Dear friends,
The link below is to a piece that was written by a very dear friend of mine who is a longtime and well-traveled journalist out of Philadelphia. His name is Elmer Smith. He writes for and serves on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Daily News. Actually, aside from having a personal relationship with a number of writers from that newspaper, I actually have a long history with the Philadelphia Daily News,
You see, back in the Fall of 1978, a couple of months after Joe Frazier brought me from New England (where I was a top amateur boxer) to Philly, in order to make me a pro fighter, I was in a tv commercial promoting/marketing the Philadelphia Daily News...
It was aired regularly in Philadelphia and the surrounding area television markets, for well over a year. The players in that commercial were myself, Joe, and Willie "the Worm" Monroe. Willie, in fact, a legendary middleweight, was the only fighter to ever really beat Marvin Hagler. Marvin himself was an occasional gym buddy of mine. That is, when the roof of our gym was leaking, or my stablemates and I just needed sparring, Goodie Petronelli, Marvin's lifelong trainer (coach), would let us come down to their gym in Brockton to work out. Our leaky-roof gym, by the way, was shown on television, over a period of several years, at the beginning of each episode of "Spenser for Hire" (which starred the late Robert Urich and our good brother Avery Brooks - who later drew even greater "fame" in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine tv series)...
The link below, once again, shows Elm Smith's combined wit and wisdom, that, in my biased opinion, reveal him to be the best male journalist in America (and I am including Paul Krugman of the New York Times in my pool of great ones). In any case, the piece here is about the recent prosecution of Osama bin Laden's former driver. It raises questions about what many Americans may believe, regarding equality, dignity, and justice. And at least to me, it also makes me wonder exactly where the "War on terror" presently is, much less where it is going.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080808_Elmer_Smith__Lovers_of_our_Constitution_can_t_feel_good_about_this_trial.html?adString=pdn.news/local;!category=local;&randomOrd=080808021908
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Sunday, August 17, 2008
Swimming and Golf - are they "Black" enough for you?
Dear friends,
Nothing is more crucial to maintaining systems of oppression and exploitation than stereotypes - i.e., images and symbols - that give one group a feeling of superiority over another. The idea that "Blacks can't swim.", for example, does not even make sense; yet, the phrase is constantly bandied about. We do all have the same type of mental and physical structures, after all. Besides, as Melville J. Herskovits pointed out in his book about the pioneering scientist Franz Boas, "the range of the average of differences within any specific group is greater than the range of the average of differences between all groups"...
Also, in his special book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilheim Reich, the great scientist and clinical psychologist, insisted that the concept of race is only of interest to an "imbecile". He points out the reality of the pejorative moniker just mentioned, by reminding us that the exception in human has been racial circumscription. The rule, on the other hand, has been promiscuous mating among all people. Of course, the activities in which we engage have much more to do with cultural expression, than our biological assets. Yet, those expressions are themselves based upon availability or lack thereof, regarding specific resources. However, if the context of culture is ignored, if not altogether denied, and replaced with the notion of "race" - a totally unscientific concept that is solely based on politics, our view and understanding of reality gets twisted.
At any rate, I brought all of the aforementioned up, because as you will read on the link below, at the end of the article, Cullen Jones, the African American swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal ten days ago, in an excitedly proud moment and loving lament, tried to connect the absence of African American golf champions with their counterparts in swimming, saying, "Not many black people played golf before Tiger Woods." Actually, that is not true. In fact, there have been many great African American golfers, long before Tiger.
Remember Lee Elder of the Seventies? He played on television, at times. Here in New England there have, for a long time, been great African American golfers. For example, the late Spencer Leek, of Lexington, Massachusetts, won the New England Championship and other tournaments, back in the 1940s and 1950s. Of course, all over our country, for, at least, a few generations, there have been and are African American golf champions. Tiger Woods simply represents a long tradition, although he does not recognize himself as either an African American or Black man. As a matter of fact, I have read that he invented a term for self-description with the help of Michael Jordan, the basketball legend. Woods calls himself a "Caublanasian". Wow!
