{"id":58966,"date":"2019-09-26T01:45:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T01:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=58966"},"modified":"2019-09-26T01:45:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T01:45:40","slug":"my-mama-would-go-around-town-pushing-my-sister-and-i-in-a-cart-to-the-grocery-store-and-people-would-actually-come-up-to-her-and-lecture-her-they-would-say-do-you-know-what-youve-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=58966","title":{"rendered":"“My mama would go around town, pushing my sister and I in a cart to the grocery store, and people would actually come up to her and lecture her. They would say, ‘Do you know what you’ve done?'”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Her [Brittany Howard’s<\/a>] most striking lyrics come on Goat Head<\/strong><\/em><\/a> [in her album Jaime<\/em><\/a>], as she discusses growing up as the child of a poor, interracial couple in rural Alabama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“When I was born – or rather when my sister was born in 1984 – that was like the first wave of mixed babies, little brown babies,” she says.<\/p>\n

“My mama would go around town, pushing my sister and I in a cart to the grocery store, and people would actually come up to her and lecture her. They would say, ‘Do you know what you’ve done?'”<\/p>\n

In the song, she recalls an incident that happened when she was a baby, but was told about later, where “someone cut off a goat’s head, and they put it in the back of my dad’s car and slashed his tyres, and smeared blood all over his car”.<\/p>\n

“It’s always been a part of me, that story,” says Howard. “Because Athens<\/a> was a beautiful, peaceful country place, where people are neighbours and we really care about each other. But there’s a racial line, or there was at least, and that’s why I wanted to write that song. Just to explain where I was coming from.”<\/p>\n