Whitey on the Moon (1970)

In this spoken word poem, Scott-Heron uses the 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission to call out the government’s skewed funding priorities. He presents a litany of problems facing Black Americans—from medical debt to awful housing conditions—all punctuated by the phrase “Whitey’s on the moon.” Scott-Heron points out the irony of his tax money funding a white man’s extravagant mission to space while he and his community suffer from government neglect and discrimination.