Reflections on “Village Ghetto Land”

I played this for my students after the insurrection on January 6th, 2021. I think the message of this song is true for most political parties in the United States.

The song starts with a string patch on Stevie Wonder’s keyboard and later Stevie Wonder starts singing the words:

Would you like to go with me
Down my dead end street
Would you like to come with me
To Village Ghetto Land.

He then describes a village where children play with rusted toys, people eat out of the trash, there’s crime and blood on the streets, and people eat dog food. It’s a village with horrible living conditions. He describes that politicians “laugh and drink” because they’re “drunk to all demands.” Starvation is rampant. It’s just absolutely horrible conditions.

It’s a beautifully sad song and I think the way he ends it sends the perfect message.

He ends the song by saying:

Now, some folks say that we should be
Glad for what we have
Tell me, would you be happy
In Village Ghetto Land?
Village Ghetto Land

I see too many people that are supposedly “concerned” and “upset” and “saddened” by problems in their communities, or nearby communities giving this end message. When someone complains about their living conditions or working conditions they’re told to “just be happy that you have something” and “be glad for what you have.”

But they’d never trade places with them.

And Stevie Wonder puts this perfectly in Village Ghetto Land. He describes a town with horrible living conditions and says at the end that some people say, “be glad for what you have”, but he follows that up with the questions, “Would you like to live here? Would you be happy living under these conditions?”

And he never answers the question because obviously the answer is, “no.” It’s a rhetorical question.

But too often this is the response, or something similar.

Why are people so comfortable telling people who have less than them to, “be happy for what you have?” I’ll never understand that. If you wouldn’t trade places with someone then you have no business telling them to be “glad for what they have.”

If that’s something that you’re saying, I think you really need to examine why you’re saying that. It doesn’t make much sense to punch down and tell people with less than you, lives you wouldn’t want to be living, and problems you wouldn’t want to have, to “just be glad for what you have.”

ISJ