Abstract
This study examines how racism, equality, and empowerment are discursively constructed in Michael Jackson’s protest song “They Don’t Care About Us”, using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The research adopts Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model to analyze the song at the levels of textual features, discursive practice, and social practice. A qualitative approach is employed to examine linguistic strategies such as pronoun usage, agency, lexical choices, repetition, and rhetorical questioning.
The findings reveal that racism is represented as systemic and institutional, equality is framed as a denied but legitimate right, and empowerment is constructed through collective identity and resistance. The study demonstrates that popular music can function as a powerful form of social discourse that challenges dominant ideologies and articulates social critique. This research contributes to the application of CDA in the analysis of cultural texts and highlights the role of language in shaping social awareness and resistance.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Almuetasim Billalah Najeeb Aldakkam, Ahmed Bahjat Hassin (Author)