Trains, Jesus, and Murder by Richard Beck

Author:Richard Beck [Beck, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-5064-5559-4
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2019-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

These are the lethal economic conditions that Cash witnessed firsthand in Dyess and that he sings about in Blood, Sweat and Tears. Little has changed.

John Henry, the hero in Cash’s ode to the workingman, is African American. We tend to treat race and class as separate issues in American politics, but the two are deeply intertwined. Our persistent lack of progress in healing our racial divisions in America is rooted in the unjust economic legacies that have been bequeathed to us. Martin Luther King Jr., after historic victories in securing civil and voting rights in 1964 and ’65, turned his attention to poverty and economic justice for just this reason. In a move that is little remembered today, King left the South to live in a Chicago slum. In the North, King faced huge resistance from city officials and local residents when he marched and fought for equal-housing measures. Economic solidarity is costly for those benefiting from the status quo, so it is the most difficult solidarity to express. King observed in Chicago that he was a moral hero when he marched against white racists in the South but widely vilified in the North when he turned his attention to economics. The moral hypocrisy of white liberals in the North shocked and depressed King. His call for equal housing hit, quite literally, a little too close to home.

In all this, the music of Blood, Sweat and Tears remains profoundly relevant. The economies of exclusion that the white farmers faced in Dyess and Martin Luther King Jr. faced in the Chicago slums are still very much with us. The poor continue to swim in rivers of blood, sweat, and tears.

***

Beyond a call for economic solidarity, Cash’s music also gave dignity, honor, and human recognition to the poor. In the meritocracy that is the American dream, being poor is shameful. Poverty is taken to be symptomatic of inferiority. The poor are looked down on as psychologically or morally broken. The poor are lazy, unintelligent, dishonest, or lacking in self-control. They are addicts and welfare cheats. Why else, in this land of opportunity, would they be poor? Deeply embedded in the American psyche rests the belief that if you are honest and hardworking, you simply cannot be poor. It’s an impossibility. The American dream always rewards the good and punishes the wicked.

Johnny Cash knew this was a lie. While Cash had issues with his father after Jack’s death, he knew his father was honest and a hard worker, as were most of the farmers in the Dyess community. But that honesty and hard work—all the blood, sweat, and tears—did little to keep the creditors from calling. The poor families of Dyess carried a shame and stigma they didn’t deserve. Yes, they were poor, but they were good, honest, decent folk.

Knowing this and bearing the scars on his own fingers to prove it, Johnny Cash spent his entire career exposing the lie. He devoted his music to singing honor and dignity back into the poor.

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