Henry's Songbook

Now the poor folks hate the rich folks
And the rich folks hate the poor folks
My folks hate your folks
For fifty-one weeks of the year
But during National Brotherhood Week
National Brotherhood Week
New Yorkers love the Puertoricans 'cause it's very chic
To step up and shake the hand of someone you can't stand
You can tolerate him if you try

Then the white folks hate the black folks
And the black folks hate the white folks
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old-established rule
But during National Brotherhood Week
National Brotherhood Week
See Enoch Powell and Shirley Bassey dancing cheek to cheek
It's fun to eulogise people you despise
As long as you don't let them in your school

Then the Catholics hate the Protestants
The Protestants hate the Catholics
The Hindoos hate the Moslems
And everybody hates the Jews
But during National Brotherhood Week
National Brotherhood Week
It's National Everyone-Smile-At-One-Another-Hood Week
Be nice to people who are inferior to you
It's only for a week so have no fear -
Just be grateful it doesn't last all year!

As sung by Iain MacKintosh

Enoch Powell - British politician, vehemently opposed to immigration to Britain from the former British colonies
Shirley Bassey - famous black Welsh singer
Both names not in the original, where American equivalents are used.

[1965:] One week of every year is designated National Brotherhood Week. This is just one of many such weeks honoring various worthy causes. One of my favorites is National Make-Fun-Of-The-Handicapped Week, which Frank Fontaine and Jerry Lewis are in charge of as you know.
During National Brotherhood Week various special events are arranged to drive home the message of brotherhood - this year, for example, on the first day of the week, Malcolm X was killed, which gives you an idea of how effective the whole thing is.
I'm sure we all agree that we ought to love one another, and I know there are people in the world who do not love their fellow human beings, and I hate people like that!
Here's a song about National Brotherhood Week. (Tom Lehrer, notes ' That Was the Year That Was')

[1998:] Written c. 1964. - At the age of 70, [Lehrer] still lectures [mathematics] but he stopped writing songs in the late Sixties, saying that even he could not laugh at Vietnam. (Observer Life, 26 Apr)

[1998:] The British politician Enoch Powell has died, aged eighty-five. [...] Mr Powell was one of the most controversial British politicians of his generation and a powerful orator. His opposition to black immigration thrust him into the headlines in the late nineteen-sixties. In one of his most famous and controversial speeches he warned that unchecked immigration could lead to violence in British cities, and that rivers of blood would flow as a result. In the national outcry that followed, the Conservative Party leader Edward Heath denounced Mr Powell as a racist and sacked him from the shadow cabinet. (BBC Online News, 8 Feb)

[1998:] Outspoken Tory Enoch Powell, whose "Rivers of Blood" speech 30 years ago sparked a national outcry, died yesterday aged 85. [...] Powell was respected by politicians of all parties for his intellect and debating skills - but in 1968 he went too far even for his allies. He thought an increase in immigration would lead to race riots and [...] quoted one of his Wolverhampton constituents who said: "In this country in 15 or 20 years time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man." And he warned of rivers of blood on the streets of Britain. But Labour's Lord Healey yesterday insisted Powell WASN'T a racist - just an extreme nationalist. Healey added: "He had a very powerful intellect, but his political judgment was very mistaken." [...] He advised voters in the 1974 election to back the then anti-Europe Labour Party - then joined the Ulster Unionists. He was sent back to Westminster as the MP for South Down. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said: "He had the intellectual courage to swim against the tide and was largely responsible for laying the foundations of what came to be known as Thatcherism." (Callum Frew, Daily Record, Feb 9)