Reading · Social Issues in Song

Welcome to regular readers and new subscribers! Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “His Hands Were in the Air”, by David Rovics (2014). Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics which are written in italics and a YouTube video of the song below the article. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.

Map of yearly median wage by US state in 2023. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

(787 words)
Missouri is located near the center of the U.S. Ferguson, Missouri, is a city within the greater St. Louis area, on the east side of the state. Approximately 67% of the people in the city are Black Americans.The town is mostly black, almost all the cops are white
You can see it right away, something isn’t right

Money for schools comes from local governments, mostly through property taxes. That means areas with more expensive homes and businesses, which are usually wealthier neighborhoods, can collect more money for their schools. This creates a big gap because richer areas get well-funded schools while poorer areas struggle.

According to data compiled by the Education Department, black and Latino children are the least likely to be taught by a qualified, experienced teacher, to get access to courses such as chemistry and calculus, and to have access to technology. (ProPublica, 2014)

There’s no funding for the schools and they’re being shut down
The powers that be don’t give a s**t about the town

Michael Brown was an 18-year-old Black teenager who was shot and killed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson. The event happened after Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson, were stopped by the officer.

When Officer Wilson stopped Brown, the young man tried to get away, and Wilson shot Brown multiple times. Brown died at the scene. He was not carrying a gun.

According to Wikipedia:
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said that… the reason Brown and Johnson were stopped was because “they were walking down the middle of the street, blocking traffic.” (NBC News, August 15, 2014)

They were walking in the street, it’s the safest place to be
In case someone comes shooting, you got a better view to see
They were walking in the street, they weren’t hurting anyone
Then came a white man with a badge and a gun

Witnesses who saw the shooting said Brown had his hands up in surrender or said, “Don’t shoot”. The FBI said there was no evidence to support this.

His hands were in the air (4x)

“Get the f**k off the sidewalk,” that’s what the cop said
He cut them off in his car, fat face blood red (he was angry)
The cop says he was attacked, and from a cursory check
It seems his fingers were assaulted by Michael Brown’s neck

A woman named Tiffany Mitchell was driving nearby when she saw Brown being held by the neck through the window of the police car. She got out her phone and took a video of the scene.
There were witnesses who saw it, it was recorded on a phone
But the police couldn’t handle the light that would’ve shone
She was forced to hand it over so they could try to hide away
A racist execution in the middle of the day
He had just finished high school and was off to college next
Instead he was shot and killed with no pretext

The shooting sparked huge protests and riots in Ferguson, Missouri. Many people said that Officer Wilson used excessive force and that the police treated the Black community unfairly. The protests continued for weeks in cities across the U.S., with people demanding justice and calling for changes in how police treat Black people.

Unrest on the streets of Ferguson after a grand jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri, Nov. 24, 2014. (Kane Farabuagh/VOA)

The media joined in, called the community a mob
A cop called them animals while Michael’s mother sobbed

After investigations, a

grand jury decided not to charge Officer Wilson with any crime. This decision made the protests even bigger. People across the country and in countries such as Canada, Egypt, and the UK, joined in to speak out against police violence and racism. Michael Brown’s death became a major part of the Black Lives Matter movement, which fights for equal treatment and justice for Black people.

The events in Ferguson add to discussions about race, policing, and fairness in the United States that have gone on for decades.

According to BBC.com,
93% of people arrested are African Americans, whereas only:
67% of Ferguson population is black
30% of searches of white suspects resulted in a contraband finding - compared with 24% of black suspects
Source: US Department of Justice (BBC, 2015)

After Michael Brown, Jr was killed by a cop in the street, unarmed, in broad daylight, his hands in the air, in front of his grandmother’s apartment in Ferguson, Missouri, I thought it was a good time to go visit a friend who lives a few miles down the road from that intersection. I went to Mike Brown’s homecoming and burial, and wrote this song. — David Rovics.

“His Hands Were in the Air” appears on the 2014 Bandcamp album, When I’m Elected President. From https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/his-hands-were-in-the-air-2/

*An image from the memorial service for Michael Brown, who was shot in Ferguson, USA, in 2014. The woman in the red dress is Lesley McSpadden, the mother of the young man who was shot.*

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Vocabulary

chemistry 化学
calculus 微積分学
block 差し支える
surrender 降伏する
evidence 証拠
cop 警官
cursory 表面的な
assaulted 暴行を受けた
execution 死刑執行
pretext 口実
spark 火種、きっかけ
excessive force 過剰な実力行使
mob 暴徒
grand jury 大陪審
charge ～を罪に問う
contraband 禁制品
intersection 交差点
burial 埋葬

Sources
BBC. (2015, August 10). Ferguson silence on Michael Brown’s shooting anniversary. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33839261 Accessed 31 July 2026.
Hannah-Jones, N. (2014, December 19). School segregation, the continuing tragedy of Ferguson. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/ferguson-school-segregation Accessed 31 July 2026.
Lavender, P. (2017, December 6). Tiffany Mitchell on witnessing Michael Brown Shooting: Police “showed no kind of remorse.” HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tiffany-mitchell-michael-brown_n_5677003 Accessed 31 July 2026.
NBCUniversal News Group. (2014, August 18). Politicsnation, Friday, August 15th, 2014. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna55889127 Accessed 31 July 2026.
Wikimedia Foundation. (2026d, July 27). Ferguson unrest. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_unrest Accessed 31 July 2026.

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His Hands Were in the Air

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