Remember when we were Black and Proud....

[blksoul_x]

Despite that fact that as a people [[Africans in amerikkka'), we have always been amidst the pressure of the time, but up until the last decade or so, we never gave up on the meaning of what 'Black' was about....our music was Black, our style was Black, our clothes were Black and we had no shame or doubt at who we were and what we were about! We had an answer to what was offered by the whiter collective.


This Soul Train music video drives my point home.....Click on below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkScpqnMBfI

Brothas' and Sistas' were so Cool back then....as James would say, 'SWEET DYNAMITE SOUL'!

As much as I hate to romanticize about the past in terms of the Black experience in amerikkka', I understand even then, times were just as precarious in terms of who we are, as they are currently to a certain extent...but the point is, when you see stuff like the above video and how we rivaled against the collective, you can't help to LOVE our people!

WHAT HAPPENED!



blksoul_atcha!
The BJL, the Color you love to hate!

[Blarf]

I was black several years ago and yes I remember. Now that I'm white, I don't know what to say.

[Ray1936]

Don't rise to the bait, gang.

[Flanders]

Soul and R&B were replaced in transition by Disco, then Pop, then Rap and Hip Hop.

I loved the 60s-70s

Watched an old Dirty Harry movie, a few weeks ago, I always liked the scene where Tyne Daly waits for Clint Eastwood to finish talking to leader of that black revolutionary group.

Angela Davis, when have you gone?

Sorry,

[blksoul_x]

We had shows that were the answer to what the whiter society offered. We did our thing, and refused to let the whiter society shape who and what we were. Now, we have fallen into their ways and have joined in on the mainstream shaping of who and what we are.

I remember when I would see my Uncles and Aunties dressed on family get-to-gethers in the 'funkiest' clothes and they would always be 'shooting the agate', that is, talking jive and giving five on the Black hand side.

It seems now in our generation, if you will, all of the idiosyncrasies that helped shape our unique experience in amerikkka', we tend to run away from fearing social dehumanization by the so-called larger collective. Now we have reduced our experience in this land by mimicking and following the behavior of the whiter society....and that is to bad. Our Children will never have the quality and aesthetic uniqueness that we once had and offered to this world, which separated us from everyone else.

If I see one more commercial or magazine advertisement showcasing one Black family living on a block with their white neighbors and their Black child sitting aside two white kids [[usually it is one Black boy or girl, and two white boys or girls, never 2 Blacks boys and 1 white boy), I will scream!

The truth is, those commercials are the new so-called amerikkkan' dream for our people, so then it appears by those images, that we have totally given up on our dream of Freedom to which Malcolm, Martin, Jesse and Garvey spoke about.

Nevertheless, when I see images like the one I posted in the Soul Train video, I can't help but to romanticize about those times, when we were, as James Brown stated, Black and Proud!

Say it Loud!

blksoul_atcha!
The BJL, the Color you love to hate.

[Bobl]

"...our music was Black, our style was Black, our clothes were Black and we had no shame or doubt at who we were and what we were about! We had an answer to what was offered by the whiter collective..."

I dunno, X. Enjoyed the video, but I always thought that by that time [[1970), the homogenization of music was already in place. Even James Brown was morphing into the dreaded disco bullshit then!
If you ever get the chance, check out the TAMI video from California, filmed around 1965. James had just amazed the crowd, and one Mick Jagger was apprehensive about following his performance. Gave a quick "how can I follow that?!" look at the camera. He was nervous, and should have been.
What is your take on our local record label, Fortune Records, that preceded Motown?

[Danny]

blksoul_x

You want to know what happen to Blacks in America?


Blacks in America had been beaten up by their old slave masters called the White people for over 400 years.

Blacks in America had been haunted down to be hanged, lynched, whooped and set on fire from the Ghost Riders of the Confederacy by wearing white sheets and buring the holy cross to desecrate Christianity.

Blacks in America had been kept in their institutionized ghettos by white man named Jim Crow.

Blacks in America used civil rights heroes to break the white man laws, if they get killed, they will subsitute a black revoltionary to issue a Helter Skelter war against the white folks and transform into a society out of the Turner Diaries.

Blacks in America had been struggling for their civil rights, if they couldn't get it, we just have burn our own ghettos until we get our freedom.

Blacks in America had been beaten up by white police force that resulted in a Rodney King and Malice Green Era of racial profiling.

Blacks in America had black kids being beaten by white kids call skinheads.

Blacks in America had been consuming poison substances from various war torn nations and various Islamofacist terrorists so they could buy "dirty bombs" to wipe out Israel and U.S. off the map. Look what happen to the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon.

Blacks in America had black women being exploited by the Black man's Gangsta Rap and Hip Hop genre, crumping their booties for showing to their black men. Black women playing house by begeting children and their black boyfriend went off to exploit more black women.

Blacks in America had a "Black Jesus" named Barack Obama who deliver black America from White man's tyranny, But he's not interested with the Black community until he fix our global economy and secure the free world from the rumors of foriegn wars.

Want to know when we were black and Proud? LIVING IN AFRICA, BONDING WITH NATURE AND MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS.


WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET!

Saying it Loud! "I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD!"

