‘God is mad’
This example shows that many ‘Sun’ readers are not Christian and so most probably do not believe in the Christian beliefs of loving your neighbor, which many Black people are.
‘I believe Britain is great
And other countries imitate
I am friendly with the state,
Daily I read The SUN’
The first person voice here shows that ‘Sun’ readers believe that Britain and Possibly the U.S.A are superior to other countries, which they believe imitate them because they are great. Both Britain and U.S.A are predominantly White, although in the U.S.A there is more racial tolerance which there is not in many parts of Britain, which could be saying that white countries are better than Black countries, who are trying to imitate Britain
‘I am not to keen on foreign ones
But I don’t mind some foreign bombs
Jungle bunnies play tom-toms,
But, I read the SUN’
This is very racist; the language he uses shows how xenophobic ‘Sun’ readers are. They do not like foreigners and by calling them ‘Jungle bunnies’ is calling them animals. The word ‘bunnies’ implies that they multiply quickly and have disease; in addition it also gives the impression that they are stupid. When it says:
‘I don’t mind some foreign bombs’
This creates an image of bombing foreign countries and of using foreign bombs to do this. This shows that a typical ‘sun’ reader is aggressive or thinks aggressively towards Black people, which means they must hate or feel that Blacks deserve to be treated violently. This scares me because it proves that many people find it easy to hate and difficult to love or even tolerate others, and that they are easily led and do not think for themselves.
‘Man, I don’t like Russian spies
But we don’t have none
I love lies,
I really do love Princess Di
I bet she reads the SUN’
There are several attitudes shown in these lines. ‘Sun’ readers do not like foreigners, especially ones who betray their country, when it goes on to say that there are none it could mean that they think that no one would dare to betray Britain because it is so great, this is yet another link between racism and patriotism. When Zephaniah writes
‘ I love lies’
I think it proves that he is being ironical and does not believe the views he writes, because no one would seriously admit that they love lies, by writing that he is saying ‘The Sun’ is full of lies and no one who believed in the views of ‘The Sun’ would write that. Zephaniah obviously dislikes the attitudes of ‘The Sun’ and shows it up through the idea of his ‘Sun’ reader.
‘I really do love Princess Di’
This defiantly proves that ‘Sun’ readers do not think for themselves because if they did they would realize that they cannot ‘really love Princess Di’ and be a racist because Princess Di did a lot of good charity work in 3rd world black countries helping Black people to have better lives and if ‘Sun’ readers really did love her then they would follow her example and help Blacks, not discriminate against them. If ‘Sun’ readers think that Princess Di read ‘The Sun’ then they defiantly don’t think for themselves because Princess Di was not a racist, so why would she read a racist newspaper; it does not make sense.
‘Black people rob
Women should cook
And every poet is a crook,
I am told so I don’t need to look,
It’s easy in the SUN’
The words here show prejudice, sexism and stereotyping, therefore I can show that ‘Sun’ readers discriminate against anyone who is not the majority. It is interesting that Zephaniah writes that poets are crooks as it shows that you shouldn’t trust anything he writes and you definitely should not believe it.
‘I am told so I don’t need to look’
Show’s that ‘Sun’ readers don’t see why they should be bothered to look and decide for themselves, in this way Zephaniah reveals the blindness of his character or persona.
‘Every hippie carries nits
And every Englishman loves tits
I love page three and other bits,
I stare into the SUN’
This is still stereotyping and is saying that ‘Sun’ readers shouldn’t go near ‘hippies’ because they are dirty and that they should ‘tits’ and if they are true Englishmen they will love ‘tits’. This also shows that ’The Sun’ does not care very much about women because most women would not want to read sexist views about themselves and look at other women’s breasts.
‘I like playing bingo games
And witch-hunting to shame a name
But aren’t newspapers all the same?
So why not read the SUN’
Many people play bingo games so ‘The Sun’ is trying to appeal to a majority of people who would read it.
‘Witch-hunting to shame a name’
Witch-hunting is discriminating against a minority and so is racism in Britain, witch-hunting is very old and out of date, I think Zephaniah is trying to point out that racism and other bigoted views are also old and out of date. He is also giving ‘Sun’ readers an extremely poor excuse to read ‘The Sun’ because it is the only excuse there is.
‘Don’t give me truth, just give me gossip
And skeletons from people’s closets,
I wanna be normal
And millions buy it,
I am blinded by the SUN’
This is yet another of people not thinking for themselves. All ‘Sun’ readers want see what they want to see, and that is gossip. To them the truth is boring and irrelevant which shows that ‘Sun’ readers are quick to judge, but not quick to reassess their beliefs. Maybe knowing about ‘skeletons from peoples closets’ makes them feel better about themselves.
‘I wanna be normal’
I think what Zephaniah means when he writes that is that ‘Sun’ readers don’t want to be recognized as being different because people who are different are very often discriminated against or bullied or as an extreme example persecuted like the Jews were by Hitler’s Nazi party. The ‘Sun’ readers who think this might go along with the racist views because they are afraid that if they don’t they will be treated as an outcast;
They are doing to others what they don’t want to be done to them. These ‘Sun’ readers don’t want to be stereotyped and discriminated against, but what they don’t realize is that by taking the views that make them accepted by other ‘Sun’ readers is making them stereotyped as unintelligent bigots whose views are completely unacceptable by people who think important issues through thoroughly and come to a conclusion different ‘The Sun’s’. Ironically the readers of ‘The Sun’ are ‘blinded by the Sun’.
My conclusion is that ‘The Sun’ newspaper is a racist, sexist, semi-pornographic newspaper which uses women’s bodies to lure impressionable males into the death trap which is the bigoted views written on it’s pages. ‘The Sun’ doesn’t care about minorities or even majorities such as women, just the powerful majority of people: Men! ‘The Sun’ fights to keep these people ignorant of worthwhile morals and values by using racism and sexism as sword and spear, patriotism as shield and pictures of women’s bodies as reward. ‘The Sun’ is an evil that must be overcome, we must not let their poisonous swords and spears cut through us and make us fall, we should prove their weapons unable to penetrate the new generations of people, only then can Britain be more united and a better place. It is these points that I believe Benjamin Zephaniah is trying to put across to us in his poem ‘The Sun’.
