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PrintBy MIKE VINSON
The motivation for this week's column was the 2017 Grammy Awards, held annually for all areas of music. More specifically, it was the showdown between pop superstars Adele, who is white, and Beyonce, who is black. Adele is the full-figured gal from England with the luxuriant voice, who doesn't dance. On the polar opposite, we have American-born Beyonce who in addition to possessing a uniquely soulful voice and an athletic physique has gyratory dance moves that crowns her the "Booty-Shakin' Queen"!
Adele did walk away the overall winner for the 2017 Grammy's, and, yes, some Left Wing media and ethnic rabble rousers have turned it into a "Black vs. White" debacle. However, "music" is not the focal point here. Rather, the focal point is the "Black Power Movement." If you're confused, that's okay. Hopefully, though, you'll be enlightened by the closing.
*October 1966, Oakland California: Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, both African-American, formed the "Black Panther Party/BPP." Borrowing from the doctrines of Malcolm X, the BPP was the black community's response to alleged white police brutality against blacks. The original BPP uniform consisted of black shirt, black pants, black leather jacket, and black beret. Still, it wasn't long before the uniform was complemented by 12-gauge shotguns, .45 handguns, and ammunition bandoliers. Chapters popped up in other cities, and the BPP marched defiantly in public. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover labeled it as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country."
*April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee: Reverend Martin Luther King/MLK, the strongest voice ever for the Civil Rights Movement, was slain by a single sniper's bullet. Great was the outcry over MLK's assassination, so great that black militant Stokely Carmichael, who is credited with coining the phrase "Black Power," instructed black followers to "Get your gun!" Indeed, many followers complied with Carmichael's firebrand rhetoric, and rioting broke out all across the country--America was on the brink of an all-out civil war!
April 18, 1968: James Earl Ray, a white career criminal and fugitive on the run, was named as
MLK's assassin. Until the FBI's manhunt for 9/11 financier Osama bin Laden, the manhunt for
Ray was the largest in the Bureau's history, a reported 3,000 agents assigned to tracking down
Ray. Ray was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on June 8, 1968. With Ray's arrest, the racial heat in America cooled down a few degrees.
(NOTE: Under highly questionable conditions, Ray entered a "guilty plea" in the MLK assassination on March 10, 1969, and received a 99-year sentence. Ray died from liver disease April 23, 1998. Many are of the opinion that Ray did not shoot MLK.)
*October 16, 1968; Olympic Games; Mexico City, Mexico: Tommie Smith and John Carlos, both black, were America's premier sprinters. On that October 16 morning at those 1968 Games,
Smith won the 200-meter race with a world-record time of 19.83 seconds, and Carlos finished third with a time of 20.10 seconds. After the race, Smith and Carlos walked to the podium to receive their medals: gold for Smith and bronze for Carlos. Both were shoeless, which was symbolic of "black poverty." Smith wore a black scarf around his neck, symbolic of "black pride." As the American national anthem "Star-Spangled Banner" blared through the speakers,
Smith and Carlos, each, lowered his head, and each raised a black-gloved "fist" in the air. This was in stark defiance to Olympic protocol, which was: hands down by their sides, heads up, facing the flag, and respectfully listening to the Anthem.
Though heavily booed by the crowd, and quickly demonized by the media and Olympic
Committee, Smith and Carlos were also hailed as civil rights heroes by many. The photo capturing the "black-gloved, raised fist" moment was headlines news all over the world." It has been called one of the most "overtly political statements" in Olympic-civil rights history. Okay and my point is ...? Actually, it is a two-part one:
(1) A "clenched fist in the air" is the Black Power symbol because it stands for "resistance and self-defense." Historians claim the fist salute has been used since ancient times.
(2) Beyonce Knowles performing at the 2016 Super Bowl/50: Denver Broncos vs. the Carolina Panthers.
Accompanied by a large troupe of black female dancers, Beyonce came out during halftime at Super Bowl 50. All the above were scantily clad in solid black, with Beyonce wearing an ammunition bandolier, and backing dancers wearing black berets. The music was great, the dancing sexually suggestive. At some point during the performance Beyonce and dance mates raised left fists in the air, a tribute to "Black Lives Matter." However, there exist photos of the dancers with raised right fists, an obvious tribute to the Black Panther Party.
Once again, I was baffled at how many adults--including African-Americans--knew nothing regarding the "history" between the 1968 Olympics and Beyonce's Super Bowl 50- Black Power statement.
(NOTE: Beyonce and husband, music mogul Jay Z, are expecting twins. They have a 4-year-old daughter named Blue Ivy Carter.)
