'Do You Still Care?' addresses racism, homophobia

Melville Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Tanya Stephens is a certified hit maker, with These Streets, It's a Pity and Yu No Ready Fe Dis Yet among the slew of popular songs to her credit.

However, as much as she has been consistent in her dancehall-oriented output, Stephens has also been faithful to slower tracks with messages delivered squarely at the head, minimal dancing required.

Among these is Do You Still Care? on the 2006 Rebelution album, which speaks to racial and sexual discrimination in the persona of the redneck 'Bubba' and tough guy 'Bigga' respectively.

Both find themselves in a potentially fatal situation and are saved by the very persons - or parts thereof - whom they hate. Racial discrimination comes first:

"Where Bubba grew up

Kept his tobacco chewed up,

And when they used to hang ropes, they always kept two up,

Had crosses burnin' all night like the church blew up,

And if you didn't look like them, they would f... you up.

Time passed and Bubba turned 40 years old,

And all them Jack Daniels started taking a toll,

Seemed like Bubba was about to make a final bow,

None of his friends from the Klan couldn't help him now.

Family gathered at his bedside, ready to sing the blues,

When the doctor rushed in and said "I've have some news!

The good news is, Bubba, I've found you a liver

Only bad news is, it belongs to a nigger"

Do you still care?

About the texture of his hair or the cocoa brown colour of his skin?

Do you still care

Do you still give a damn now you're in the predicament you're in?

Do you still care, does it still mean a lot now,

You're the one who's needin the help?

Do you still care

Do you still find it hard to love your neighbour as you love yourself now?"

And for Bigga, Stephens pens:

"Where Bigga grew up, boys were supposed to be tough,

Girls were trophies every man always kept a few up,

When he was hurt and the tears would sting in his eyes,

His mother said 'Stop di noise, yuh a girl?

Real boys don't cry!'

He learned in order to be a man he had to know how to fight,

And had some very definitive rules 'bout what's wrong or right,

He never had the luxury of being able to choose,

So to him for being different, there was no excuse

Bigga was hustling on the corner, makin' some cash,

When he bumped into some beef that he had from the past,

He watched the guns raise and the bullets fly in disbelief,

As his friends all jumped in their rides,

Left him in the gutter, didn't care if he died,

He was rescued by a car with plates that said 'Gay Pride',

It would have been fatal,

A shot in your head,

They saved your life, though you always said 'Chi-chi fi dead!'

Now do you care, 'bout the clothes that they wear?

Would you rather if they left you there?

Do you still care

What your friends wanna think if they see you hangin out with a queer?

Do you still care, does it still mean a lot

Now, you're the one who's needin the help,

Do you still care?

Do you still find it hard to love your neighbour as you love yourself now?

And for each character Stephens asks a simple question:

"Tell me why can't you accept me as I am,

Just the way I am?"

Challenged

Stephens tells The Sunday Gleaner that she has been questioned and challenged, as well as congratulated, on Do You Still Care?. "The challenges come moreso out of our general socialising. We socialise to say certain things wrong," Stephens said. For herself, Stephens says "Mi say certain things wrong for me and me no do it. If it no wrong for you, me respect your position".

Do You Still Care? was written in about 2005 and recorded at the home studio facility used by Stephens and producer Andrew Henton in Ocho Rios, St Ann, the track done for their Tarantula Records imprint. The lyrics were not sparked by a specific incident, Stephens saying "I just tried to find the two worst stereotypes of discrimination whe me see".

Do You Still Care? ends by broadening the scope of the discrimination from 'Bubba' and 'Bigga' to enduring world crises, Stephens singing:

"And that's the reason why, war can't cease,

If yuh nuh look like me, me ago pop mi piece,

And that's the reason why we can't get along,

If yuh nuh do it my way then you doin it wrong,

And that's the reason why, Iraqi babies gonna cry,

And more Palestinians and Israelis gonna die,

That's the reason why the world is in pain,

We say we want peace fi reign, but a bullets again,

Now tell me why can't you accept me as I am,

Just the way I am now?"