Posted on 07/13/2002 8:00:56 PM PDT by parsifal
NAACP Delegate Calls for Boycott of Country Music!
Rev. Mohammed X. Bagheera, delegate at large to the recent NAACP convention, called for a boycott of Country and Western Music. Rev. Bagheera was known as Leroy T. Washington before his conversion to Islam and once lived in Albany, Georgia. Asked about his call for a boycott, Rev. Bagheera offered this insight into his past: "I remember being chased down a dirt road by two good old white boys in a pickup truck. They had Honky Hank Williams blaring on the radio as they was chasing me. He was moanin'some kind of blues as I remember. If that song hadn't ended and the station started playing a religious song, "On The Wings of a Dove", I figure I would have been a goner. A thing like that will mark you, for sure."
It was pointed out that in a recent Music City poll, less than one percent of Black-Americans listened to Country and Western Music. Rev. Bagheera replied, "Well, it ain't the numbers that count, it's the thought. Nobody thought we could get the Confederate Flag down either, but we're winning that battle. We have even boycotted the whole state of South Carolina. We can sure boycott some radio stations."
Rev. Bagheera also lamented the lack of black country music magicians. "Everybody knows that Little Richard is responsible for country music as we know it today, but the only country music performer of color was Charlie Pride."
Representatives of several Nashville studios refused public comments, but privately stated that they foresaw little impact from the boycott. As one un-named executive pointed out, "Country and Western Music is no longer the resort of the uneducated red neck. Our demographics show the average consumer of "rural pop" as we classify C&W, makes nearly $6.00 per hour and drives a pickup truck that is less than three years old."
Rev. Bagheera was also questioned concerning the inclusion of "Western" music in the boycott. He pointed out, " They are just as bad as the country songs. A lot of them cowboy songs include racist code words. Take that song "Rawhide" for example. "Rope and throw and brand ‘em" refers to marking slaves. "Tumbling tumbleweeds" is code-talk for runaway slaves."
(Plea for Special Love Offering to counter the boycott omitted)
This has to be written as a farce. No?
That sounds more like a reference to afros.
Well, if there wasn't a 'racist behind every tree', how the hell would Morris Dees feed his family...???
Black man plant the cotton,
White man get de money
Love them old Bob Wills Racist songs!
Leave to a stupid muslim to call for a ban on America's most popular music.
Hank Williams? The same Hank who as a kid shined shoes while his friend an elderly black man named Tee Tot {sp} played the gituar? Hank was a lot of things but not a racist.
Puff was probably one of the most innocent songs written in the early 1960's. While I don't agree with their politics I do like the music of P,P,&M. Here's the real story on Puff. Peter Yarrow was attending Brown I think it was and stopped by a friends apartment for lunch after coming from the library and studying Grimness fairtales. The friend {Paul Stookey I believe} wasn't there and Peter typed out a song that had came to his mind about a young boy, his imaginary friend and the boys loss of childhood innocence through growing up. Pot was not all that popular during that era 1960 I think. Peter found the poem on his typewriter and later a song was born. This was something I read from an interview of Peter Yarrow. The Wedding Song by Paul has an interesting twist as well. Notice it is Public Domain? He refused to profit from the song.
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