Say It Loud: “I’m Black and I’m Proud.”
Some people say we’ve got a lot of malice,
Some say it’s a lot of nerve.
But I say we won’t quit moving
Until we get what we deserve.

These lines are from James Brown’s 1968 civil-rights-era anthem “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud,” released at a moment of intense racial conflict and heightened Black political consciousness in the United States. Brown recorded the song with call-and-response chants from a group of children, amplifying its communal, rallying quality. Coming months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the track aligned Brown—already a major pop and R&B star—with a more explicit message of Black pride, self-determination, and resistance to racist stereotypes. The lyric addresses accusations leveled at Black protest (“malice,” “nerve”) and reframes continued activism as justified persistence until equality and respect are achieved.

The passage fuses slogan and argument. The opening imperative—“Say it loud”—turns identity into public declaration, rejecting shame and insisting on collective affirmation. The next lines acknowledge how demands for justice are often pathologized by outsiders as hostility (“malice”) or insolence (“nerve”). Brown counters by asserting moral legitimacy: the movement will not stop “moving” until it receives what is “deserve[d],” implying rights long withheld rather than favors requested. The rhythm of the couplets and the song’s call-and-response structure make the lyric function as both music and mobilization, transforming pride into a sustaining political energy and a refusal to be silenced or pacified.