Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!jeff From: jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Re: Music Awards Message-ID: <1385@dciem.UUCP> Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 09:45:43 EST Article-I.D.: dciem.1385 Posted: Wed Feb 13 09:45:43 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 12:01:51 EST References: <77@ISM780.UUCP> <1127@houxm.UUCP>Reply-To: jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 21 Summary: I didn't see the American music awards (I hate awards shows) but even amongst those who did, there seems to be some disagreement over whether the black categories were for black musicians, or for traditionally black music. If they were for black musicians, then I disagree with them. For about the past 20 years, music has been one of the few parts of our culture that has been almost free of racism, and I think that it's a big step backward to put racism back into music by having awards that are only for black musicians. Racism is racism no matter which race it favours. (This is not the proper news group to talk about racism in general, as some have been doing, but it's okay to talk about racism in music.) If the awards are for traditionally black music, then that's fine, but they should be renamed to "R&B", "Soul", or whatever so that people like us don't get all upset about them. After all, I don't think country music has ever been called "white music", even though it's just as traditionally white as R&B is black. Categorizations like "black music" and "white music" tend to put up barriers that may cause a lot of great music to be overlooked. I don't care what colour the artists are as long as they sound good. -- Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto (416) 635-2073 {linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd}!utcsrgv!dciem!jeff {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!dciem!jeff