(click to enlarge)
Florida's radical right-wing Governor Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis may have failed miserably in his quest to replace the Malignant Loser in the hearts of MAGA world. However, he left a legacy of white washing history and banning books that don't conform to the fascistic right's notions of racial justice, LGBTQ rights and so on. His "mission" will ultimately fail, because it is rooted in lies that can't stand the sunlight.
(cartoon: Michael De Adder, Washington Post)
We're several days into Black History Month, so it's time to have a little Black history.
____________________
"Like
so many new coinages that spread throughout the culture, the whole 'woke' thing began in the African American community. It was, obviously,
a variation on 'awake,' but the term’s definition was always a bit
fuzzy. It meant being alert to social injustice and racism. It also came
to mean being knowledgeable about U.S. history and the role that
slavery, Jim Crow repression and systemic discrimination have played
over the centuries. But being woke could also mean simply being aware of
what was happening at any given moment in our politics and our culture. [snip]
"As happens with many neologisms, 'woke' peaked and waned. It served its consciousness-raising purpose and then began to fade away. These days, I never hear Black people, progressives, Democrats, LGBTQ Americans or any other constituencies of the supposed 'woke mob' use the word. I mean never.
"The
political right uses it, though — disingenuously and as a weapon.
Republicans wield it as a bludgeon against Democrats in general and
progressives in particular." -- Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post, providing his brief take on "woke/ wokeness" etymology.
____________________
"Many who lightly toss around the word today — including people who claim to embody it, or those who wield it as a pejorative for progressives — would be surprised to learn that 'woke' originated in the deepest trenches of Black nationalism.
"Black leaders have been calling on Black people to wake up for decades. To the first users of the word, it meant recognizing racial subjugation committed by Whites. Thus a White YouTuber or a liberal congressperson cannot, by the literal definition, be woke.
"In fact, 'wokeness' was originally applied to U.S. Blacks who had been mentally conditioned into philosophical slumber by centuries of oppression, intimidation, miseducation and social frustration." -- Bijan C. Bayne, discussing the history of "woke/ wokeness," which he explains has been misappropriated and misued by people for which the term was not intended to be applied.
Both essays beg to be read in their entirety; please do so.
We couldn't finish our look at the vital contributions to American music by Black Americans without touching on Gospel music. Gospel music is a derivative of African-American spirituals, which has been an essential part of worship in Black churches in one form or another since antebellum days. While its popularity peaked in the 1945-1955 period, Gospel music has had a strong influence on rhythm and blues, soul, rock and popular music; one would be hard- pressed to find any Black singer who didn't sing Gospel music in his or her church, from Little Richard, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye to Beyonce and John Legend.
Without question, the greatest Gospel singer of them all, and one of the greatest vocalists of our time, is the Queen of Gospel, Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972). Idolized by the powerful and the powerless around the world, in 1947 she released what would become the best- selling Gospel record of all time, "Move On Up A Little Higher." Among other tributes, the song is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of 500 songs that shaped rock. If you've never heard her warm contralto voice, now's your chance. Hope you enjoy.
“I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don't believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn't want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street.” -- Malcolm X.
You can't go through Black History Month without considering the impact on civil rights that Malcolm X had. An early disciple of the Nation of Islam's black separatist / anti-integration teachings, Malcolm X's early racial pronouncements were provocative and well out of the civil rights mainstream. By the early '60s, he had grown disillusioned with the Nation of Islam's leader, Elijah Muhammad. After a visit to Mecca and conversion to orthodox Sunni Islam, he moderated his racial views, reconciling with the civil rights movement before his assassination 56 years ago today in 1965. Today, he's celebrated widely as an early visionary for black empowerment and racial justice, whose impact would have been greater had he lived.
His "two-way street" philosophy should be adopted by Dems in the political sphere, as Republican hacks plot to undermine President Biden's agenda while hypocritically calling for "unity."
(photo: Malcolm X with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964. Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
“Mrs. Johnson was selected for her hand-written calculations that helped launch the first Americans into space, as well as her accomplishments in breaking glass ceiling after glass ceiling as a Black woman. A homework assignment for all of you is to go watch that movie after the Cygnus launch.”
Here's NASA's narration of the launch:
We have LIFTOFF of @NorthropGrumman’s S.S. Katherine Johnson spacecraft carrying 8,000 pounds of @ISS_Research & supplies to the @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/jmJQTHtyKj
— NASA (@NASA) February 20, 2021
(photo: Steve Helber/AP)
As we survey the various uniquely American musical genres that Black Americans created (previously jazz and rhythm and blues), the role of one man in the creation of the most popular musical genre of all comes into play. Chuck Berry, dubbed "the Father of Rock and Roll," took his rhythm and blues roots, added a blazing electric guitar as rock's primary instrument, created stories in his songs that appealed to "the youth," and finished it off with a stage presence that was exciting and unique. Every rocker since owes their craft to Berry, from Presley to the Beatles to the Stones to Springsteen and beyond. The 1987 documentary "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll" chronicles two Berry concerts interspersed with interviews, rehearsal scenes, etc., and is not to be missed if you're interested in the origins of rock.
Berry's first hit was 1955's pioneering "Maybellene." From the first guitar chord, you knew you were listening to something completely different (especially in 1955). Borrowing parts from a Western swing song, Berry created a song that Rolling Stone ranks as the #18 greatest song of all time. Hope you enjoy.
We're continuing to highlight the seminal contribution of Black Americans to American music and culture. Last week, we posted music by Louis Armstrong -- one of the most influential creators of jazz as a uniquely American, and intrinsically Black, musical art form. Another such musical art form -- rhythm and blues -- grew out of Black communities and was originally labeled "race music." An early rhythm and blues pioneer was another Louis -- multi- instrumentalist and composer Louis Jordan. Starting out in the big band swing jazz mode in the 1930s, Jordan and his Tympany Five band evolved a unique style that became known as "jump blues" by the 1940s. You can clearly hear the origins of rhythm and blues and, eventually, rock and roll in many of Jordan's compositions from that era. Here are two early ones, "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" (1946), and "Beans and Cornbread" (1949). Listen to the opening riff in the former -- Chuck Berry admitted he copied that for the intro into "Johnnie B. Goode;" it was later lifted by the Beach Boys in "Fun, Fun, Fun." That's some musical DNA there! Hope you enjoy some more historical musical roots.
To honor Black History Month, we're going back to the origins of jazz, the creative music form that grew in the African-American communities of New Orleans. Specifically, we're featuring the musical giant responsible for much of the popularity of the genre over a 50- year career: Louis Armstrong. These are two early recordings of Armstrong that feature his trumpet work and singing in versions of songs by another African-American musical giant, Fats Waller -- "Ain't Misbehavin'" (July 19, 1929 recording) and "Blue Turning Gray Over You" (February 1, 1930 recording). Enjoy some musical history.
