My Country

Album: Whokill (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Merrill Garbus aka Tune-Yards opens her Whokill album with this love-hate anthem which subverts the anthem of patriotic obedience "My Country, 'Tis Of Thee."
  • Garbus outlines during the song an America of Salvation Army shelters, historic shame and ingrained inequality.

    We cannot all have it
    Well, what am I supposed to say to those other guys
    So sorry, but you only stood half a chance
    Now it's over and they're walkin' all over you.


    "That's the whole idea of the American dream, that we can all have it as long as we work hard," explained Garbus to Uncut. "And that is untrue. There are so many ways in our country where we are not giving the same opportunities to everybody."

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