Category: race

I Have a Headache

This one in particular:

I made the mistake of reading some of the comments on some of the YouTube videos about racism. There’s some weird stuff in the videos themselves, but the opinions of some people – oy. Try the conversation about racism in Alberta, for one. Or better still, don’t bother.

There’s a December 2006 CNN poll on racism shows that most Americans do see lingering racism — in others.

Meanwhile, Hispanic Business magazine reports that bias costs companies billions. So, bigotry is not just wrong, it’s expensive.

Not so incidentally, John Mellencamp has a new song called Jena:

It can also be found on his website. BTW, the name of the town is pronounced Gina, not Jenna.

Anyway, I think every once in a while, the fact that we’re still dealing with this stuff makes me feel as though my head were in a vise.

But I don’t think the answer is to pretend that we don’t SEE differences in race, because we do, just like we see red hair or a burka. It’s how we ACCEPT differences, in my view.

ROG

ROG

Sputnik and Little Rock

I just discovered that two things that happened when I was 4 1/2, external to my immediate surroundings, but with long-lasting effect on me, both took place within a two-week span.

September 25, 1957: Nine black students safely entered Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, after President Eisenhower sent in federal troops to deal with a mob that interfered with a federal court order for the school to integrate. At the beginning of the school year, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had ordered the state’s National Guard to stop any black students from entering the school, a decision that was countermanded by the federal judge in the case. The story is well told in a son made popular by Pete Seeger, and performed for a time by my father, State of Arkansas; the third verse I especially remembered without assistance:
“Three hundred National Guard were there
Dressed up to fight a war.”

Even at that age, I knew that race mattered. I was also vaguely aware that the federal government was doing an extraordinary thing that was not universally popular. This led me to believe in the innate goodness of the federal government, a notion that has been dashed time and time again in the intervening years.

October 4, 1957: Sputnik was launched, beginning the space race, which was seen, in part, as an extension of the arms race.

As writer John Noble Wilford put it: “Sputnik changed everything – history, geopolitics, the scientific world.” Certainly, the headway made by the “Commie Ruskies” colored my entire time in school. It fueled competitiveness to learn, but also exacerbated a Cold War paranoia that we’d all die by some entity, unseen until it was too late. I used to do these “Duck and Cover” exercises:

My wife was listening to the “duck and cover” drill that I played, and it was scary to her.
I’ve complained that current politicians like to deal in fear mongering, but on reflection, I grew up learning to be afraid of the Commies. It may be that the “counter culture” of the late 1960s was as much a reaction to that paranoia of the 1950s and early 1960s as it was to the promotion of civil rights and opposition to the Viet Nam war.

These two events, one of civil rights and the other a specter of war, taking place before I was in kindergarten, had a huge, and continuing effect on me that I hadn’t fully appreciated until now.

ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, Scott and Gordini

The blogger Scott, husband of Marcia and father of Nigel, one of those people who still cares about the NHL, was kind enough to ask:

1. What do you think are the chances of us seeing another “Subway Series” this October?

You must have me mistaken with someone who has any idea. I had the St. Louis Cardinals losing every round they played (and won) last year.

That said, highly unlikely. In fact, much to my surprise, I think the Yankees have a better chance of getting there than the Mets, much to my disappointment. I’m rooting for the wild card to come out of the NL West (and for the Mets to win their division) because I think THEY think they can’t beat the Phillies in a second round matchup, whereas the Yankees could beat Boston, if they get past the first round. Though the Yanks have had a difficult time with the Angels this season, so if the Angels beat the Red Sox, the Yankees may be in trouble. Incidentally, yesterday was the centennial of the birth of original Angels’ owner, Gene Autry.

(When you asked a few days ago, the Mets were up by 2 games. Now they’re tied with a game to go, with no guarantee that they’ll even get IN the playoffs.)

2. What do you consider your favorite TV Drama of all-time?

Quite possibly St. Elsewhere, although Hill Street Blues and Homicide are up there. My favorite show as a kid, though was the Defenders, a lawyer show with E.G. Marshall and a pre-Brady Bunch Robert Reed. I was also fond of East Side/West Side with George C. Scott. There was an anthology show called The Bold Ones, and The Senator segment with Hal Holbrook was great, got Emmy love, but it lasted but a season. Was Twilight Zone a drama? That gets its own special mention.

