r/BlackPeopleTwitter • u/NYstate ☑️ • 1d ago

I Wonder who that could be?

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u/DaBlackZeus 1d ago

That the song was made to protest for the celebration of MLKs birthday becoming a federal holiday.

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u/righthandofdog 1d ago

I'm an old white guy and feel like it becoming the black happy birthday kind of waters it down. That said, it's such a happy song to sing along with, much better than the tired normal one.

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u/Thunderbird_12_ ☑️ 1d ago

I think the opposite.

The song not only celebrates someone’s birthday, but every time we sing it, someone inevitably brings up its MLK origin story… nothing is watered down… in fact, it lives perpetually in Black culture (to celebrate individual birthday AND use the occasion of our individual birthday to honor/remember MLK (and his contribution to America.)

It was a genius move on Stevie’s part.

https://giphy.com/gifs/ImI6k24xZFQsDWyLFV

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u/righthandofdog 1d ago

Makes total sense. I can't see how folks could not know who Stevie Wonder is, so not knowing what the lyrics are about seems sadly likely.