Re: Gung Ho, Racism, and more insane howling

[LKG <Lkg>]

Actually the people who are "horrified" are more like yourself,
asserting that on this list naught should be expressed but
lock-step reverence for everything issuing from the mouth or pen
of Patti. Do your "quotes" actually quote anyone, or re-interpret
what you think you read? I have no time to go thru all the posts,
but I think the *general* gist of this thread has been some folks
saying they like/love most or all of rNrN, but wondering if some
hearing it for the first time in a concert setting, might be offended
by, or drawn for the wrong reasons to, hearing a bunch of almost all
white folks shouting "Nigger! Nigger! Nigger!" Even Patti (under
pressure or on her own?) decided not to do the song for the recent TV
broadcast, though she's been doing it at most all live performances,
which are usually attended by those quite familiar with her work.

I don't even recall, from the few "heretics" (as it seems you might
call them), any *definitive* statement on whether it would or wouldn't
be wrong or right for Patti to want someone's first encounter of her
to be hearing her and her fairly pale fans shouting the word "Nigger."
Most were just expressing thoughts about how it might make *them*
feel. Which prompted *all* these responses, like yours, wanting any
"anti"-rNrN thoughts verbotenized. Instead of "I don't agree, and
here's why," it's just like "bunch of PC wrong-thinking assholes!"

Then there was a sub-thread on whether white American art-rebels'
travails could really compare to those of the US' African
slave-descended. Which thread engendered what might now be
characterized as the typical responses of "shut up, how dare you
question our suffering and street-cred" (sarcastic not-real quote).

I don't recall anyone on this list calling Patti a racist. (If you
have real quotes, please refresh while I find my Gingko Biloba.)
When one publishes as many serious words as Ms. Smith does, certainly
some will cause discussion, and even questioning, oh my! If you're so
against thought/expression-control, then why are you so quick to be
so shocked and appalled by a fan-list with people who only agree on
Patti being a fuckin' great poet/rock artist, and who don't toe one
single line of thought/expression, and who aren't afraid, despite
virulent disagreement, to say whatever the fuck they think about her
work? You remind me of Bill Maher, who I think helped coin the phrase
"Politically Correct" so he could rail against it, picking out (or
making up) whatever article or sentence supports his view, and
ignoring (or disappearing) all other arguments and logic. I don't know
anyone sensible who thinks about being "PC," just about decent human
behavior, which imho is defined anew per each situation. No rules.

I swan, this is the last I have to say on this...so I hope I made
some kind of sense amidst the verbal diarrhea. As I quoted (Sly Stone)
in another post just now: "And not a word could change a thing."

 :} Lkg

"Michael S. Olsen" <Soendberg-Olsen> wrote:

> Imagine my surprise when I saw the people, on a
> mailing-list about Patti, actually being horrified and
> put off by that song. I sat there, reading my mail and
> shaking my head. I mean, if the song was meant to be
> AGAINST racism, among other things, then what's so wrong
> about using the n-word? "Oh, but it's a derogatory slur!
> and bla-bla-blahh..."
> [...]
> PC is too much like a kind of thought-control. "It is
> illegal for you to act this way (okay by me), and just to
> make sure, you're not even allowed to THINK it."(Wrong).
> Do I sympathize with racists and other hate-mongers? No.
> Do I believe that if free speech is too hold any true
> meaning it MUST be free for all people and all views? Yes.
> As Vaclav Havel said: "Think of free speech this way. It is
> not there because of the view you hold most dear, but
> because of the one you despise the most". We can't wave
> free speech in front of somebody and say: "WE can say what
> WE believe, but YOU can't even breathe a word". Then free
> speech has no meaning, and in the end we will all pay for it.