Darren & Donna
I’d never come across a black man before,
We refered to shops like Chinese shops as ‘chinkys’ and ‘paki shops’ … Pakis,
We were a wee bit behind the times for political correctness,
And before I knew it I was meeting all these different guys frem all over the world
And you know what? People kept asking me
‘How can you work with asylum seekers and refugees?’ very negatively
And I was like they working wie me, they’re accepting me, you’ve got this wrong here,
You know it’s me that’s lost here,
I look at it as if I’m the repressed, I’m uncultured,
So see, when I’m with them I find a part of myself that comes right out and goes:
‘Well I’m back’, you know?
I think that’s a part of the British ‘stiff upper-lip’, isn’t it?
We’re British, we don’t really show emotion.
I’m not British for the record.
Aye, well.. It’s just the stereo-type, you know what I mean?
You get your Giro so you’re British enough for that, so…
It’s one of these things, poverty’s not spoke about,
But I’m from the east end of Glasgow.. [???]
You’re stigmatised, I mean we grew up, you come from say, the east end of Glasgow,
And people shout, ‘you’re scroungers! You’re having babies at at thirteen, fourteen,
Wie been told you’re less than,
You know, when we meet people from different cultures,
we feel ashamed,
And these people are free spirits,
They might not come have come from countries where they’ve got running water and electricity,
But they have free spirits.
Their minds are open, their hearts are open and they don’t feel supressed.
When I find that in Glasgow and a lot of the rest of society,
We’re so supressed and pushed into such a box that we don’t know who we are any more.
And we’re all just turning into the same wee tick box people,
Ne soul, ne heart and a recklessness to ourselves.
The biggest target about n’ around is welfare reform,
It just shows you how you can alienate parts of society,
And manage to have them judged by the rest.
I think it’s barbaric.
I’ve been sanctioned three times,
When power’s gone down, food’s dwindling,
That’s when the sanction’s kicking in,
BOOM, stop, and that’s you.
If my children were gonna get fed that way,
I think I would be more embarrassed to walk into a food bank,
And ask for food for three,
And I’ve never stole, I don’t believe in stealing, I’m a Christian,
But I would actually prefer to steal it than go and beg wie ma cap in hand,
Coz although people are poor, we still need hope and we still need dignity.
Well, Donna, the simple fact remains that we are in poverty,
Our minds are in poverty and you freed my mind a wee bit by telling me that.
And I could see it, I did ne understand for the five ten years beforehand,
Who I was, my addiction, my homelessness, my alcoholism,
Then I could clearly see it,
Coz I feel that the world’s really heavy on my shoulders,
And I see people looking down all the time,
Bu you see, just now and again, when I look up to the stars,
I get so inspired, and through meeting you, Donna, specifically,
I found a real friend, and now the future, I’m looking forward to it, let’s just say that.
People are starting to believe in me so I’m starting to believe in myself a wee bit.