Themes

The main themes of the text are racial prejudice and the life of the artist. The extract from Janis Ian's Society's Child - My Autobiography explores aspects related to racial prejudice against African-Americans and interracial relationships in American society in the late 1960s, and the challenges of becoming an artist (musician) in this context.

Racial prejudice

The text presents the way a young artist from the 1960s named Janis Ian was faced with racial prejudices and hatred after she released a song about interracial love. Janis Ian had written the song after she had seen the way society looked at interracial relationships:

My black friends’ parents didn’t want them dating whites. My white friends’ parents didn’t want them dating blacks. The whole thing seemed pretty stupid to me, so I wrote about it to clear out my system. I never thought of it as a song about an interracial love affair gone bad. I just thought of it as a good song. (ll. 84-92)

At the time, African-Americans were still fighting for civil rights and equality, and interracial relationships were not accepted by many people in the US, especially in the southern states. Ian’s song about an interracial love affair consequently caused a lot of controversy. Positive reviews congratulated her for her bravery in singing about a taboo topic. But other people received the song negatively. The song was banned from many radio stations, she began receiving threats via mail and people picketed her concerts.

The episode presented in the story conveys these opposing attitudes. During a concert, some of the people from the audience begin shouting offensive words at Janis I...