3. What do you consider your favorite TV sit-com of all-time?

The Dick van Dyke Show. The perfect balance of home life and work life. Great physical comedy by DVD. MTM’s capri pants. And Richard Deacon from Binghamton, NY. Lasted five years – not too short, not long enough to wear out its welcome, which I’m afraid M*A*S*H, arguably a better show in its prime, did for me.

Though I must give some consideration to the Mary Tyler Moore Show, with a magnificent evolving cast, also did home and work well, as did, now that I think of it, the Bob Newhart Show, the one where he plays the shrink.

A comedy that evolved into a good show was Barney Miller, which scrapped any real pretense of a home life after the first season (Barbara Barrie played Barney’s wife), and found its voice.

4. What scares you the most about Lydia growing up?

I suppose I’m dreading that inevitable teenage period when she thinks I’m an irrelevant, archaic druid. But I have to say that the great thing about having no idea what you’re doing as a parent – in that most of my preconceived notions about fatherhood could be tossed into the Dumpster – is that I don’t think too much about her Growing Up; I’m trying to take care of her Now.

I am reminded, again, about racism and racialism. I had never heard the latter term until I watched some Nelson Mandela speech right after he was released from prison. Some people use the terms interchangeably, but I feel a distinction. To me, racism is blatant inequity under the law or in society; e.g., the Jena 6 charged more harshly for their crimes than the white students who had assaulted black kids. Whereas, racialism is more the “damn fool” things people say and do, such as Bill O’Reilly.
I just started reading Anti-Racist Parent. By “just”, I mean yesterday; interesting stuff.

Back to TV: Lydia decided just this week that she wanted to put on her right sock, then her right shoe, left sock and left shoe. This reminded me of a conversation that Mike Stivic had with Archie Bunker (a sock, sock, shoe, shoe guy) on All in the Family; that was a good show, too.
***
Meanwhile, blogger Gordon, newly re-minted Chicagoan, podcaster, and most importantly, March Piscean, writes: “OK, well, here’s a question that I think you can answer: do you ever have a moment where you think ‘I’m so full of hot gas?'”

Immediately, I started writing this rambling epic indicating how there are several areas where I have no opinions at all, that the opinions I do have are often based on reason and experience, and that I don’t love the sound of my own voice as much as many do. I noted how, in keeping with a conversation he and I had privately, that I read other viewpoints; in fact, I spent some time this week listening to some of the speeches on the White Nationalist News Network, which I found by clicking Next Blog.

I addressed how an old girlfriend accused me of Male Answer Syndrome, which I rejected, not because it wasn’t possibly true, but because the thing I was answering (about alpacas being more pleasant than llamas) I actually DID know from research in my job. (And not so incidentally, claims that I have MAS has dropped SIGNIFICANTLY since I appeared on that game show. And there was other stuff about my good listening and observing skills.

But, sure, OK, don’t we all feel like we’re fakin’ it sometimes? Don’t at least many of us feel as though we’re about 11 and are pretending to wear grown-up clothes periodically?

So, Gordon, I could have just said “Yes.” But somehow, I thought you wanted a little more than that.
***
Oh, and another one of my favorite reads, Tom the Dog, who has been on one more game show than I have, says nice things about me. Right back at you.

ROG

ROG

STAX Obsession


I got me a major league Stax Records jones lately, and it’s all based on some sort of cosmic convergence.

Fifty years ago, in 1957, Satellite Records the predecessor to Stax Records, was opened, ushering in an era of soul. The label changed its name when the founders discovered another company called Satellite Records.

I’ve been listening to Stax music heavily since at least July 29, which is the birthday of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jim Stewart, who co-started the label with his sister Estelle Axton; STewart-AXton. I played The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968, the nine-disc box set that came out in 1991, and The Complete Stax-Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 2: 1968-1971, the nine-CD 1993 followup. I haven’t bought The Complete Stax-Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 3: 1972-1975, the TEN-disc completion, but after reading the Amazon reviews and listening to 100+ minutes of 30-second snippets on Amazon, I may.

Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, Luther Ingram, Albert King, the Bar-Kays, Booker T. & the MG’s, Johnnie Taylor, Rufus and Carla Thomas, and dozens of other artists whose influence remains vital in the music of today. On its many and varied labels, Stax Records also recorded such legends as Big Star, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Bill Cosby, Moms Mabley, and the Grammy-winning comedic genius Richard Pryor.

I’ve also been reading Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story Of Stax Records by Rob Bowman, which came out in 1997 during the 40th anniversary of the label; the book was 12 years in the making. It is stunningly detailed, with footnotes indicating, among other things, differing memories of the participants. It also makes me wonder why Estelle Axton isn’t in the Rock Hall, for it was her Satellite Record Shop where the sound of early Stax was developed.

