Posted on 09/12/2012 11:28:13 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Folk rock legend Bob Dylan has some strong words about America that many of his compatriots may not want to hear: He says the stigma of slavery ruined America and he doubts whether the country can get rid of the shame because it was “founded on the backs of slaves.”
Dylan spoke to Rolling Stone for a cover story that coincides with the release of his 35th studio album, “Tempest.” Dylan has long been an outspoken critic of American culture and its inherent inequalities, particularly during the 1960s when his songs “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” voiced his generation’s support for civil rights and anger at the Vietnam War.
In his interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan, who has won just about every music and songwriting award on the planet, seems intent not so much on attacking America for its racist history but observing that racism has long been holding the country back.
“People (are) at each other’s throats just because they are of a different color,” he said. “It will hold any nation back.”
A 71-year-old man born in Minnesota at a time when blacks in many parts of the country couldn’t eat in white restaurants or use white water fountains, Dylan has seen a great deal of America’s progress and evolution during the past century—all the way to the election of the first black president. But clearly he has not seen enough progress. And he thinks it all goes back to the country’s founding.
He tells Rolling Stone that blacks know that some whites “didn’t want to give up slavery.” Only after a civil war cleaved the nation in two did slavery come to a reluctant end—after more than 600,000 Americans (including 260,000 Southerners) died in a war that started because the South wanted to preserve the institution.
“If slavery had been given up in a more peaceful way, America would be far ahead today,” Dylan observes.
When the magazine asked if the election of President Obama was helping to bring about a change, Dylan says: “I don’t have any opinion on that. You have to change your heart if you want to change.”
The magazine’s new issue hits newsstands Friday.
Dylan’s voice ruined my eardrums.
An embarassment.
Dylan recently made a guest appearance on Pawn Stars.
He appeared to be so addled and brain fried he made Ozzy Osbourne look like Albert Einstein by comparison.
The US outlawed slavery long before most other countries did. I believe Hungary was the first country to outlaw slavery but the US was in the first ten or so to do so.
OMG!!! I’M RUINT!!!!
Liberal Moron. Must be getting hungry — looking for his Obama hand out.
“People (are) at each other’s throats just because they are of a different color,” he said. “It will hold any nation back.”
Racism isn’t dead...it’s been put on life support by the Democrat Party.” - T. Sowell
Black separatists in the Black Panther movement (1960s and today) stir the kettle of racism by indoctrinating their children that no white person will ever look kindly upon them.
That is child abuse.
“He says the stigma of slavery ruined America...”
Well, he’s half right.
phuque you, Zimmerman!
The sun will shine a little brighter on the day that we bury the last of the louse-eaten nincompoops from the sixties.
Should’ve picked our own damn cotton.
““If slavery had been given up in a more peaceful way, America would be far ahead today,” Dylan observes.”
He got that right. Thanks, Progressives.
Wow,I’ve been waiting 8 yrs to hear “the bob’s” opinion.Still waiting for slim whitman’s to.(sarcasm)
Slavery was OLD before the US imported slaves here.
Granted that does not make it OK.
However, the US was one of the very first countries to reject it wholesale. As a matter of fact, the US put its future and fortune on the line to fight over abolition.
But-I guess we’re supposed to overlook that.
Sure. Let’s take a quote yanked out of any context by AP and use it to hammer Bob.
Free Republic at its finest.
I saw him a few years ago at the Mudcats stadium in NC. Willie Nelson warmed up for him and was awesome. Dylan came on and nobody could understand a word he was mumbling. Many of us just left.
Slavery is still practiced openly in Africa and the Middle East. Where is the outrage?
Meanwhile 50 million babies have been sacrificed to Lilith/Pan since 1973. Where is the outrage?
Oh these times are a shaming.
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