THE CURSE OF BEING "COUNTRY"
I used to think that urban blacks were ashamed of "the South" and those traditions associated with the South. But, I now know that I was wrong. It was not the South that caused their shame, it was "the country," and traditions associated with "the country," that caused these urban blacks to be ashamed, whether they were in the North, South, East, or West. In "the country" were those former bucolic communities, from which their frightened forebears had been refugees/migrants from the 1870s onward, which had shamed them!
The descendants of these abused and oppressed forebears who had fled away from lawlessness and racial discrimination to the North, were only to discover the ghetto and exactly the same things from which they had fled ! But, part of the deception required that they presented themselves as doing better than they really were in the North. It was all a front! Even so, front or not, urban dwellers came to despise farmers, the fashions , the lifestyles, the fables, foods, music, religion, earthy motifs, that were: in the country, of that the country, or even from the country!
I first became aware of this strange estrangement from "the country" in 1971, when a promoter brought a 3-day "Blues Festival" to Cramton Auditorium at Howard University. I was shocked to see so few black, amid an ocean of whites that were present. Where were the DC black people, especially black students?
I had long wondered about this acute racial anomaly since 1971, which I had not noticed before!
Then, when I moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1976, I noticed that they referred to residents of their twin city , Kansas City, Kansas, as "country." This disparagement was surprisingly said by those urban blacks who exhibited no discernible distinctions between themselves and their brethren across the way!
Thankfully, "Send A Revival," sung by Keith "Wonder Boy," Johnson caused me to stumble upon clarity! When he says, "Let's go to the country," at the start of that song, I exulted! An epiphany and the Holy Ghost both hit me! "The country!"
Sunday, May 22, 2016
THE CURSE OF BEING "COUNTRY"
THE CURSE OF BEING "COUNTRY"
I used to think that urban blacks were ashamed of "the South" and those traditions associated with the South. But, I now know that I was wrong. It was not the South that caused their shame, it was "the country," and traditions associated with "the country," that caused these urban blacks to be ashamed, whether they were in the North, South, East, or West. In "the country" were those former bucolic communities, from which their frightened forebears had been refugees/migrants from the 1870s onward, which had shamed them!
The descendants of these abused and oppressed forebears who had fled away from lawlessness and racial discrimination to the North, were only to discover the ghetto and exactly the same things from which they had fled ! But, part of the deception required that they presented themselves as doing better than they really were in the North. It was all a front! Even so, front or not, urban dwellers came to despise farmers, the fashions , the lifestyles, the fables, foods, music, religion, earthy motifs, that were: in the country, of that the country, or even from the country!
I first became aware of this strange estrangement from "the country" in 1971, when a promoter brought a 3-day "Blues Festival" to Cramton Auditorium at Howard University. I was shocked to see so few black, amid an ocean of whites that were present. Where were the DC black people, especially black students?
I had long wondered about this acute racial anomaly since 1971, which I had not noticed before!
Then, when I moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1976, I noticed that they referred to residents of their twin city , Kansas City, Kansas, as "country." This disparagement was surprisingly said by those urban blacks who exhibited no discernible distinctions between themselves and their brethren across the way!
Thankfully, "Send A Revival," sung by Keith "Wonder Boy," Johnson caused me to stumble upon clarity! When he says, "Let's go to the country," at the start of that song, I exulted! An epiphany and the Holy Ghost both hit me! "The country!"