On PBS this month, I got to watch Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, which, not so incidentally, will be available on DVD on October 2, 2007; I believe it’s available through PBS now. Let me put it this way: if you claim to care about American popular music, you should either read the Bowman book or watch the video. Preferably both, although the last third of each, showing the final decline, is a bit tough.

You’ll find out about a problematic deal with Atlantic Records that, along with the deaths of Otis Redding (on a plane in the Midwest) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (assassinated in Memphis), nearly killed the label by 1968, but you’ll also learn about how Stax managed to have a racially integrated house band that rivaled Motown’s The Funk Brothers in segregated Memphis, including Steve Cropper and “Duck” Dunn, names you might recognize from the Blues Brothers band.

Thanks to the hard work of Al Bell, the record producer who had become president of Stax, the label not only survived but thrived. According to the Wikipedia piece: “On August 20, 1972, the Stax label presented a major concert, Wattstax, featured performances by Stax recording artists and humor from rising young comedian Richard Pryor. Known as the “Black Woodstock,” Wattstax was hosted by Reverend Jesse Jackson and drew a crowd of over 100,000 attendees, most of them African-American. Wattstax was filmed by motion picture director Mel Stuart (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory), and a concert film of the event was released to theaters by Columbia Pictures in February 1973.” Thus, today is the 35th anniversary of that seminal event.

Some bank dealings, plus an unfortunate arrangement with CBS Records, helped lead to the label’s unfortunate first ending in 1975, although it’s been recently revived.

The final piece is that today is the 65th birthday of “Black Moses”, Isaac Hayes. Long before he started recording as a featured performer, he was a session musician. He also wrote a number of songs, many for Sam (Moore) and Dave (Prater); his songwriting partner was often David Porter. Then he became a star, putting out an 18-minute version of Jim Webb’s “By the Time I Get To Phoenix” on “Hot Buttered Soul”; a 6:45 single was also released. Of course, he is probably best known, at least in my generation, as the writer/performer of the Oscar-winning theme for the movie Shaft. “That man Shaft is a bad mother—.” “Shut your mouth.”

Here’s a section from the Bowman book:
…by the time Hayes was eighteen months old his mother had passed away in a mental institution; because his father had disappeared sometime before her death, Isaac was raised by his [sharecropper] grandparents…After his grandfather died, when he was eleven, Isaac, his sister and grandmother, together and separately, lived all over North Memphis…When they were cut off from welfare…they used the wood from their outhouse to burn for heat…The next year, the family ran out of food and Isaac’s grandmother and sister got sick from hunger.
Yet, Hayes survived, and once he discovered music, thrived.

So read about Stax. More importantly, Respect Yourself and LISTEN to some Stax.
***
Steve Gerber Knows His Stax. Gordon’s July’s Record You Should Own is a Stax album. Julie Hembeck, for your birthday, listen to some Stax.
ROG

ROG

Rogered

We try to keep it a nice wholesome, family-orientated blog here at Ramblin’. But occasionally we fail. I’ve rediscovered that the words “roger” and “rogered” have an interesting, if scatological, slang definition. Thanks, Dorian for bringing this up. (I think.)

Long ago, I found the meaning of ROGER to mean Famous spear; English and French name of Germanic origin, composed of the elements hrod “fame” and gar/ger “spear”, thus “famous spear” and/or derived from Hroth-gar, meaning “spear-bearer”.

There was a black character in the M*A*S*H book, movie, and the first season of the television series called Spearchucker Jones. Spearchucker was considered a racial slur when I was growing up, tied to the notion of the “African savage”, and I suspect it’s more the reason the character got dropped than the fact there were actually no black doctors in Korea; the spear Jones used to chuck in college, BTW, was a javelin.

But I was surprised to find that Spearchucker actually HAD a name: Oliver Wendell Jones. I was going to posit the idea that his given name was Roger, based on the word’s entomology. Another theory shot to heck.
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Probably TMI: The husband of an ex-girlfriend of mine asked me this recently: “[His wife] once told me a story about taking you to visit her father. Your suitcase snapped open unexpectedly and your condom collection spilled on the ground. True story?”
Answer: Seriously, I have no recollection of such an occurrence. This is not to say that it didn’t happen and I had sensibly blocked it from my mind.
***
Since we’re in the field of what some might consider inappropriate language, a headstone for a dog.

ROG

ROG
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