[Dixielandjazz] Mixed race lineups, Chicago Style

[Charlie Hooks]

on 7/22/03 8:18 AM, Don Ingle at dingle at baldwin-net.com wrote:

> To those that would have a problem with this, I can only say...GET OVER
> IT!!
> Don Ingle

    You know, Don, I think the only people who would have a problem are
younger black people.   Many of them are just completely different from the
older generation, causing ill-feeling needlessly, seeing problems where none
exist.  I often feel that they need conflict so they can in their turn feel
morally victorious as did their elders who had real problems and fought real
battles.   

    There are now very few impediments to black people who want to get
ahead, and I see them as nostalgic for the tough times of their parents'
lives when black folks had real obstacles and it really was "the white
folks' fault"!   Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan and Bill Cosby can't claim
"po' li'l black folks jis' cain't make it nohow--white folks won't let 'em!"
And I think this situation greatly disturbs many younger blacks.  "If I
can't blame Whitey, I might have to blame myself!"

    Men like Quinn Wilson, Roselle Claxton, Eddie Johnson, Joe Johnson,
Jimmy Johnson, Truck Parham, Duke Groner--I could go on and on and so could
you--were all men who had been through the fire and had come out on the
other side, still gentlemen, still playing.  These were all men I felt close
to; yet I do not now know a single black player under 50 that I can feel
that way about.   I'm sure they are out there, but I haven't found any:
which suggests that their numbers are few.

    Another case of youth being wasted on the young...

sadly,
Charlie