Weekend self-care thread: It has always been thus
As anyone who is a regular denizen of this establishment knows, weekends are usually reserved for self-care, usually of a musical nature.
But yesterday was a hell of a day.
America's racial wound has been being laid bare all week after the brutal murder of George Lloyd by a Minneapolis police officer. That officer has now been indicted by the Minnesota attorney general. (CORRECTION: Attorney General Keith Ellison clarified that the initial charges were brought forth the by county district attorney; the case isn't a state matter at the moment.) As of this writing, the other three officers involved in the murder are due to be arrested and charged as well.
Uprisings have broken out in several cities, most violently in Minneapolis, of course. There is real worry that most of the violence has been engendered by agents provocateurs. But even if it hadn't, as my generation's refrain went after the Rodney King assault: No justice, no peace.
But even much of the part of White America which one would think would be, at best, disinterested, seems to realize that this has crossed a line which can no longer be ignored.
America's racial oppression has been a through-theme of our history since the first African slaves were brought to these shores in the 17th century. And yet, most American culture wouldn't exist save for the descendants of these slaves.
Yesterday, in an effort to clear my head, I was watching a documentary on BBC Four about American rock and roll. Of course, it featured for part of its running time Elvis Presley. But it made clear that Presley would not have existed without the black musicians on whose shoulders he stood and launched to fame. And then it spent the rest of the program going in depth on the music of those black artists, whose genius we still profit from as a culture.
Too much of white America fears black America (and the rest of non-white America). And yet, the two particularly American musical art forms—jazz and rock—would be unthinkable without those descendants of slaves. The cultural history of America is a history of black America. There is just no way to get past that. During the Cold War, black jazz musicians would tour the world on US Information Agency-funded tours to bring American musical culture to all parts of the globe. At the same time, their racial brethren were being beaten in the streets for the effrontery of claiming rights supposedly guaranteed them by the Constitution. The disconnect was jarring.
White culture has always had a love-hate relationship with black culture. If it could have taken all of black culture without the actual people, it would have. That it couldn't, and has been slowly, fitfully forced to confront that hypocrisy, has been part of the impetus towards racial justice.
For this weekend's self-care, some of the music of those seminal black rock pioneers, without whom there would have been no Elvis, no John, Paul, Ringo, and George, no Keith and Mick, no modern American or global music.
When America can accept the people as well as the culture they create, we will be well on the way to a true commonwealth for all citizens.
As always, be excellent and beautiful to yourselves and those around you.