"Woman Is the Nigger of the World" | ||||
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Single by John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band | ||||
from the album Some Time in New York City | ||||
B-side | "Sisters, O Sisters" (Yoko Ono) | |||
Released | 24 April 1972 | |||
Format | 7" vinyl | |||
Recorded | November 1971–March 1972 at Record Plant East, New York City | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 5:15 | |||
Label | Apple | |||
Songwriter(s) | John Lennon, Yoko Ono | |||
Producer(s) | John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector | |||
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band singles chronology | ||||
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Some Time in New York City track listing | ||||
16 tracks
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"Woman Is the Nigger of the World" is a song written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono from their 1972 album Some Time in New York City. Released as a single in the United States, the song sparked controversy at the time due to its title and subject matter.
The phrase "woman is the nigger of the world" was coined by Yoko Ono in an interview with Nova magazine in 1969 and was quoted on the magazine's cover. Literary analysts note that the phrase owes much to Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in which the protagonist Janie Crawford says, "De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see." The song describes women's subservience to men and misogyny across all cultures.
In a 1972 interview on The Dick Cavett Show, John Lennon stated that Irish revolutionary James Connolly was an inspiration for the song. Lennon cited Connolly's statement "the female worker is the slave of the slave" in explaining the pro-feminist inspiration behind the song.
Due to its use of an offensive racial epithet and what was perceived as an inappropriate comparison of women's rights to the oppression of African-Americans, most radio stations in the US declined to play the record. It was released in the US on 24 April 1972 and peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, based primarily on sales, making it Lennon's lowest charting US single released in his lifetime. The song also charted at number 93 on the Cash Box Top 100.
The National Organization for Women awarded Lennon and Ono a "Positive Image of Women" citation for the song's "strong pro-feminist statement" in August 1972.
Through radio and television interviews, Lennon explained his use of the term "nigger" as referring to any oppressed person. Apple Records placed an advertisement for the single in the 6 May issue of Billboard magazine featuring a recent statement, unrelated to the song, by prominent black Congressman Ron Dellums to demonstrate the broader use of the term. Lennon also referred to the Dellums quote during an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, where he and Ono performed the song with the band Elephant's Memory. Because of the controversial title, ABC asked Cavett to apologise to the audience in advance for the song's content, otherwise the performance would not have been shown. Dick Cavett disliked giving the statement, stating in the 2010 documentary LENNONYC: