http://1963-2017, "BLACK LIVES MATTER?"
"LITTLE STEVIE WONDER" A/K/A STEVELAND MORRIS, WAS A MUSICAL ENZYME, A POLY-RHYTHMIC CATALYST FOR MY GENERATION. HIS "FINGERTIPS" WAS REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC.
AS WE AGED, AS WE LOVED, AS WE MELLOWED AND MATURED, WITH WONDER, MANY OF US BASKED IN THE WONDERMENT OF IT ALL: OF BERRY GORDY'S MOTOWN, OF "THE MOVEMENT," OF BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS, OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., OF PRESIDENT JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, OF MALCOLM X, "EL-HAJJ MALIK EL-SHABAZZ."
AS QUICKLY AS THEY CAME, THE SIXTIES, PASSED AWAY, EXCEPT FOR "LITTLE STEVIE WONDER," AND A DREAMY NOSTALGIA, AS WE ENTERED THE 1970'S, '80S, 90S, 2000S, 2010S. THOSE OF US WHO LIVED TO REMEMBER, "STEVIE" BACK WHEN--THEN--ARE NOW BLESSED TO RECALL THAT STEVIE'S MUSIC AND MOTOWN'S MODULATED OUR MOMENTUM AND OUR MAGIC.
STEVIE WONDER AS A SYMBOLIC ICON, EVOKES, EPITOMIZES, "1963'S BLACK LIFE," BEFORE :
LOSS OF GOOD JOBS;
FEDERAL URBAN DIVESTMENT;
WHITE BACKLASH @ RICHARD NIXON
PSYCHEDLIC MUSIC;
HIPPIES AND DRUGS;
BLACK PANTHER PARTY;
MASS INCARCERATION;
SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES;
HOUSING PROJECTS AND WELFARE;
FORCED SCHOOL BUSING;
DEMISE OF BLACK BUSINESSES;
BLACK NEIGHBORHOOD DESTRUCTION;
FAILING BLACK SCHOOLS;
24-HOUR CABLE TELEVISION;
CRACK COCAINE'S "WAR ON DRUGS"
DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS;
BLACK-ON-BLACK CRIME;
MEGACHURCHES AMID MANY "UNCHURCHED"
LEGAL POLICE "STAND YOUR GROUND" MURDERS.
THERE WERE BLACK STRAGGLERS, OF COURSE. THESE WERE THOSE WHO SIMPLY OBSERVED, GOT BY, WHO DID NOT BOTHER TO ENTER SERIOUSLY THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. THESE BECAME THE PREY FOR AVARICIOUS INJUSTICE, FOR ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION, THE MANTRAS.
THERE WAS ALSO, MARVELOUSLY, FOR MANY OTHERS, LIKE ME,, A MEASURABLE "INTEGRATION," HOWEVER IT MAY BE DEFINED. IT WAS A STRUGGLE. BUT IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE, BEFORE AND SINCE.
EVEN SINCE 1963, DESPITE THE RAGING STORMS OF CHANGE, MOST BLACK AMERICANS HAVE MANAGED SUCCESSFULLY TO TACK INTO ADVERSE, REACTIONARY POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL HEADWINDS; MOST HAVE SKILLFULLY MANAGED TO ZIGZAG THEIR VARIOUS VESSELS INTO LIQUIDITY, INTO HOME-OWNERSHIP-BASED SECURITY; THUS, INTO PROSPERITY, AS VARIOUSLY DEFINED. TOO MANY BLACK PEOPLE, THOUGH, JUST AS TRAGICALLY, DID NOT, HAVE NOT, EVEN YET DO NOT, SUCCESSFULLY TACK NOR ZIGZAG. THEIR CRAFTS. THESE ARE MARTYRS OF SYSTEMIC SOCIAL FAILURES THAT HAVE TRAUMATIZED THEM, AND THEIRS, AND SOCIETY AT LARGE. THESE, BEING ,VULNERABLE, "LOW-HANGING FRUIT" COULD NOT RESIST THE TUG OF NATURAL GRAVITY.
NOW THAT STEVIE WONDER HAS AGED INTO HIS MIDDLE '60S, ALONG WITH THOSE WHO REMEMBER THAT "BEFORE," BEFORE THE PATENT DIFFERENTIAL OUTCOMES OF BLACK AMERICANS' GAINS AND LOSSES, WHICH HAVE ACCUMULATED, SINCE THE HALCYON DAYS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY 1960'S, A COMPELLING QUESTION, NEE ASSERTION, HAS DEVOLVED IN OUR LEXICON THE QUESTION OF, WHETHER "BLACK LIVES MATTER" AND TO WHOM: RHETORICAL NO DOUBT BUT AS REAL AS LIFE.
IT IS 2017. GIVEN OUR AMERICAN POLITICAL-ECONOMIC-LEGAL-SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE, I.E. "POLICE STATE," AND GIVEN ITS LEGAL-CULTURAL-EDUCATIONAL -RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE, THAT HAVE COMBINED TO PRODUCE MANY DISJOINTED, MATERIALISTIC, IDENTITIES, EVEN OUR 'MAGNIFICENT MAN,' "STEVIE WONDER" HAS, HIMSELF, WONDERED TO WHOM "BLACK LIVES MATTER?" RHETORICALLY BUT NOT MUSICALLY.
http://www.okayplayer.com/news/stevie-wonder-black-lives-matter.html
Saturday, June 24, 2017
1963-2017, "BLACK LIVES MATTER"
http://1963-2017, "BLACK LIVES MATTER?"
