By stating that he ‘won the lottery when he was born’, Eddie Vedder is directly referencing the racial inequality that existed in 1993, when the song was released, and still exists today. According to the 2013 U.S. Census, the median income of black Americans is 56% of the median income of white Americans. As stated on the NAACP website, African Americans are six times more likely to be incarcerated, and one in six African American males had done time in jail in 2001. Eddie Vedder is, in many ways, saying that despite the nation’s “colour blindness”, racial discrimination continues to be a large problem.