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Why Racists Fear Black History -- And Why We Should Thank Black America

Why Racists Fear Black History -- And Why We Should Thank Black America

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I want to tell you a story about Black History. I sublet Jack Whitten’s loft on Broome Street in Soho during the summer of 1969. I knew he was an artist, but when I first climbed the stairs and walked into his loft, I didn’t know what to expect. The door opened into his painting and sculpture studio at the front of the loft where four big windows poured light down on the paint-stained floor. The first thing I saw was a big piece of wood carved roughly from a tree trunk sitting in the middle of the floor. It was thick and dark-colored and must have been four or five feet long and three feet high, and into it, Jack had driven what looked like a thousand four-inch nails. Works of art are said by many artists to speak for themselves. Although I did not see it in this way at the time, that piece of art spoke in the unmistakable voice of Black History. It spoke of violence, but it was not about the violence of hammering nails into the wood. Jack Whitten’s sculpture told the story of having the nails hammered into him.

What happens to you when you confront a great work of art? Well, it changes you. Great art speaks to you. It teaches you. It tells you what it means.

Listen to Muddy Waters sing “I got my Mojo Working,” or Slim Harpo sing “I’m a King Bee,” or Howlin’ Wolf sing “Meet me in the Bottom.” You are listening to Black History. Listen to the right hand of Thelonious Monk picking out the discordant notes and off-chords of “Round Midnight,” or stand before Alison Saar’s life-size sculpture of a Black woman in a long dress on a plaza in Harlem and witness the power of Black History.

I was thinking last week that maybe I should write something for Black History Month, because during the last year Black History has constantly been in the news, and not in a good way. Black History has been turned into a political issue by racists who are afraid of it. Ron DeSantis in Florida and Republican legislatures around the country are attempting to censor the teaching of Black History. They want to erase the history of slavery and the oppression of Black people under Jim Crow and the struggles of the Civil Rights movement. They want to deny the contributions made by slaves, Black human beings who were not even recognized as citizens, and yet who toiled to build dams and roads and bridges and even the same U.S. Capitol building that racist insurrectionists assaulted two years ago. I thought maybe I would write about DeSantis and Republican fear of Black History and what he and the others are trying to do to erase it when this popped up in my news feed:

Stax Volt Tour 1967 feat. Otis Redding, Booker T. & The MGs, Sam & Daveyoutu.be


It’s from a film that was made of the Stax-Volt tour in 1967 that featured Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and Booker T and the MG’s. You don’t have to watch the whole thing, although it’s worth taking the time, because it’s as good an example as there is of what DeSantis and his ilk afraid of. It’s 25 minutes of the power of Black culture – in this case soul music from the 60’s – but it could just as well be a Beyonce video, or concert footage of Kendrick Lamar, or Steve Lacy, or Lizzo, or Sister Rosetta Tharp, or Sly and the Family Stone, or Jimi Hendrix, or Muddy Waters, or Howlin’ Wolf, or Slim Harpo, or Marvin Gaye, or Ike and Tina Turner.

I could sit here all day long listing Black performers and never reach the end of what they have given us, how much they have added to the history of the United States of America. So much of what we know of the Black experience is from musicians like Thelonious Monk and Aretha Franklin and from writers like James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates and Langston Hughes, and from painters and sculptors like Jack Whitten and Vivian Browne and Kara Walker.

There is a song on the Stax-Volt video by Otis Redding called Try a Little Tenderness. It’s one of his greatest songs. It tells the story of two struggling people and how they cope with what life has dealt them.

Oh, she may be weary
Them young girls they do get weary
Wearing that same old shabby dress, yeah, yeah
But when she gets weary
Try a little tenderness, yeah, yeah

You know she's waiting
Just anticipating
The thing that you'll never, never, never, never possess, yeah, yeah
But while she's there waiting
Without them try a little tenderness
That's all you got to do

It's not just sentimental no, no, no
She has her grief and care, yeah, yeah, yeah
But the soft words they are spoke so gentle, yeah
It makes it easier, easier to bear, yeah
You won't regret it no, no
Young girls they don't forget it
Love is their whole happiness, yeah, yeah, yeah

The song itself is a piece of Black History because it’s Otis Redding and the story he is telling is coming from such a deep place within him. How much more can you tell someone about the common pain we all share as we live our lives? The power of Otis Redding’s song is right there in in front of us. He’s giving us the whole of his life and what he knows about living it. It’s everything he has.

And then look at the young people in the audience. They don’t have to listen to every lyric to know the truth of what he’s telling them. It’s right there in a single word, “tenderness,” and it’s in his voice. It washes them like babies in a sink. You can see its power in their faces.

