Black and white history confusion
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Once again I am going through another month of February and it is Black History month. To celebrate this month I added a mix of Today's Country music to my eclectic list of stations on Pandora Radio. To be sure, I am of African descent, but I also have some Cherokee Indian and German blood in my genes. My parents were both born and raised in Texas. My dad's father was a farmer and former slave.
So when I think about why I love Dr. Pepper, rock and blues music sprinkled with country all I have to do is look at where my roots are from. Growing up is Southern California I was a real hippie and loved to listen to California country like The Eagles, The Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds. When I listen to some of the country music today I can hear the same elements in the music that I liked when I was in high school.
So why am I writing about Black History month and then going on a tangent into what kind of music that I listen to. Well I am illustrating a point that as I was growing up I was not musically exposed to a segregated selection of music. I could listen to a FM radio station that played everything from James Brown to James Taylor and I liked it all. I liked Tower of Power and the Allman Brothers Band and I was also listening to Bach and Dvorak and Rachmaninoff. So why do we have one month designated as Black History month? Is there a White History month or a Mexican history month? Sounds pretty stupid does it not? We are all Americans living in the United States so all of us make up the total history of this great country. We will celebrate our history all year as one nation made up of many diverse cultures and people or will we continue to segregate our history like we do our culture?
It use to be that there were some radio stations that did not segregate music, but as time goes by more and more specialty stations are managed by corporate play list and satellite radio allows you to select a perfect genre of music so that you can choose to not be eclectic in your musical taste. This choice of segregation in music playback is also what is happening to our society. As I ride my bike around the bible belt here in SW Georgia on Sunday afternoon I see lots of folks attending churches. There are churches were black folks attend and there churches were white folks attend and they are in the same denomination (do not get me started on bible interpretations and church denominations). Sometimes the churches are in the same block. I sometimes wonder how this works as an effective way to build a strong unified community.
So in the twenty first century it looks like there are lots of choices that we can make with our music and our ways of being a society and nation. We can choose diversity or we can choose to be around folks that are like us, think like us and have opinions like us. I have lots of friends on Facebook that do not share my opinions politically or religiously and I do not share theirs and I still consider them my friends. I enjoy a conversation to discuss issues that are meaningful and I always consider that I have something to learn for everybody. I never assume that I know it all. I hope that we all can be a little more tolerant of opinions and consider that we are all here on this planet to get along. Facebook has the potential for you to have a conversation with lost of folks that are diverse and have different opinions than you do. Do not un-friend folks, expand your horizons and become friend with folks that you may not know too well or who are different from you as you may learn something from them.
So during the month of February 2013 I am re-discovering my roots in Texas by listening to some of my favorite country artist like Emmy Lou Harris, George Strait, Craig Morgan and Lucinda Williams.
I have fond memories of my visit to the Red Neck Yacht club on Lake Austin on Dean Lackey's wake board boat.
Once again I am going through another month of February and it is Black History month. To celebrate this month I added a mix of Today's Country music to my eclectic list of stations on Pandora Radio. To be sure, I am of African descent, but I also have some Cherokee Indian and German blood in my genes. My parents were both born and raised in Texas. My dad's father was a farmer and former slave.
So when I think about why I love Dr. Pepper, rock and blues music sprinkled with country all I have to do is look at where my roots are from. Growing up is Southern California I was a real hippie and loved to listen to California country like The Eagles, The Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds. When I listen to some of the country music today I can hear the same elements in the music that I liked when I was in high school.
So why am I writing about Black History month and then going on a tangent into what kind of music that I listen to. Well I am illustrating a point that as I was growing up I was not musically exposed to a segregated selection of music. I could listen to a FM radio station that played everything from James Brown to James Taylor and I liked it all. I liked Tower of Power and the Allman Brothers Band and I was also listening to Bach and Dvorak and Rachmaninoff. So why do we have one month designated as Black History month? Is there a White History month or a Mexican history month? Sounds pretty stupid does it not? We are all Americans living in the United States so all of us make up the total history of this great country. We will celebrate our history all year as one nation made up of many diverse cultures and people or will we continue to segregate our history like we do our culture?
It use to be that there were some radio stations that did not segregate music, but as time goes by more and more specialty stations are managed by corporate play list and satellite radio allows you to select a perfect genre of music so that you can choose to not be eclectic in your musical taste. This choice of segregation in music playback is also what is happening to our society. As I ride my bike around the bible belt here in SW Georgia on Sunday afternoon I see lots of folks attending churches. There are churches were black folks attend and there churches were white folks attend and they are in the same denomination (do not get me started on bible interpretations and church denominations). Sometimes the churches are in the same block. I sometimes wonder how this works as an effective way to build a strong unified community.
So in the twenty first century it looks like there are lots of choices that we can make with our music and our ways of being a society and nation. We can choose diversity or we can choose to be around folks that are like us, think like us and have opinions like us. I have lots of friends on Facebook that do not share my opinions politically or religiously and I do not share theirs and I still consider them my friends. I enjoy a conversation to discuss issues that are meaningful and I always consider that I have something to learn for everybody. I never assume that I know it all. I hope that we all can be a little more tolerant of opinions and consider that we are all here on this planet to get along. Facebook has the potential for you to have a conversation with lost of folks that are diverse and have different opinions than you do. Do not un-friend folks, expand your horizons and become friend with folks that you may not know too well or who are different from you as you may learn something from them.
So during the month of February 2013 I am re-discovering my roots in Texas by listening to some of my favorite country artist like Emmy Lou Harris, George Strait, Craig Morgan and Lucinda Williams.
I have fond memories of my visit to the Red Neck Yacht club on Lake Austin on Dean Lackey's wake board boat.
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