|
David
Fufkin:
April,
2004
Condoleezza Rice, Bessie
Smith and the Truth
"I ain't no high yella,
I'm a deep killer brown.
I ain't gonna marry, ain't gonna settle down.
I'm gonna drink good moonshine and rub these browns down.
See that long lonesome road, Lawd you know it's gonna end,
and I'm a good woman and I can get plenty men"
Bessie Smith - "Young
Woman's Blues" (1927)
Mamie Smith purportedly recorded
the first blues song of all time, "Crazy Blues"
in 1920. From her first recording around 1923, however, Bessie
Smith may have been the greatest blues singer ever. "St.
Louis Blues", recorded by Ms. Smith with Louis Armstrong,
defined the blues as a genre to many. Bessie was a strong,
independent black woman before Rosa Parks, integration, forced
busing, race riots, Black Power and, dare I say it, Condo
Leeeeza. Bessie drank, she drugged and she had lots of sex
with men and women. She was not an educated woman,
but she sang with passion and she backed down to no one, black
or white. She lived in a world of prejudice and oppression
with pride and no apologies. The urban legend, derived from
a Downbeat article written upon her death in 1937,
was that she died after she was refused treatment at a White
hospital after a car accident. Whether an urban legend or
not, I am sure she died true to herself, rich in the belief
that she always stood up for what she believed in.
I wonder if the same is true
of Condoleezza Rice. Is she proud that, unlike great ancestors
like Smith who answered to no one, she is a step and fetch
it Uncle Tom puppet of an administration who would love to
go back to the "separate is equal" standard.
I can't help but think how
someone like Bessie would feel if she were alive today. Legions
of black and white persons have Dr. Rice paraded before us
as an example of how this country has changed. Certainly,
Dr. Rice has the education and is an articulate, intelligent
person. However, to allow herself to be Dubya's mouthpiece
of omission and deception, she either is not as smart as she
is given credit for, or, she merely accepts that she has sold
her soul to be accepted as the model "acceptable"
black woman to White America.
Black women like Bessie,
Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald are ignored
for the most part as role models/success stories despite their
real contributions to American culture. I do not understand
how a woman like Dr. Rice is a hero when her primary attribute
is that she speaks and acts like a white conservative Republican.
Unlike the strong black woman of the past such as Smith, Dr.
Rice is a puppet whose strings are being pulled by an administration
with no respect for contributions by black women to the landscape
of our culture.
In Lee
Atwater and the Destruction of Black Music on soul-patrol.com,
the author talks about Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign manager,
Lee Atwater, who coined the pejorative phrase "Welfare
Queen" as a derogatory reference to black women. Atwater
painted himself as a blues lover who, in a calculated fashion,
portrayed the Civil Rights movement as over, effectively sedating
black citizens into believing that the black cultural revolution
of the '70s was complete, and that racial equality had been
obtained.
The Reagan legacy lives on
today with Dr. Rice as the posterchild. Not even Dr. Rice
realizes that she is being fed to the American public like
heroin in the ghetto, numbing the collective consciousness
by making White America believe that blacks and whites are
all the same now.
As Michael Moore so adroitly
posits, we have nothing to fear and have never had anything
to fear except what we have been manipulated to fear. Blacks,
whites and people of all races and creeds in the United States
should celebrate women like Bessie Smith and the great black
female artists who define what we all are as Americans: proud,
truthful, fun loving, strong and independent people.
This country needs truth, and the great legacy of black
female blues and jazz singers are the embodiment of that,
not a woman who has been duped into trying to make us believe
that black cultural differences have dissolved into a proverbial
genetic mutation of halftruths, omissions and outright lies.
In our world of Fox News
and media manipulation, we always have music to turn to. We
can turn to the honest sound of a Bessie Smith or Ella Fitzgerald.
The music never lies. The music makes no pretense except that
it comes from the heart and soul. If you want a little shot
of truth, turn on some Bessie Smith and turn off that Dr.
Rice press conference. Turn off the TV, relax, put on those
headphones and enjoy.
See you next month.
________________________________________________
To
reach any other page contained in this month's update on Fufkin.com,
read the home page for the appropriate link and click on it.
You can also search the site from any page using the search
box located at the top of each page. Merely type in the word,
phrase, name of the band, recording, name of the Fufkin writer
that you are looking for or Whatever in the search box, and
then click on "Search". If you would like to e-mail
us, go to the About Us page for a list of e-mail addresses.
Go
back to the home page by clicking
here
____________________________________________________
|