That is what racists are so afraid of. They are afraid of the power that comes from having been Black in America and survived. Black History, as it is taught in schools and universities, tells the story of how Black Americans have survived oppression, and it is accessible by switching on your television or hitting a button on Spotify or watching the Grammy’s or walking down a street in New York City and looking at a sculpture, or going into a museum and standing before a painting. Black History and the truth of Black experience is right there in the culture, in fact it dominates the culture all of us live in. Racists can’t avoid it, nor can their children or wives or friends or brothers or sisters. They try to censor it and deny it and build walls around it because they are so frightened of its power.

Black culture is American culture. It is so politically powerful, we exported it to counter Soviet Cold War propaganda during the Cold War. In the mid 1950’s the State Department sent the Dizzy Gillespie band, with Quincy Jones as its musical director, on a 10-week tour around the world, through the Middle East, Asia, and South America. Crowds clamored to hear them everywhere. On YouTube, you can see film of tours over the years by jazz and blues and rhythm and blues greats through Europe, playing Paris and London and Brussels and Oslo and Stockholm and Madrid. With today’s Black music and culture, from contemporary jazz to hip hop, as they say, fuhgeddaboudit. It has taken over the world.

Rappers tell Black History in Atlanta and New Orleans and South L.A. and the Bronx and Brooklyn. It was on the Grammy’s last night when Beyonce received her 32nd Grammy award, when Steve Lacy sang Bad Habit, when Stevie Wonder paid tribute to Motown with Smokey Robinson singing his hit, The Way You Do the Things You Do, when Stevie joined country music singer and songwriter Chris Stapleton singing his hit, Higher Ground.

I grew up listening to these giants of Black music. One night at the midnight show at the Apollo Theater on 125th Street, I saw, on a single bill, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Solomon Burke, the Temptations, and Joe Tex. Seats in the first balcony cost $1.75. Elsewhere, in small clubs in New York City, I saw Muddy Waters, I saw Jimmy Rushing, I saw John Lee Hooker, I saw Etta James, and I’ve written here about seeing Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot and Slim Harpo at Steve Paul’s Scene. No matter what was charged at the door of those clubs, even if it was a fortune, it could never cover the debt we owe these giants who opened up their lives to us.

It was Black History. All of it. That was what was behind the music and the art and the books – history, personal and cultural and political – history as it was lived by every one of those artists and musicians and writers. Can you imagine opening up and letting others into your lives like that?

Racism and Black History cannot coexist. That is why Republicans like DeSantis are trying to censor it. But they’re fighting a losing battle, because Black History is all around us, shared by Black artists and writers and musicians. It is a powerful truth that no politician, no racist policy, no discriminatory practice, no ignorant rhetoric, no Supreme Court decision, no hateful speech can ever erase. Up against the richness and power of art and music and literature that is Black History, racists lose.

All there is to do, this Black History month and every Black History month, is to give thanks. Have a look at that 1967 film of Otis Redding and Sam and Dave and Booker T and the MG’s and tell me that’s hard to do.

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.

Please consider subscribing to Lucian Truscott Newsletter, from which this is reprinted with permission.

GOP Hopeful Kristina Karamo Sees Satan In Yoga — And Beyonce

GOP Hopeful Kristina Karamo Sees Satan In Yoga — And Beyonce

Kristina Karamo, the Republican-endorsed candidate for Michigan secretary of state, was previously a podcast host who claimed that certain celebrities are tools of Satan. Karamo suggested that a “super crafty” Satan is behind Beyoncé pulling “Black Americans into paganism,” called Cardi B a “tool of Lucifer because she peddles filth in the culture,” and said that people practicing yoga are doing “a demonic ceremony.”

Karamo also said that Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish have been putting children under a “satanic delusion” and criticized a Korean drama in which characters communicate with their ancestors, saying that they’re actually communicating with “demons.”

Over the weekend, Michigan Republicans endorsed Karamo as the party’s choice for secretary of state. Karamo is a community college professor and commentator who has appeared on Fox News.

Karamo has frequently pushed the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump, who has endorsed her. She is also part of a QAnon-connectedcoalition” that has been attempting to recruit and elect like-minded secretary of state candidates. Last year Karamo attended a QAnon conference organized by “QAnon John,” and she appears to still keep in contact with him. She additionally has promoted conspiracy theories about the January 6 insurrection and has also repeatedly made anti-LGBTQ remarks.

