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!”
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.
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
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"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.
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.
Even if Elvis popularized an art form that people of another race largely invented,...”
Stopped reading right there. Putting aside the fact that NONE of the music blacks were doing existed in or came from Africa...NOBODY sounded like Elvis, PERIOD! If they had they’d have been given a recording contract. The kids didn’t give a crap about the race of the artists and the producers knew it.
The Sweet Inspirations...back up singers for Elvis.
I'll be putting the lawn jockey out tomorrow and I can't wait to use the "N" word in a conversation...
Isn’t this all so very sad?
This country is the best in the world to live in, and I’ve tried some pretty nice ones. What makes it great (besides the founding docs) are the people, from Europe, Africa, indigenous, and Asia. But most especially the ones from European and African origins. I have lived in countries with no people of African origin (yes, besides Manhattan Beach, lol) and I didn’t like that.
I love my AA brothers and sisters of America and enjoy the culture, flavors, sounds, everything they have brought to this nation. I’m sorry their ancestors were enslaved. Mine were too, and mine were genocided all too recently. But I love their descendants. And I love the culture and flavors and history white Americans brought from Europe, too. I hate to see such amazing ideas, arts, and tastes now insulted only because of the white skin of their inventors. Not to leave them out, but our indigenous and Asian brothers and sisters, same thing, so many contributions.
We SHOULD culturally appropriate! Ever raised a small child? I have one right here. When she sees another child, or someone on YouTube, do something, Art, a dance, a skill, she copies it. Then, once she’s got it, she makes it her own. ITS CALLED LEARNING. It’s how we human primates get so good at things. Let’s copy each other’s best, and stop segregating. The best thing that happened to music was people like Elvis, on either side, CROSSING OVER.
How about also because he was vocally TALENTED?!