Posted on 11/17/2018 11:00:03 AM PST by ETL
Even if Elvis popularized an art form that people of another race largely invented, it’s hard to argue that a lots and lots of successful black artists didn’t walk right through the doors he opened.
Presley was initially a hero among black musicians in Memphis for that reason, and there’s no reason to think Elvis himself was racist.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
In 1956, it was reported the ‘“the rock ’n’ roll phenomenon cracked Memphis’s segregation laws” by attending the Memphis Fairgrounds amusement park “during what is designated as ‘colored night.’”
Elvis’s personal reputation for being opposed to racism is marred only by one damnable lie that he never said.
Rock ‘n’ roll has been around for the better part of a century. If you’re invested in making Elvis an avatar for racial resentments more than 40 years after his death, you’re, perhaps unwittingly, making the problems of contemporary divisions worse. Music is one of a precious few cultural forces still holding us together. It’s not zero sum; we can acknowledge that more credit is owed to black musical pioneers and acknowledge that Elvis was remarkably talented man a who made a singular connection with tens of millions of Americans that went well beyond race. Recognizing Elvis doesn’t negate the fact that Chuck D deserves credit for, say, powerfully calling out Arizona for initially refusing to recognize MLK Day.
I’m quite certain that race had nothing to with what music my grandfather enjoyed (I suggest younger readers Google ‘Charley Pride’). And as a testament to Elvis being deserving of a Presidential Medal of Freedom, I would like to submit my dying grandfather’s deep appreciation.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
As the 25th anniversary of Presley’s death approaches, it’s worth looking at one of the strangest and most persistent stories in music: how the man dubbed “the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” has been viewed as an object of contempt — indeed, as a racist — by many African Americans.
This view is not based simply on his use of black music, but on an infamous alleged statement, dating back almost 50 years, that he apparently never made: “The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes.”
Elvis Presley is reputed to have uttered those words, either in Boston or on a CBS news show, in 1957, at the very height of his initial burst of fame. Word of the remark — in some versions using much stronger language — stung the black community, which had largely embraced the former truck driver from Memphis.
On their 1989 hit “Fight the Power,” political rappers Public Enemy called Presley a “straight-up racist.” And in May, hip-hop-soul diva Mary J. Blige faced a torrent of criticism after singing “Blue Suede Shoes” during a Presley medley on VH1’s “Divas Live” special. “I prayed about it (performing the song) because I know Elvis was a racist,” Blige said. “But that was just a song VH1 asked me to sing. It meant nothing to me. I didn’t wear an Elvis flag. I didn’t represent Elvis that day. I was just doing my job.”
“I never said anything like that,” Presley told black-oriented magazine Jet in 1957. “And people who know me know I wouldn’t have said it.”
After an investigation, Jet agreed there was nothing to the rumor.
Black performers from the time discount the story as well. “I would never think that Elvis Presley was a racist,” says R&B veteran Darlene Love, who sang background for him as part of the Blossoms.
“The rumor has persisted because Elvis is a symbol of so many social and musical inequities that are legitimately resented,” says Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick.
Few of Presley’s black contemporaries bear ill will toward him, largely because he was so vocally supportive of black artists. Some African Americans even credit Presley for expanding the audience for black music.
https://www.seattlepi.com/ae/music/article/False-rumor-fueled-racist-label-for-Presley-1093361.php
Black RAP performers say all kinds of racist things, so I couldn’t care less what blacks think about racism. They are the racists.
“Jet” magazine is racist. I don’t see a white-oriented magazine.
I guess they didn’t like ‘In the Ghetto,’ must have been cultural appropriation. I bet they really didn’t like the fact that he would give brand new Cadillacs to black families.
I like when Elvis brought Nixon a .45 as a present and the Secret Service was all “You can’t bring that in here” and Elvis was like “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog!”
Lyrics to Ludacris' Obama rap song, "Obama Is Here":
"Hey... I'm back on it
like I just signed my record deal, yeah the best is here
The Bentley Coupe paint is drippin wet, it got sex appeal
Never shoulda hated, you never shoulda doubted him
With a slot in the President's iPod, Obama shouted him
Said I handled my biz and I'm one of his favorite rappers
Well give Luda a special pardon if I'm ever in the slammer
Better yet put me in office, make me a Vice President
Hillary hated on you so that bitch is irrelevant
Now Jesse talkin slick and apologizin for WHAT~?!
If you said it then you MEANT it how you want it, head or gut
And all you other politicians tryin to hate on my man
Watch us win majority vote in every STATE on my man
You cain't stop what's 'bout to happen, we 'bout to make history
The first black President it's destined and it's meant to be
The threats ain't fazin us, the nooses or the jokes
Get off your ass black people it's time to get out and vote
Paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified
McCain don't belong in ANY chair unless he's paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and just throw 'em like candy wraps
Cause what you talkin I hear nothin even relevant
And you the worst of all 43 Presidents
Get out and vote, or the end'll be near
And the world is ready for change cause Obama is here
YEAHHH! Cause Obama is here
The world is ready for change cause Obama is here
Yeahhhh, cause Obama is here
Say world is ready for change cause Obama is here
Hey!
http://lyrics.rapbasement.com/Ludacris_Politics%20(Obama%20Is%20Here)_lyrics_2129.html
RAP: Retarded African Poetry.
This whole made up issue reminded me of a story I heard about Buddy Holly. He was invited to play the Apollo Theater and when the curtain went up a lot of the black audience found out for the first time he was white.
Not sure if it is true or not, but I’d heard it as far back as the 80s.
"In The Ghetto" - Elvis Presley
Just like obamy wasn’t 100% black, Elvis wasn’t 100% white.
Elvis’ ancestry was Melungeon which is a mixure of races including African.
SEAN HANNITY: But Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not backing down and has not for years and in his strong stance on the teaching of black liberation theology is nothing new. He had the same things to say last spring when he appeared on "Hannity & Colmes:"
WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone and the writings of Dwight Hopkins and the writings of womynist theologians and Asian theologians and Hispanic theologians, then you can't talk about the black value system.
HANNITY: But I'm a — reverend
WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
_______________________________________________________
"Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal".--James (Jim) Cone
"if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone --Obama's pastor and "spirtual adviser", Jeremiah Wright
when you have a paranoid victim mentality, everyone is a racist
I remember the day Elvis Presley died, and a black co-worker (Korean War veteran, good man) was devastated. He said something like, Elvis had as much respect from blacks as the Kennedys did.
Needs a little credit for Mac Davis as the writer
Not PC to honor White Males.
Blue Suede Shoes was a Carl Perkins somg and he picked cotton before he played guitar.
Charlie Louvin, in his autobiography, states that he and his brother, Ira, were hanging with Elvis who was about to use one of their songs on a recording, which would have given them a boost in fame and wealth. Elvis had a great respect for the brothers and their songs. As Elvis was singing some negro spiritual, Ira, burst out angrily with contempt and called Elvis a ‘white-ni**er’. Elvis was quietly upset, too polite to admonish an elder, but he never was close to them again and never recorded their song or did one of their songs again. Ira was the racist.. and nuts.
Also, my grandfather was a newspaper reporter in New York and was assigned to do a shoot of Elvis and had been complaining about having to meet some brat who made it rich. He finished the shoot totally changed, saying that Elvis came across as one of the most sincere and polite people he had ever met. A real gentleman.
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