On her now defunct podcast It’s Solid Food, Karamo regularly warned listeners that Satan was trying to infiltrate their lives and had the help of celebrities and popular culture. Here are some of her allegations.

Karamo claimed that singers including Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish have been putting children “under a satanic delusion.” From the August 6, 2020, edition of her podcast:

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): One of the things [unintelligible] most perpetuators of this rise in paganism and witchcraft are celebrities. They are some of the worst offenders of it all. You know, Ariana Grande, she had a song called God is a Woman. She has a song called God is -- this is what I'm talking about. Christians got to quit being squeamish. Got to quit being squeamish, folks. Let’s deal with the world we live in and let's fight back and if we want to hide from like, “Ohhh no, that’s too gross, ahhh!” You know, then you're not preparing, you’re not preparing your kids.

She literally had a song, has a song called God is a Woman. And at the MTV video awards, she, her performance involved recreating the Last Supper of Christ as a lesbian orgy. You heard me correctly. I don't need to repeat that. Then she had the Shiva, which is the Hindu goddess of death, above the supposed lesbian orgy that was the Last Supper. Just total blasphemy. Just total blasphemy. And then after it was interchanged between Shiva, which was the Hindu goddess of death, in a portal that was a vagina because that's part of paganism, this female worship. And so that’s the people who are entertaining your kids. So you send, we send our kids to these weak churches, these weak churches, then they turn on and then they’re boring. They don't learn anything, no spiritual meat. Then they have these entertainers who do this kind of blasphemy of the highest level, just blasphemy. And these are the people who entertain your kids. And then we still have, “Why are young people walking away from the faith?” Because they're under a satanic delusion. You think -- or, or Billie Eilish. She has a song called Good Girls Go to Hell. That’s the name of a song. This is what kids are listening to.

Karamo said that Satan “is super crafty” and “Beyoncé is working overtime to pull more and more Black Americans into paganism and calling it African spirituality.” During her August 6, 2020, podcast, Karamo attacked Beyoncé for allegedly “trying to target Black people into embracing paganism.” In discussing Beyoncé and paganism, Karamo said that Satan “is crafty. That joker is super crafty.” (Karamo has stated that she believes paganism leads you down a road to Satan.)

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): I don't talk about my religious beliefs at work because I teach in a secular environment. But if a student asked me my personal opinion, I'm going to be very honest. And I had a student who once said, “Well, you know, I believe there's a bunch of gods.” And that’s what people are gravitating to because, again, witchcraft gives them a sense and paganism gives them a sense of power without conformity to something. It's just follow self.

And we see Beyoncé pushing that more and more. And she's really targeting, trying to target Black people into embracing paganism. And one of the really interesting things is that her husband, Jay-Z, is, many people have said, is a satanist. I believe it to be true. I don’t have any hard proof.

With Beyoncé, she now is trying to push paganism, especially she is targeting Black people with her Black is King album. It's a really, I totally believe it's like a whole slap on the whole Jesus is King album that Kanye West came out with because as you see here in her promo video, she's reading a book about Black gods and kings and whatnot. And, and that's the thing. And in one of her songs from the new visual album, you know, one of the artists who's singing the song with her said, “There ain’t no Bibles, there ain't no Bibles in the, in the jungle,” you know? And then in her, one of her songs, Black Parade, you know, it’s all this talk about, “I’m Oshun and I charge my crystals in the moonlight” and all this, and so I notice a lot of people, a lot of people I know are getting involved into straight up witchcraft because they, “I want to connect with my ancestors and our people weren’t Christian before.” And it’s just — this is what I always say. Satan ain't smart, he is crafty. That joker is super crafty. So how he’s -- and paganism. I don't care where you going to [unintelligible]. They all use some kind of rocks and crystals to gain some kind of wisdom and knowledge and power. They all do it. It's not even novel. It's not even new. Come on. Satan, do it, try, do better. But he don't have to do better than most humans are so ignorant. Why? Why? Why should he have to create a new strategy? I mean, it works, so why — if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? And that's what's going on. So Beyoncé is working overtime to pull more and more Black Americans into paganism and calling it African spirituality. It's hilarious. Actually, it’s not hilarious. It’s sad. It's really sad.

Karamo on a Korean drama’s plot line about communicating with ancestors: “Satan, again, he's so crafty. … You're communicating with demons.” From Karamo’s August 6, 2020, podcast:

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): The point of the matter is is that entertainers are now marketing satanism and paganism to people. Satanism is on the rise. And you talk to people about satanism, they're like, “Oh, those people are just playing. They're just poking fun at organized religion.” Really? So why do they always try to mock Christianity and mock Jesus? Why don’t they [mock] Islam and Allah? Not going to do that. Why don't they mock Shiva or Brahman? They don't do that. They only mock the one true God. It’s because of Satan.

