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‘A Different Kind of Apple Now’: David Rudder's ‘The Immigrants’ and ‘Forty-One Bullets’

image of ‘A Different Kind of Apple Now’: David Rudder's ‘The Immigrants’ and ‘Forty-One Bullets’

This chapter focuses on two songs by calypsonian David Rudder exploring the hope and experiences of the immigrant. The Immigrants (1998) discusses the browning of the city by immigrants from the Caribbean, Latin America and the global South. Forty-one Bullets (2001) describes the shooting of Amadou Diallo, a Guinean immigrant at the entrance of his apartment building by New York City police. Both these songs center the immigrant in the city. Rudder describes the hopes, fears and dreams shared by many immigrants alongside some of their contributions to the changing cultural landscape of the city and the tensions that sometimes develop because of the arrival of new ethnic groups. He also confronts the American narrative that claims to be a country of immigrants while simultaneously engaging in a practice of brutality, exploitation, and exclusion. His song challenges the myth of multiculturalism and inclusion with the reality of hostility and depravity.

Keywords: Adner Louima ; African immigrant ; Amadou Diallo ; American dream ; American narrative ; Browning of America ; calypso ; Caribbean ; Content analysis ; David Rudder ; immigrant ; literary analysis ; New York City Police Department ; police brutality ; soca

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References

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  2. DeSantis, John (1994), The New Untouchable: How America Sanctions Police Violence, Chicago: Noble Press.
     [Google Scholar]
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     [Google Scholar]
  4. Espenshade, Thomas J. and Hempstead Katherine (1996), ‘Contemporary American Attitudes Toward U.S. Immigration’, International Migration Review, 30:2, pp. 535–70.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Feagin, Joe R. and Feagin, Clairece Booher R. (2012), Racial and Ethnic Relations, 9th ed., Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Foner, Nancy (2000), New Immigrants in New York, New York: Columbia University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Harwood, Edwin (1986), ‘American Public Opinion and U. S. Immigration Policy’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 487, pp. 201–12.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Hirschman, Charles (2005), ‘Immigration and the American Century’, Demography, 42:4, pp. 595–620.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Jaret, Charles (1991), ‘Recent Structural Change and US Urban Ethnic Minorities’, Journal of Urban Affairs, 13:3, pp. 307–36.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Jaret, Charles (1999), ‘Troubled by Newcomers: Anti-Immigrant Attitudes and Action during Two Eras of Mass Immigration to the United States’, Journal of American Ethnic History, 18:3, pp. 9–39.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Mahabir, Cynthia (2001), ‘The Rise of Calypso Feminism: Gender and Musical Politics in the Calypso’, Popular Music, 20:3, pp. 409–30.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Maharaj, George D. (2004), The Roots of Calypso, Vol I, Toronto: The Printing Press Inc.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. McArdle, Andrea (2001), ‘Introduction’, in A. McArdle and T. Erzen (eds), Zero Tolerance: Quality of Life and the New Police Brutality in New York City, New York: New York University Press, pp. 1–16
     [Google Scholar]
  14. McLemroe, S. Dale and Romo, Harreitt D. (1998), Racial and Ethnic Relations in America, 3rd ed., Boston: Allyn and Beacon.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Mohammad, Patricia (1991), ‘Reflections on the Women's Movement in Trinidad: Calypsos, Changes and Sexual Violence’, Feminist Review, 38:1, pp. 33–47.150
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Nelson, Jill (2000), Police Brutality: An Anthology, New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Regis, Humphrey A. (2001), Culture and Mass Communication in the Caribbean: Domination, Dialogue, Dispersion, Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Regis, Louis (1999), The Political Calypso: True Opposition in Trinidad and Tobago: 1962 – 1987, Barbados: The Press University of the West Indies.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Rohlehr, Gordon (2004), A Scuffling of Islands: Essays on Calypso Cultural Identities, San Juan: Lexicon.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Rudder, David (1998), ‘The Immigrants’, Beloved, USA: Lypsoland.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Rudder, David (2001), ‘Forty-One Bullets’, The Autobiography of NOW, USA: Lypsoland.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Russell, Katheryn K. (2000), ‘What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue? Police Violence and the Black Community’, in J. Nelson (ed.), Police Brutality: An Anthology, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, pp. 135–48
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  23. Simon, Rita J. (1993), ‘Old Minorities, New Immigrants: Aspirations, Hopes, and Fears’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 530 (November), pp. 61–73.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Torres, Sasha (2003), Black, White, and in Color: Television and Black Civil Rights, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Vickerman, Milton (1999), Crosscurrents: West Indian Immigrants and Race, New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Warner, Keith Q. (1999), Kaiso! The Trinidad Calypso: A Study of the Calypso as Oral Literature, 3rd ed., Pueblo: Passeggiata Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Waters, Mary C. (1994), ‘Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-Generation Black Immigrants in New York City’, International Migration Review, 28:4, pp. 795–820.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Waters, Mary C. (2003), ‘Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?’ in C. A. Gallagher (ed.), Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity, New York: McGraw Hill, pp. 96–108.
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