"LITTLE STEVIE WONDER" A/K/A STEVELAND MORRIS, WAS A MUSICAL ENZYME, A POLY-RHYTHMIC CATALYST FOR MY GENERATION. HIS "FINGERTIPS" WAS REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC.
AS WE AGED, AS WE LOVED, AS WE MELLOWED AND MATURED, WITH WONDER, MANY OF US BASKED IN THE WONDERMENT OF IT ALL: OF BERRY GORDY'S MOTOWN, OF "THE MOVEMENT," OF BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS, OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., OF PRESIDENT JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, OF MALCOLM X, "EL-HAJJ MALIK EL-SHABAZZ."
AS QUICKLY AS THEY CAME, THE SIXTIES, PASSED AWAY, EXCEPT FOR "LITTLE STEVIE WONDER," AND A DREAMY NOSTALGIA, AS WE ENTERED THE 1970'S, '80S, 90S, 2000S, 2010S. THOSE OF US WHO LIVED TO REMEMBER, "STEVIE" BACK WHEN--THEN--ARE NOW BLESSED TO RECALL THAT STEVIE'S MUSIC AND MOTOWN'S MODULATED OUR MOMENTUM AND OUR MAGIC.
STEVIE WONDER AS A SYMBOLIC ICON, EVOKES, EPITOMIZES, "1963'S BLACK LIFE," BEFORE :
LOSS OF GOOD JOBS;
FEDERAL URBAN DIVESTMENT;
WHITE BACKLASH @ RICHARD NIXON
PSYCHEDLIC MUSIC;
HIPPIES AND DRUGS;
BLACK PANTHER PARTY;
MASS INCARCERATION;
SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES;
HOUSING PROJECTS AND WELFARE;
FORCED SCHOOL BUSING;
DEMISE OF BLACK BUSINESSES;
BLACK NEIGHBORHOOD DESTRUCTION;
FAILING BLACK SCHOOLS;
24-HOUR CABLE TELEVISION;
CRACK COCAINE'S "WAR ON DRUGS"
DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS;
BLACK-ON-BLACK CRIME;
MEGACHURCHES AMID MANY "UNCHURCHED"
LEGAL POLICE "STAND YOUR GROUND" MURDERS.
THERE WERE BLACK STRAGGLERS, OF COURSE. THESE WERE THOSE WHO SIMPLY OBSERVED, GOT BY, WHO DID NOT BOTHER TO ENTER SERIOUSLY THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. THESE BECAME THE PREY FOR AVARICIOUS INJUSTICE, FOR ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION, THE MANTRAS.
THERE WAS ALSO, MARVELOUSLY, FOR MANY OTHERS, LIKE ME,, A MEASURABLE "INTEGRATION," HOWEVER IT MAY BE DEFINED. IT WAS A STRUGGLE. BUT IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE, BEFORE AND SINCE.
EVEN SINCE 1963, DESPITE THE RAGING STORMS OF CHANGE, MOST BLACK AMERICANS HAVE MANAGED SUCCESSFULLY TO TACK INTO ADVERSE, REACTIONARY POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL HEADWINDS; MOST HAVE SKILLFULLY MANAGED TO ZIGZAG THEIR VARIOUS VESSELS INTO LIQUIDITY, INTO HOME-OWNERSHIP-BASED SECURITY; THUS, INTO PROSPERITY, AS VARIOUSLY DEFINED. TOO MANY BLACK PEOPLE, THOUGH, JUST AS TRAGICALLY, DID NOT, HAVE NOT, EVEN YET DO NOT, SUCCESSFULLY TACK NOR ZIGZAG. THEIR CRAFTS. THESE ARE MARTYRS OF SYSTEMIC SOCIAL FAILURES THAT HAVE TRAUMATIZED THEM, AND THEIRS, AND SOCIETY AT LARGE. THESE, BEING ,VULNERABLE, "LOW-HANGING FRUIT" COULD NOT RESIST THE TUG OF NATURAL GRAVITY.
NOW THAT STEVIE WONDER HAS AGED INTO HIS MIDDLE '60S, ALONG WITH THOSE WHO REMEMBER THAT "BEFORE," BEFORE THE PATENT DIFFERENTIAL OUTCOMES OF BLACK AMERICANS' GAINS AND LOSSES, WHICH HAVE ACCUMULATED, SINCE THE HALCYON DAYS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY 1960'S, A COMPELLING QUESTION, NEE ASSERTION, HAS DEVOLVED IN OUR LEXICON THE QUESTION OF, WHETHER "BLACK LIVES MATTER" AND TO WHOM: RHETORICAL NO DOUBT BUT AS REAL AS LIFE.
IT IS 2017. GIVEN OUR AMERICAN POLITICAL-ECONOMIC-LEGAL-SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE, I.E. "POLICE STATE," AND GIVEN ITS LEGAL-CULTURAL-EDUCATIONAL -RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE, THAT HAVE COMBINED TO PRODUCE MANY DISJOINTED, MATERIALISTIC, IDENTITIES, EVEN OUR 'MAGNIFICENT MAN,' "STEVIE WONDER" HAS, HIMSELF, WONDERED TO WHOM "BLACK LIVES MATTER?" RHETORICALLY BUT NOT MUSICALLY.
http://www.okayplayer.com/news/stevie-wonder-black-lives-matter.html