Black Lives Matter to Me

BLACK LIVES MATTER TO ME

There's a meme going around on FB that people are reposting: "I STAND FOR." The first thing on the list is "Black Lives." I find it curious that some of the people who are posting this have nothing to do with black lives.

I will say this: I am very much against BLM, a terrorist organization which scammed many generous, kind, giving Americans out of millions, maybe billions, of dollars and spent it on themselves and have been proven to NOT CARE AT ALL ABOUT BLACK LIVES. Why hasn't the IRS audited them?

As an artist, I work with wonderful black singers and musicians. I have spent a big chunk of my life studying the culture of American music, blues, rock & roll, R&B, and have traveled to the capital of the blues: Clarksdale, MS and have studied Black art and music (having been raised in Chicago) all my life. On my latest album, "Ghosts in a Time Machine," I explore gospel, R&B, blues and R&R... and even wrote a song dedicated to the Gullah of SC, which is the title track.

My song, The Color Line celebrates the writings of Frederick Douglass.

Much of my art is dedicated to the beautiful black people of Charleston, SC who I photograph, meet, talk to and ride the bus with all the time and one of my pieces was even chosen last year to represent Piccolo Spoleto: "Charleston Folks."

One of my favorite artists is Romare Bearden whose art I've traveled to many cities to see in person. Among my favorite singers are Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Howlin' Wolf (whose life I wrote about in my song, "The Wolf" and Mississippi John Hurt who is one of the greatest musicians of the Delta.

I love the blues and collect the records of B.B. King, Son House, Charley Patton, Lead Belly and many more. They are the backbone of American music. I have been to Memphis several times and walked Beale Street where B.B. King and Elvis Presley lived their lives. I studied Stax Records and their history and recommend the wonderful documentary on Stax. You can learn more about great Black Lives on my page: BLUES ROUTES.

I have studied the writings of Abraham Lincoln whose Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves... and who died trying to give Black Men the right to vote.

My point is - you shouldn't just say I STAND FOR BLACK LIVES without actually experiencing Black lives. The terrible direction America took during COVID when BLM destroyed many cities and thousands of people's lives that ended up putting a drug-addicted criminal on a pedestal should be replaced by teaching the lessons of Bob Woodson, Carol Swain, Shelby Steele, Alveda King and other Black Conservatives who have devoted their lives to building up and encouraging Black people to be the best they can be. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader of nonviolent resistance, said it best: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" from The Declaration of Independence and "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."