While personal and semi-autobiographical for Shungudzo, the message of “To be me” is universal: the need – and right – to feel safe in one’s own body. The video of her walking down an alley and being harassed by two men shows the vulnerability of a woman.
I wanna walk
Through an alley at night
Without making a knife with a key
Like oh my god
It’s safe
To be me
And the song goes beyond her being a woman to address the danger of being black.
Black in America
Black and shoppin’
Black on a jog
In a locked apartment
Black in car
On a sidewalk dancin’
They did nothin’ wrong
Why are they in heaven?
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