The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” is a spoken-word poem in which an authoritative Black speaker denounces the passivity of members of their racial community and encourages true activism, which has to happen through rejection of consumerist culture, engaging in critical consumption of mass media, and active participation in social protest.

In the first stanza, Scott-Heron establishes the tone and theme through anaphora (the repetition of a phrase or words at the start of several lines). The repeated phrase “You will not be able to” (Lines 1, 2, and 3) is a stern denunciation of the current inaction of the audience for the poem. The root of this action is the television, a symbol of popular culture and obsessive focus on material consumption. The audience in the text is a “brother” (Line 1)—a member of the same racial community, one guilty of “plug[ging] in, turn[ing] on and cop[ping out” (Line 2). Like “skag” (Line 3) and “beer” (Line 4), television and popular media have so dulled the consciousness of Black Americans that Black consumers believe the “revolution” (Line 5) is something they can sit out.