All I Wanna Say Is That They Don't Really Care About Us

I just recently stumbled upon a news article on the Cebu Dancing Inmates. I have heard of them even before. They previously danced Michael Jackson's Thriller inside the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC).

This year, the 1,200 inmates have done it again. But this time, they were visited by Michael Jackson's long-time choreographer Travis Payne and dancers Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid. The dance video was first shown in CNN which was to pay tribute to MJ and for the launch of his 'This Is It' DVD. The dance video was uploaded by Sony Entertainment in Youtube and, as of writing, it already has more than 1.5M hits in the video exchange site.

The message of the song 'They Don't Care About Us' is very apt not only to the Cebu inmates but to all prisoners, both literally and figuratively. Whether incarcerated by the judicial system or by life, everyone has the same feeling of guilt, shame and wretchedness. Prisoners feel that they are failures of the society and in the song, it challenges the way society sees and acts on them. The feeling of losing should never be the case. Specifically for the inmates, the song voices out their rights as citizens and as human beings. We hear of prison cells where prisoners are being abused and beaten to death. In the Philippines, some say that prison cells are worse than being in hell. There's not enough room for more people and food is very scarce. Clean and healthy surroundings are too much of a luxury to have and living conditions are horrendous. If only the government can also address the needs of these people. If only the government can see their sufferings on a daily basis.

"They Don't Care About Us"

Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Bang bang, shot dead
Everybody's gone mad

All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us

Beat me, hate me
You can never break me
Will me, thrill me
You can never kill me
Jew me, sue me
Everybody do me
Kick me, kike me
Don't you black or white me

All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us

Tell me what has become of my life
I have a wife and two children who love me
I am the victim of police brutality, now
I'm tired of bein' the victim of hate
You're rapin' me of my pride
Oh, for God's sake
I look to heaven to fulfill its prophecy...
Set me free

Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
trepidation, speculation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
black man, black male
Throw your brother in jail

All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us

Tell me what has become of my rights
Am I invisible because you ignore me?
Your proclamation promised me free liberty, now
I'm tired of bein' the victim of shame
They're throwing me in a class with a bad name
I can't believe this is the land from which I came
You know I do really hate to say it
The government don't wanna see
But if Roosevelt was livin'
He wouldn't let this be, no, no

Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, speculation
Everybody litigation
Beat me, bash me
You can never trash me
Hit me, kick me
You can never get me

All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us

Some things in life they just don't wanna see
But if Martin Luther was livin'
He wouldn't let this be

Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, segregation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Kick me, strike me
Don't you wrong or right me

All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us

All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us

All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us

I, once, watched a Pinoy documentary on the juvenile prison system in the Philippines by Ditsi Carolino. The title of the documentary was 'Bunso'. You can feel the bleakness and dreary disposition of juvenile prisoners in the documentary. Juvenile prisoners, even unconvicted ones, are enjoined in the adult cells and made to do prison tasks that they should not be doing. They stay in dark and squalid quarters and are forced to mingle with long-time adult convicts. The documentary won numerous awards and citations both in and out of the country. But the most significant thing that happened was that it awakened the society on the way our country handles juvenile prisoners and how our government handles and manages our prison systems.


We need to recognize that each one of us has rights. We belong to the same world. We breathe the same air. We have one God. Society may brand us differently but we all go the same way after we die. As MJ has always shown in his music and videos, Equality to all mankind will make peace a lasting gift to everyone. Just like what the Cebu dancing inmates did in their performance - the peace emblem.

They may be prisoners and convicted felons. But they are still men of our nation and of God.