Wednesday, February 07, 2007

• The Race is On - A Unrehearsed Ramble

  Currently Listening Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers By Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers Cupid see related

  Stereotypes are wrong and harmful.* 

  Of course, the only reason I'm starting out with a bold statement like that is that I have some questions in my head about race.  On the other hand, I can pretty much say anything I want to, since my identity is hidden and unknown and secret and triple-secret. 
  Mwah.  
  Ha.
  Ha.

  The Super Bowl got me thinking about racial issues - the fact that both head coaches were 'black' was significant, but I'm glad the announcers didn't make a big deal about it (the commercials referenced it more than the announcers, oddly enough).  Surely, Super Bowl '07 went a great way towards dispelling the superstition that a particular race would be more able to coach than another.  Maybe superstitions like that, do prove the stereotype that people are stupid.  I don't know.

  I'm also thinking about race, because sweetanonymity (you know, I have to love that name) on my last entry commented that Prince never ages.  My first thought was, "Well yeah, he's black".  Is that stereotype-based thinking? I don't think so.  It just sounds like it. 

  Actually and totally and really, I don't believe in race.  I think the concept is made up.  We can interbreed.  God made us all of one blood and tells us so. Christ died for all of us. To me, that means there's no such thing as race. 

  Yet, I still think in a racial language - i.e. that dude is black, that other dude is white.  Red & yellow, black & white are dumb terms to describe people, but I find it difficult to think of other terms.  Referring to myself as a Caucasian is as ridiculous as referring to myself as European.  My family's been in America since the early 1600's!  I'm only American at this point - just like my 'black' step-sons.  I get tiredhead trying to think of the best term to describe someone else, so I use color or some other short-hand variant like Asian - actually I'm not bad at picking out Koreans from Vietnamese from Chinese, etc. but I'm not 100%, so Asian is the best I can do most of the time.

  I don't have much of a point to all of this.  I'm just thinking out loud.  You're welcome.  The real heart of this entry is inspired by American Idol last night.  In specific, the big 'black' dude that sang the Sam Cooke medley.  What a voice!  I have a man-crush on his voice.

  As the auditions to American Idol have taught us, no 'race' has a lock on being able to sing.  I've heard bad 'black' singers and bad 'white' singers.  Oh, and that one bad Asian singer from last year.  But there's a...quality? resonance? an intonation? to the voice of an excellent 'black' singer that an excellent 'white' singer can never match.  What is that?

  Maybe later on, I'll have a glorious post that answers questions and blinds you and destroys you with its glory and its gloriousness. This one obviously ain't it.  Have patience with me, you're too good-looking to be blinded and destroyed just yet anyway.

  * Except for that one time, we were hosting a party where we knew many "people of color" would attend, we decided to serve plenty of lemonade & fruit punch with the iced tea and cokes we would normally serve. That was generally regarded as a great idea.  So, thanks stereotypes...

  • 1:59 PM
  • 88 views
  • 26 eprops
  • 17 comments