Barak Obama is president elect and I couldn’t be happier. I stood up for him (not exactly an easy thing for a semi-reclusive white male to do in a small rural Iowa town!) in the Iowa Caucuses. I voted for him and for the first time I can remember, I really, really believe in the dream. As I reflected on my feelings, to figure out what caused me, this jaded political pessimist, to let his guard down, my life flashback kept returning to the same old snapshots and memories.
In 1976, I was a 6th grader, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin started a desegregation busing initiative that turned the town upside down for a few weeks. Teachers in my neighborhood white south side school went on strike, and adults cursed and held anti-desegregation (segregation?) signs. It was all a little scary for a youngster who didn’t understand the sociopolitical dynamics of the situation. I just knew that black kids were coming to our school from somewhere far away, and boy, were people pissed. My brother and sister attended the local school that year, but, my mom, being a stout Jesse Jackson follower and general liberal political agitator, opted to send me to Jackie Robinson Open Alternative school on the Near North Side where the black kids were being bused from. She didn’t think it was fair that the kids from the primarily black areas be the only ones bused, so she sent me in trade, I guess. All of a sudden, I was a overnight minority, a scrawny white kid in a completely foreign inner city.
Now, if you’ve read any of my posts, or if you know me at all, you’ll understand that music is my cultural touchstone. I tend to think of many things in terms of their musical significance in my memory. At Jackie Robinson in 1976, Jr High kids either listened to hard rock like Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and Aerosmith (now classic rock?!) or they listened to soul and funk sounds that would eventually become hip hop; Parliament, Chaka Kahn, Rufus and Ohio Players. In the game room at lunchtime, it was the rockers vs. the cool funksters. The adult lunch monitor tried to give equal time to each side, but there was still bitching. I loved the funk. It was alien and primal and to a kid who was raised on straight 4 beats, the accent on the 3 made my pelvis feel slippery. But I loved the hard rock too. Aerosmith’s “Rocks” and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” from that period are still two of my favorites, and when I’m alone, and in the right mood, it’s Parliament’s “We Got the Funk” and “Bop Gun”.
What does this 30 year old tale have to do with our new President elect, you ask? Barack’s historical achievement brings me back to 1976 and Parliment, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, and the song Chocolate City. “They still got the White House, but that’s a temporary condition, too.” To me, the song epitomized black power. Clinton’s lyrics gave strength to the numbers of blacks that had been migrating north to cities like Gary, IN, Newark, NJ, Chicago and Washington, DC the original Chocolate City. Parliament channels groovy Sly and James Brown, infused with the influence of black power militants Huey Newton and Bobby Seale (plus a lot of pot and LSD). They took the party to the people, with a message that provided a sound track for the change that made todays hope possible.
Gainin’ On Ya!
