(March 21, 2025) “Is It Because I’m Black” retains its relevance and power more than five plus decades after Sly Johnson sang the protest song in 1969. Current events in our country make it easy to see why.
Each day we’re confronted with accounts of students being harassed. The president blames plane crashes on diversity, equity and inclusion programs even as he seeks to ban the teaching of Black history and Black Student Unions from college campuses. The country has clearly entered an era of regression on civil rights, and racists feel free to say the quiet part loud.
The nation may be on the precipice of an economic downturn, and we all know that when America’s majority population catches a cold, Black folks get pneumonia. So, 56 years after Syl Johnson first asked this question in song, the answer still comes back, yes. It’s because you’re Black.
Detroit based soul singer Darryl Johnson is the latest vocalist to bring his interpretation of “Is It Because I’m Black” into the arena. Darryl Johnson’s version is a combination of the old school and the contemporary. Johnson’s gritty lead and the backing vocals that give his version a church inspired harmonic call and response harken to the generation of gospel, blues and soul singers who in their own way have asked “how long.”
The instrumental arrangement has – if not a contemporary feel – a mechanized sound that has become increasingly present in music since the 1980s. This fusion of classic and contemporary or analog and digital makes its own statement. Styles change and technologies evolve, but the Black America’s existential battle against anti-blackness and white supremacy remains constant. Check out Darryl Johnson’s take on “Is It Because I’m Black” here.
By Howard Dukes
