[Dick Bachert]

TOTAL BRAVO SIERRA.

I’ve read two major biographers of my favorite composer and NOWHERE was he described as other than white and of Flemish ancestry.

OTOH, even if he were half black, so what? He’s STILL a genius and changed the music world forever.

Genius — just like stupidity and ignorance — comes in ALL hues.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Maybe White people should claim Scott Joplin....after all, although his rags are heavily syncopated, they follow the same form as both Sousa's marches and Chopin's scherzos. Besides, that massively strided bass is a form of basso ostinato, not unlike Scarlatti.

Plus he wrote an opera with music as exquisite and a plot as implausible as Verdi's "Il Trovatore"