SALUTE Eddy Grant

- by Howard Grant

They ain't got no country They ain't got no creed People won't be black or white The world will be half-breed. The world will be half-breed. The world will be half-breed. You see the Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys They ain't gonna fight no doggone wars. Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys (The Equals)   With angst in the air following the August 12 racial standoff in Charlottesville, Virginia, it is appropriate to recall “Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys”, a song by Carib-British group The Equals.   Group led by Eddy Grant   The quintet was led by Guyanese singer/songwriter Eddy Grant and included Jamaican twin brothers Dervin and Lincoln Gordon.   Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys was released in 1970 when the Viet Nam War raged in Asia amid racial and social tension in the United States. In the United Kingdom where The Equals lived, not everyone supported a multi-racial society.   Two years earlier, British parliamentarian Enoch Powell gave his infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in which he opposed mass migration of persons from Commonwealth countries like the Caribbean, to the UK.   Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys summed-up the international anti-war movement and opposition to immigration in the UK.   Rallying cry   Written by Grant, it was a rallying cry for first-generation black Britons. Powell was fired from the Conservative Party for his outrageous emarks, but a poll at the time showed that as many as 70 percent of white Britons supported him.   US faces similar situation   Nearly 50 years later, the United States face a similar situation.   Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys helped pave the way for other militant bands who fought racism in the UK. They included Aswad, Steel Pulse and Misty In Roots, whose members had Caribbean heritage.   Eddy Grant went on to a successful solo career, thanks to hit songs like Walking On Sunshine, Living On The Frontline and the massive Electric Avenue. Now 69, he lives in Barbados.