[blksoul_x]

I dunno, X. Enjoyed the video, but I always thought that by that time [[1970), the homogenization of music was already in place. Even James Brown was morphing into the dreaded disco bullshit then!
If you ever get the chance, check out the TAMI video from California, filmed around 1965. James had just amazed the crowd, and one Mick Jagger was apprehensive about following his performance. Gave a quick "how can I follow that?!" look at the camera. He was nervous, and should have been.
What is your take on our local record label, Fortune Records, that preceded Motown?

Yes, I agree that the entry of amerikkkan kkkapitalism and its attached wickedness into the Black community, along with some of the mainstream barriers broken down or mitigated by the so-called civil rights movements etc, help defuse the rise of the Black and Proud concept. Since then, our identity in amerikkka' has been confined within the broader so-called amerikkkan' dream.

I'm not to familiar with the history of the Fortune Records label, but I do remember reading a little that they were located not far from Motown, [[maybe around the North end of town). I do recall a record company from Detroit, that produced some of the greatest Funk Music ever, ie George Clinton, Zapp, and more__I believe it was called Sound Suite Studios?

By the way, don't dog disco totally, [[or Hip-Hop for that matter), I'm a huge Disco/Funk fan, particularly music coming out of Philly, [[Sound Of Philly) and the Bronx. There was also a SalSoul record label--I believe out of New York--that featured some talented Black Artist of the time.

blksoul_atcha!
The BJL, the Color you love to hate.

[vetalalumni]

... a record company from Detroit, that produced some of the greatest Funk Music ever, ie George Clinton, Zapp, and more__I believe it was called Sound Suite Studios?

United Sound Studios?

[Bobl]

A list of some who recorded at United Sound Studios, from a Metro Times article by Adam Staffel, in May, 2004:

"...A short list of essential United sessions over the years includes John Lee Hooker’s seminal side “Boogie Chillen,� cut in 1948. A year earlier Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Max Roach cut “Klaunstance� for Savoy Records. Marv Johnson and Berry Gordy recorded “Come to Me,� the first release for what would evolve into The Sound of Young America and the juggernaut Motown label in 1958. Darrell Banks recorded his stunning soul masterpiece “Our Love� there in 1966. Marvin Gaye recorded tracks for “What’s Going On� in 1970. The MC5 recorded “Lookin’ At You� there, and Funkadelic, a band that helped give rise to both techno and hip hop, recorded almost everything they ever did at United. Aretha Franklin, Isaac Hayes, The Rolling Stones, and Hillel Slovak-era Red Hot Chili Peppers all recorded within these walls."

Fortune Records was located in the 3900 block of Third. They are worth investigating at the Soulful Detroit website, or other online sources.

When I first moved to the Cass Corridor after graduating from high school, I stumbled upon this great place while walking past. Some extra special music was being played inside, and their was a seedy bar nearby. I got quite an education that day when I ducked inside the bar.....my introduction to true blues music!

[ccbatson]

Collectivist/statist culture does not allow for individual pride.

[rb336]

Individual pride exists where ever there is an individual

you are really lapsing into the lamest "objectivist" language of all now, bats

[Flanders]

Collectivist/statist culture does not allow for individual pride.

Objectivist culture does not recognize artistic/ethnic contributions made to society unless they can be exploited in some manner for significant monetary and materialistic gain.

[Bong-Man]

And all these years I thought 'Danny'....'The Street Prophet'.....'Rasputin'.....and 'Blacksoulxx" were all one and the same.

[Pam]

And all these years I thought 'Danny'....'The Street Prophet'.....'Rasputin'.....and 'Blacksoulxx" were all one and the same.

How about 2 people with 2 names each? Works for me.

[gibran]

when is "pride"defined by another person? I Guess pride is when you extend humanity and commpassion to all people equally despite what other try do from a rhetorical perspective..

Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.
Wendell Willkie


Social Justice right back atcha...

[vetalalumni]

Good post # 16 gibran.

Individual pride exists where ever there is an individual

Tell it like it is rb336!

[gibran]

It is, therefore, essential that we guard our own thinking and not be among those who cry out against prejudices applicable to themselves, while busy spawning intolerances for others.
Wendell Willkie

[Danny]

Pam,

I not blksoul-X or Rasputin. Their codespeak is different.

[Detroitej72]

Collectivist/statist culture does not allow for individual pride.

I thought this thread might get ugly when I first read it last night.

Now that Bats has chimed in and made it all about the myopic individualism he craves, it kind of torpedoed the whole race discussion and now it lies in the realm of comedy.

[Alfie1a]

i watched the vid. then spent the next hour and a half looking at James Brown videos. great stuff
still tryin to get those moves down. lol

[Bobl]

"Music is your only friend
Dance on fire as it intends"

OK, that was off the wall. Perhaps silly.
But it makes a lot more sense than all this white vs black B.S.

The quote, of course, is from James Morrison....

[ccbatson]

Individualism is the opposite of myopia.

[vetalalumni]

Collectivist/statist culture does not allow for individual pride.

You feel squeezed out [["does not allow"). Here is a prescription - individual pride makes room for itself when the wielder knows how to manage it. The pliable restraint that "does not allow" is loosed with smart ideas, finesse and good will. First prove it to yourself, and then to others.

In the United States of America, "individual pride" does not have to alienate others. This is where your ingenuity comes in. Enjoy the rejuvenation of your ideas, and the fruit of your "Individual pride", and do so in a manner that is not at the expense of other citizens of the United States of America.

And oh, by the way, retire the cave man.

[vetalalumni]

Individualism is the opposite of myopia.

What is the equivalent of myopia? Prove it.