And so people are turning to these things to find happiness and “I'm going to communicate with my ancestors.” Bull, no. There's no ancestors for you to talk to. And Satan, again, he's so crafty. You know, one of the things I, my new thing — haven’t watched one in a while but I really like — are Korean dramedies. Korean dramedies are great, by the way. They are. They are really great. I love them. OK. And so I was watching one particular Korean dramedy and it was about how it was a pastor and his brother. And they were going to find their mother, who was missing. And so nevertheless, the brother was a shaman. And so when I'm watching the movie, the brother was talking about communicating with the ancestors. And I was just so -- I was so, you know, I found it so interesting that the brother mentioned communicating with the ancestors because I'm like, here it is. This is in Korea.

It is so important to know that you're not communicating with no ancestors. Sweetheart, you’re communicating with demons. And this is what we're turning to to cope with life because people don't want God. And the only true way you can cope with life, you can cope with this existence is with Jesus Christ. You can only get through life with the maker of life. And that is God.

Karamo warned that people doing yoga are doing “a satanic ritual.” From the September 18, 2020, edition of It’s Solid Food: 

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): If you start studying other cultures, art, what we consider to be art oftentimes, [unintelligible], “Oh, they're doing this ritual, this dance.” These are all satanic rituals. This is not just dance to dance. It is to summon a demon. Even yoga. The word yoga really means yoke to Brahman. So people are thinking they're doing exercises, no, you're doing actual, a satanic ritual and don't even know it. And that's becomes from our very materialistic worldview that's crept into every corner of our life that someone could be practicing an open, demonic ritual in front of our faces and we’ll be like, “Oh wow, this must be just some kind of cultural dance.” Like, it's not a cultural dance, it's a demonic ceremony. What's wrong with you? But people don't understand that. It’s because our worldview is so skewed.

Karamo: “Cardi B is another tool of Lucifer because she peddles filth in the culture.” From the September 18, 2020, edition of her podcast:

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): Whether she knows it or not — I have no clue — she is a tool of Lucifer. Cardi B is another tool of Lucifer because she peddles filth in the culture, and she peddles such filth and sexual degeneracy in our culture that many people are laughing at her, and they're laughing because as we know her and Megan Thee Stallion came out with this video called WAP, or this song. And you already know what it stands for, so I'm not going to say, but it's very obscene.

Printed with permission from Media Matters.

#EndorseThis: Trevor Noah On Trump Blowing Up Our Money In Outer Space

#EndorseThis: Trevor Noah On Trump Blowing Up Our Money In Outer Space

Trevor Noah is nothing if not culturally tuned-in. He knows that as angry and upset as his audience might be about the Trump administration, the words “Beyonce” and “Jay-Z” have been mega-trending since the pair released a surprise album.

Maybe the Daily Show audience would like to hear the comic’s take on that. So he obliges, mostly having fun with the couple’s lavish musical video shoot starring the Mona Lisa, now known as that chick from the music video.

Never fear. President Trump is never far from Noah’s story arc. The anchor highlights the total pathos of 45’s “Space Force” announcement, musing that the money Trump says is saved by the halting of war games on the Korean border is now being blown into outer space in the form of dodgy new weapons.

But Trump’s most unintentionally-funny statement, and Trevor’s sharpest comeback, is at the 1:47 mark.

Meet Dorothy Trump.

#EndorseThis: Vanessa Bayer Exposes More Of Donald Trump’s Porn Career

#EndorseThis: Vanessa Bayer Exposes More Of Donald Trump’s Porn Career

There are three noteworthy angles to this video clip of Vanessa Bayer speaking to late-night host Stephen Colbert. The first is Vanessa’s beautiful summer dress. It’s well worth pressing play to see the charming Ms. Bayer wearing it. The third is the discussion of Beyonce’s baby shower (starting about 3:00) at which Bayer was rumored to have made an appearance.

We have a hunch you’ll be most interested in the second angle, though.

Bayer spends the first chunk of the interview answering Colbert’s questions about a Saturday Night Live sketch from 2015 in which she and a fellow cast member played porn stars. Guess who also starred in the skit? The Donald. “I worried that I was sabotaging his campaign” with the racy material, says Bayer.

If only she had known. An SNL sketch (and an awkward photo) would be the least of President Trump’s troubles with the porn world. If Bayer and her dress weren’t such a joy to see on TV, her tale would be a somber one.

Click for that epic smile.