White Minority

Album: Everything Went Black (1982)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is frequently mistaken for a racist rant. However, songwriter, Gregg Ginn, set the record straight to Ripper: "The idea behind it is to take somebody that thinks in terms of 'White Minority' as being afraid of that, and make them look as outrageously stupid as possible." The original version is sung by Ron Reynes, who is a Puerto Rican. Ginn said this added to the irony of the lyrics: "The fact that we had a Puerto Rican singing it was what made the sarcasm of it obvious to me. Some people seem to want to take it another way, and somehow think that we'd be so dumb to where a Puerto Rican guy would sing it and it would be - I don't know how they could consider that racist, but people took it that way." Ginn added: "It throws that attitude out and makes people think. To me, that's what it does. It doesn't preach, but it makes people think."
  • "White Minority" originally featured on Black Flag's 1980 sophomore EP, Jealous Again. This was the first (and last!) Black Flag record to feature Ron Reynes on vocals. Reynes was recruited after Black Flag's former vocalist, Keith Morris, suddenly quit at the start of the EP's recording sessions. Morris' own version of "White Minority" can be found on Black Flag's 1982 compilation album, Everything Went Black.

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