The cover art for the song was taken during the Thammasat University massacre on 6 October 1976 in Thailand. It shows a member of a right-wing crowd beating the corpse of a student protester with a chair. The song is against both Eastern totalitarianism and Western complacency. The original version of the song features the satirically quoted word "niggers", later performances of the song by the Dead Kennedys, as well as other artists have replaced the word with "brothers". Biafra, however, has often replaced the word with "blacks".