A short note: First of all, as far as I know, neither Tiger's father Earl (an African American who has passed), nor his Mother (Asian), are of immediately European descent. Why did he and Michael Jordan put the "Caucasian" element in (and first, mind you), for his self-description? Secondly, when Herodotus, the man who Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas call "the father of history", was travelling through the Caucasus Mountains, some 2500 years ago, he ran into a people called the Colchians. That meeting, just mentioned, has been documented by many other historians since. Nonetheless, Herodotus described the Colchians as a "dark-skinned, woolly-haired" people. Considering his vigor to disassociate himself with African Americans, it would seem, at least to me, that if Tiger Woods knew more history he would call himself something else. After all, Caucasian, just like "white", is a means-spirited term that people use in order to put themselves in an artificial majority group. Let us face it; people who live in mountains are hardly very much of a part of civilization. That is why they live on the periphery of it (civilization). Imagine, a thousand years from now, instead of describing themselves as Americans, our descendants called themselves Appalachians. What rational person would identify with people, culturally, who deliberately live apart from civilization?
At any rate, a buddy of mine, Corky Siemaszko, who writes for the New York Daily News did a piece, recently, about Cullen Jones who is, as already mentioned, the young African American swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal, as the third leg of a relay squad, a little over a week ago. Corky raised the issue of stereotypes and, also, wrote to me personally after I sent him a message about the piece (and I am printing this part with his permission), " Thanks Djata. And thanks for the golfing history lesson. I can't say that's my sport. But I'm sure glad swimming is Cullen Jones' sport. When I began writing that story, I remembered hearing theories about Blacks being poor swimmers because of heavier bone density and things like that. I don't know if that's true or not, but it struck me as silly. I always figured a lack of access to quality swimming pools and quality coaching was a more likely reason for the scarcity of competitive African American swimmers. "
Amen to that, Cork. But please do not leave out another obstacle - i.e., discrimination. Cool? After all, if the European American (white) coach does not give an African American swimmer the same attention that he/she gives to others, or the European American person who is timing a race gives an African American competitor a "bad" time so that the aforementioned swimmer will not qualify for higher levels of competition, then that also reveals a much broader issue of why more African Americans are not seen at the higher levels of some sports - and other activities.
At any rate, friends, please join Corky [and myself :-)] in celebrating the achievements of a young man, while he is revealing both his inner and outer powers to the whole world.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/2008olympics/2008/08/12/2008-08-12_riding_olympic_wave_bronxborn_swimmer_no.html
Read full post
Nothing is more crucial to maintaining systems of oppression and exploitation than stereotypes - i.e., images and symbols - that give one group a feeling of superiority over another. The idea that "Blacks can't swim.", for example, does not even make sense; yet, the phrase is constantly bandied about. We do all have the same type of mental and physical structures, after all. Besides, as Melville J. Herskovits pointed out in his book about the pioneering scientist Franz Boas, "the range of the average of differences within any specific group is greater than the range of the average of differences between all groups"...
Also, in his special book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilheim Reich, the great scientist and clinical psychologist, insisted that the concept of race is only of interest to an "imbecile". He points out the reality of the pejorative moniker just mentioned, by reminding us that the exception in human has been racial circumscription. The rule, on the other hand, has been promiscuous mating among all people. Of course, the activities in which we engage have much more to do with cultural expression, than our biological assets. Yet, those expressions are themselves based upon availability or lack thereof, regarding specific resources. However, if the context of culture is ignored, if not altogether denied, and replaced with the notion of "race" - a totally unscientific concept that is solely based on politics, our view and understanding of reality gets twisted.
At any rate, I brought all of the aforementioned up, because as you will read on the link below, at the end of the article, Cullen Jones, the African American swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal ten days ago, in an excitedly proud moment and loving lament, tried to connect the absence of African American golf champions with their counterparts in swimming, saying, "Not many black people played golf before Tiger Woods." Actually, that is not true. In fact, there have been many great African American golfers, long before Tiger.
