Addressed to those who deny rights and respect to those who are not white, this song offers a defiant riposte. Whatever barriers you put in my way, Labi Siffre suggests, the stronger I become. His tormentor is not given a name or a category. For much of the song, the contest is between ‘you’ and ‘I’, but towards the end Siffre introduces ‘we’ (‘brothers and sisters’). The personal complaint becomes a collective demand.