Black Boys On Mopeds (1990)

Sinéad O’Connor

Songfacts.com

Sinéad O'Connor makes her thoughts on England clear in this song, where she sings:

England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses
It's the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds

Growing up in Ireland, she felt that England often acted as oppressor, both to Irish citizens and their own citizens of the lower classes, particularly Jamaican immigrants. Still, she ended up living in London as her music career took off, and that's when she wrote this song. In her memoir Rememberings, she told the story:

"'Black Boys On Mopeds' is based on a true story involving two young teenagers near where I lived in London. They had taken a cousin's moped without asking permission; the cops were called and gave chase; the boys got frightened, crashed, and died. This was at a time when there was a terrible scandal in London about Black men going missing in police stations. It was a time in London also when if a burglar was apprehended, he was reported as a 'Black burglar' (or, alternatively, an 'Irish burglar'). There was a lot of tension created between Londoners on the one hand and the Jamaicans and the Irish on the other."