Remember Lee Elder of the Seventies? He played on television, at times. Here in New England there have, for a long time, been great African American golfers. For example, the late Spencer Leek, of Lexington, Massachusetts, won the New England Championship and other tournaments, back in the 1940s and 1950s. Of course, all over our country, for, at least, a few generations, there have been and are African American golf champions. Tiger Woods simply represents a long tradition, although he does not recognize himself as either an African American or Black man. As a matter of fact, I have read that he invented a term for self-description with the help of Michael Jordan, the basketball legend. Woods calls himself a "Caublanasian". Wow!
A short note: First of all, as far as I know, neither Tiger's father Earl (an African American who has passed), nor his Mother (Asian), are of immediately European descent. Why did he and Michael Jordan put the "Caucasian" element in (and first, mind you), for his self-description? Secondly, when Herodotus, the man who Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas call "the father of history", was travelling through the Caucasus Mountains, some 2500 years ago, he ran into a people called the Colchians. That meeting, just mentioned, has been documented by many other historians since. Nonetheless, Herodotus described the Colchians as a "dark-skinned, woolly-haired" people. Considering his vigor to disassociate himself with African Americans, it would seem, at least to me, that if Tiger Woods knew more history he would call himself something else. After all, Caucasian, just like "white", is a means-spirited term that people use in order to put themselves in an artificial majority group. Let us face it; people who live in mountains are hardly very much of a part of civilization. That is why they live on the periphery of it (civilization). Imagine, a thousand years from now, instead of describing themselves as Americans, our descendants called themselves Appalachians. What rational person would identify with people, culturally, who deliberately live apart from civilization?
At any rate, a buddy of mine, Corky Siemaszko, who writes for the New York Daily News did a piece, recently, about Cullen Jones who is, as already mentioned, the young African American swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal, as the third leg of a relay squad, a little over a week ago. Corky raised the issue of stereotypes and, also, wrote to me personally after I sent him a message about the piece (and I am printing this part with his permission), " Thanks Djata. And thanks for the golfing history lesson. I can't say that's my sport. But I'm sure glad swimming is Cullen Jones' sport. When I began writing that story, I remembered hearing theories about Blacks being poor swimmers because of heavier bone density and things like that. I don't know if that's true or not, but it struck me as silly. I always figured a lack of access to quality swimming pools and quality coaching was a more likely reason for the scarcity of competitive African American swimmers. "
Amen to that, Cork. But please do not leave out another obstacle - i.e., discrimination. Cool? After all, if the European American (white) coach does not give an African American swimmer the same attention that he/she gives to others, or the European American person who is timing a race gives an African American competitor a "bad" time so that the aforementioned swimmer will not qualify for higher levels of competition, then that also reveals a much broader issue of why more African Americans are not seen at the higher levels of some sports - and other activities.
At any rate, friends, please join Corky [and myself :-)] in celebrating the achievements of a young man, while he is revealing both his inner and outer powers to the whole world.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/2008olympics/2008/08/12/2008-08-12_riding_olympic_wave_bronxborn_swimmer_no.html
Read full post
Ike - a real Rapper, a true Player
Dear friends,
Last Sunday, one of the most genuine artists of this era, Isaac Hayes, passed. He was an original who took his craft seriously and had the integrity to expand his genre of music in a way that it would retain the status of being, in his own words, "classical". That is right; Europeans are not the only people to have classical expressions of their sounds. African Americans have classical music of our own, some of which is called "jazz"...
Isaac Hayes followed the flamboyant style of some of his other popular contemporaries. That is, his outlandish dress was nothing new to African American entertainers of that time. Players like Little Richard, James Brown, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone preceded him with their exotic style of stagewear and stage antics. Most of the other Black male performers maintained a more traditional type of dress - suit and tie.
Ike's first album went relatively un-noticed. However, he "broke out" on his second album "Hot Buttered Soul", opening with his cover of Dionne Warwick's gigantic hit "Walk On By", and a smooth but sympathy-garnering narrative covering Glen Campbell's mega-hit, "By the time I get to Phoenix". Although the other two numbers on the album were great too, a stirring ballad and a funk-jam, the previously-mentioned two munbers by themselves made him a star.
