Dido ♪ White Flag

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

White woman singing White Flag. O, the defeat, and self pity.

On the other hand, a black woman singing white flag, would seem inane. Only barbie girls have the license to self pity songs. But, we could have a black woman singing black flag.

White Flag (2003) by Dido.

Dido, White Flag
I know you think that I shouldn't still love you,
Or tell you that.
But if I didn't say it, well I'd still have felt it
where's the sense in that?

I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I know I left too much mess and
destruction to come back again
And I caused nothing but trouble
I understand if you can't talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of “it's over”
then I'm sure that that makes sense

And when we meet
Which I'm sure we will
All that was there
Will be there still
I'll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I've moved on….
white flag Dido
Cover of album Life For Rent. Dido, White Flag

In the lyrics, it mentions white flag. One might wonder, why is a banner of color white signify surrender. Why not, say, some flag with words “I Surrender”, or a flag with a sad smiley, or a flag of blue color? This is very easy to explain. First of all, understand that sticking a flag signifies claim. So, raising a blank flag, is one most natural and simple way to signify surrender. Flag with text has problems with language communication. Often, warring are between people of different clan or language. A surrender flag with some universal design on it would rely on some pre-agreement, and is rather more complicated. A blank flag, white flag, is naturally the simplest, and itself became the universal flag for surrender. See also: The Star Spangled Anthem.