June 29, 2005
No Good Concert
Goes unpunished...
Watching the politically correct circus that has surrounded the "Live 8" concert is like watching a car wreck involving those little circus volkswagens that hold a dozen clowns in them...
The fact that most of the acts are white has been a constant source of bleating from many - and apparently not letting the Spice Girls in didn't quell the talk. Talk that perhaps Michael Jackson would perform also didn't help, and perhaps a black man who now looks white would only exacerbate the problem.
Let's examine some of the acts at Live 8 who happen to be white:
Paul McCartney
Elton John
Madonna
REM
Coldplay
Sting
U2
The Cure
This apparently is too much for British singer Damon Albarn (Who???), who of course is apparently under the notion that those in dire straights in Africa really give a rats ass what color the hand reaching out to them is. Should we cut Madonna for this guy?
One of his brilliant bon mots is that not having more black acts on the show is "...insensitive and it also perpetuates this idea that Africa is separated in some way." Yeah, Africa is it's whole continent and everything, sport. Wait, he actually continues...
"In a way Live 8 does that: it doesn't make you feel closer to Africa, it treats it like it's a failing, ill, sick, tired place."My personal experience of Africa is that yes, I have witnessed all those things there, but it's incredibly sophisticated -- the society and the structure of people's lives is as sophisticated, if not more sophisticated in some ways, than in the West."
Well surely more sophisticated that British singers named Damon Albarn. Nothing personal, but there is only one continent that gets it's own charity concert series... I mean even Antarctica doesn't get one.
When those who have an overabundance of money and fame decide to do something to benefit someone besides themselves, why are we standing in the way of one of the few things most of these folks will ever do than means a damn thing? Is it Sting's fault he isn't black? Should he not give a damn about Africa? Because that's what the myopic notion of racial quotas at charity events is suggesting - concern for Black Africa is best expressed by black artists.
As Laura Ingraham is fond of saying, shut up and sing...
Posted by MEC2 at June 29, 2005 10:17 PM | TrackBack