At least to me, his real "rap" though was on the Black Moses album, when he did "Good Love", a number that could easily be called the national anthem for "Players", if one is to make a comparison to what was formerly called "rap", but has now deteriorated into what has been rightfully called, by the likes of music giant Wynton Marsalis and noted writer Stanley Crouch, "buffoon minstrelsy". I am speaking, of course, of the so-called "hip-hop" genre of music.
Nevertheless, while his singing and rap were unique, the music was down right funky - and sweet. But Ike came along at a time when there was great social upheaval happening in our country. Unlike many of the other popular African American artists of the time, he did not involve himself with either politically- or socially-conscious lyrics, except, on the record called "Soulsville", of the Shaft movie score, as well as a rather accommodating social piece called "Windows of the World" that he actually recorded on both of his live albums. And so, he was criticized for that by many Black progressives, at that time, myself included. Of course, the music itself in that movie (Shaft) was incomparable, and, in hindsight, very culturally-correct. It cannot be diminished! Additionally, the Shaft score was phenomenal then, and still is, almost four decades later. I believe, in fact, that it will always be.
At any rate, prior to Shaft's huge success, Ike was being marketed as "Black Moses" - vigorously. An album with that title was released. On it, to name a couple of them, he covered Jerry Butler's R & B classic "Never Gonna Give You Up" and Michael Jackson's (then the Jackson Five) equally classic "Never Can Say Goodbye". Of course, great singers/musicians always do great covers, from Smokey Robinson to Nancy Wilson to Diana Ross or Stevie Wonder to Luther Vandross, for example. Moreover, Ike's concept of maintaining a "classical" expression of any music that he played, cover or no cover, reveals a level of personal, artistic integrity that is rarely displayed by the artists of today, especially the younger ones.
Ike's musical style became contagious too. Therefore, a mere two years after the Black Moses album., a brother named Barry White came onto the music scene, [in a huge way (pun intended :-)]. Barry's voice was deeper than Ike's and he "rapped" more frequently, using a sexy tone that made his female listeners swoon and his male listeners plagiarize. As a matter of fact, to this, any brothers who are World War II baby boomers will testify. For it was not uncommon to hear a cat say to his buddies, "I'm gonna put some Barry White on that woman". Of course, that meant that, whether calling her on the phone or seeing her in person, the fellow was going to playfully imitate White's deep voice and smooth talk to the woman or girl.
To be sure, that created a big smile on the face of any woman or girl who had the pleasure of being approached that way. Anyhow, Barry's songs were accompanied with incredible orchestral arrangements that echoed Hayes' own orchestral offerings, in their magnificence. Moreover, it is an accepted fact that those sounds, of both Ike and Barry, helped to bring in the "disco" era. By the way, even more so than Isaac Hayes, Barry White stayed away from political or even social views in his lyrics, completely. His stuff was about personal, erotic relationships only.
Finally, Isaac Hayes' music career seemed to just disappear, as the Seventies wore on. He reappeared as an actor and radio show host, in the Eighties. He was a different man though. He was no longer Black Moses. Rather, he was just a brother "doin' his thing", so to speak. He co-starred in Keenan Ivory Wayans' classic movie, "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka", a spoof of what had been called "blaxploitation" films of the Seventies. That was a surprise, because, again, Ike had normally stayed away from being involved with political affairs - at least publicly.
Nevertheless, he later took some other movie roles and got a regular spot as the voice of a cartoon character on cable television. Yet, it had just been announced, recently, that he had planned to resume his music career next year, even though he had unsuccessfully released "comeback" albums in both the Eighties as well as the Nineties (and one in 2003). The sad part is: Unless he already recorded some of it, we will never have any idea of exactly what he was going to share. But his music of the past, mid - Seventies and before, is unforgettable. and we will not only always have that, but it (said great music) will surely continue to inspire other musicians for a long time. For what more can we ask?
A link to Ike's discography appears below.
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Hayes,_Isaac/Discography/Index/P83140/1/
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