Ingrained and Unthinking

[poliphilo]

A lot of people have been pointing out how few black stars there were on stage at Live 8, but how all the white stars came equipped with black backing singers and musicians.

An image comes to mind- Henry Morton Stanley in his pith helmet with an elephant gun under his arm, fording some pest-infested African river with a long line of native bearers behind him.

As a last minute adjustment a concert involving African artists was laid on to run simultaneously with Live 8- at the Eden Project in Cornwall- about as far from London as one can get without dropping off into the sea. This seemed perilously close to adding insult to injury.

No-one involved in Live 8 is a racist, but the picture we were presented with- honkies in the spotlight, black folk someplace else- said a whole lot about how ingrainedly, unthinkingly racist our society still is.

Comments

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

I'm nodding vigorously, just in case you can't see.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ach, I can now- I was looking in the wrong direction.

[craftyailz.livejournal.com]

And the one black artist - Snoop Dog - didn't mention the reason for the concert once just - "raise you're m*****f***ing (for those of a quiet disposition) hands inthe air/ raise you're m*****f***ing hands like you just don't care" - when caring was what it was all about!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yeah Snoop made me a little uneasy. I mean, was that golden gun hanging round his neck entirely appropriate?

[craftyailz.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's to show us how tough he is - it didn't really go with the little girl pigtails (plaits) from the top of his head though.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

It was a whole lot better, racial-balance-wise, here in Philly. Not that I followed the lineup much, but I did take notice of that. Our closer was Stevie Wonder.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You also had Will Smith. We saw a bit of him kicking off the show. I thought he was fantastic. We could have done with someone equally charismatic acting as compere.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

We have Will Smith a lot -- he's a Philly boy, and he's been talking about opening a big sound studio about half a mile from our house for years. I guess I just think of him as a local. He's pretty cool.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like him- Men in Black, Ali, Independence Day- he's a good actor.

[jenny_evergreen]

And, from all I've seen, a really nice person, too.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I felt cynical about this concert from the beginning, but I don't have a right to gripe about it because I didn't watch it.

My thinking is that Bush won't do a dratted thing more to help--he insulted Tony Blair, IMHO, with the paltry offer--a sop--for additional aid to Africa, after Blair came over here to ask for help.

If the point of this effort was to raise global consciousness, then possibly it succeeded. I hope so.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They were saying that the concert(s)was being broadcast to something like 85% of the world's population- which makes it the "biggest" event in television history.

I started off cynical, but then I sat down and watched it from beginning to end (with detours to take in the Williams/Davenport match.) I guess the verdict on its effectiveness will take a long time to come in.

I just saw an interview with Bush (vis a vis Live 8) where he said he didn't feel he owed Blair anything....

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Why am I not surprised that Bush said that.

What an idiot. Blair never said he "owed" him anything. It wasn't about Blair...

Oh, well. He is hopeless.

Eighty-five percent! That's wonderful. I wonder what the impact will be on the Zeitgeist? (I haven't felt a ripple yet, but it's early days.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I should imagine Blair feels thoroughly betrayed. He put himself on the line for Bush over Iraq.

The commentators are talking about a growing rift between London and Washington. I'm not really sure what it portends....

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Was it on broadcast TV here? I didn't see it and didn't even see it advertised on any of the stations I watch.

I think saying it was 'broadcast to' is quite different than saying it was watched.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the arrangements were on your side of the Pond.

National concerts were staged in all of the G8 countries- The USA, the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and Russia. Over here the entire London concert (11 hours of it) was transmitted live on the BBC.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Sorry--that was a question for Jackie.