I see interracial couples all the time in Nashville. I'm a Jew in Nashville. I'm a gay person in Nashville. It's a non-issue in most of the time. That's a huge leap forward.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the acceptance of diverse identities and relationships in Nashville.
Janis Ian emphasizes the progress made in societal acceptance of interracial and diverse relationships in Nashville. She shares her personal experience as a Jewish and gay person, highlighting how these identities are generally regarded as non-issues, signaling a significant advancement in tolerance and equality within the community.
In practice
This quote can be shared at a community event celebrating diversity.
I was one of I think three white girls in my school. So, I was very much an outsider. And plus I was Jewish and all of my friends were black and Baptist because they listen to the coolest music. We were all listening to Ray Charles and what was then called race music.
Artists are taught to be humble about their impact, especially in folk music. It's so ingrained that I have a hard time even thinking I had any impact other than what a normal hit song would have.
It's what I do well - I write about things that make people uncomfortable. That's probably the only thing I do better than my peers.
'Society's Child' was a real hard record to start with. That's all you want is for you to put your first record out and have people screaming at you in the streets. But it taught me right away that what I was doing was valuable and important.
I had a vague idea of the song's impact in the '60s, but that was tempered by the hate mail and threats I was receiving. It was only about ten years ago, when I finally put it back in my show because so many people were asking for it, that I understood 'Society's Child' real impact.
It seems to be part of the human condition to need someone you can look down on. I still don't get that one.
Every hour that passed added to her grief, because it bore her further away from the living man, and because it was a tiny foretaste of the eternity she would have to spend without him.
Genuine sincerity opens people's hearts, while manipulation causes them to close.
American high school culture was impenetrable to me, and very cliquey: you had the Hispanics, the African Americans, the surfer guys and the goths and the immigrants. The jocks and the surfers got the girls. By the time I'd got to grips with it, I'd graduated.
One good husband is worth two good wives, for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued.
There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.
No woman should ever have to choose between maintaining a healthy pregnancy and a paycheck.
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