke Newington police station, in the London Borough of Hackney. The police cover-up amidst allegations, the case became a cause célèbre in the United Kingdom for the civil rights activists and black community groups. [3]

The song, Black Boys on Mopeds was tribute to the British’s brutal gunshot incident. O’Connor released her song seven years after Roach’s death in 1983 at the hands of police, which covered up and made up as an act of committing suicide. Although Collin Roach was not explicitly mentioned in the song, a photo shown of his grieving parents standing in front of his image in the liner notes of the epigraph: “God’s place is the world; but the world is not God’s place.” [4]

The Track is also taken from an incident of a young man, Nicholas Bramble in 1989 who died in a road crash on his moped after falsely being chased by police. Reportedly, the police mistakenly believed that Bramble had stolen the vehicle. Bramble died in a crash as he lost his control of the moped. [5]

Here is the part of the lyrics which is dedicated to two beautiful hearts, Nicholas Bramble and Collin Roach, the victims of injustice attacks:

England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses

It's the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds

And I love my baby and that's why I'm leaving

I don't want him to be aware that there's

any such thing as grieving. [6]

References