This, is a serious nit I need to pick, more with my Black Fam than white folk (since stealing and distorting our culture often, and even with our help, is the norm — especially these days). But you guys? You non-boulé folk who’ve not been compromised? SOME of you should know, or at least learn better. And the rest of y’all boulé folk — cut this shit out!
“Come By Ya” (in the Gullah patois of my birth) is in NO WAY a feel-good, folk “camp song” born of some African language (well it wasn’t until white folk chose to steal and rework it that way, that is) — nor is it this JOKE of a touchy-feely, white misappropriation they like to throw around, based on their own white fuckery.
“Come By Ya” was a F*CKIN’ LAMENT of the enslaved Black folk of the Georgia and South Carolina Sea Islands. It was a pained entreaty, a cry for help — TO.WHITE.JESUS (with whom they’d been deeply indoctrinated) — for spiritual, physical and emotional rescue, from the HORRORS inflicted upon them by those same Bible-thumpin’, so-called Christian, white folk, who’d brought them to Him in the first place!
I’m here to tell you Fam — indoctrination soaked in naked terror really works!
I was born and raised in Charleston, SC 66 seasons ago. My family are Gullah people born & raised on Edisto Island, a Sea Island not far from the city proper. My maternal grandmother and grandfather were born in 1908 and 1913 respectively. And from her Black Methodist church, to his Black Baptist church, I learned this old, Negro spiritual at both their knees, led by the oldest member of the congregation — my entire, damned life!
The last time I heard and sang it, was at my younger, first cousin, Rhonda’s funeral in January 2018. Held at my grandfather’s church on the Island (at which Mother Emanuel’s new pastor, Rev. Eric C.S. Manning spoke), it was appropriately, the Benediction selection because at that moment, we were all “singin’, cryin’ and needin’ rescue and relief from the pain her death wrought. I remember thinking to myself, “These damed folk, with no damned knowledge of how we, the descendants of formerly enslaved people lived and believed, had bastardized something that for us, meant a soothing — a Balm in Gilead.”
I’ve long since stopped believing in white Jesus but, I’ll NEVER stop loving those spirituals that, over my lifetime, have always made me feel whole and connected to my people.
As usual though, white folk keep trying to take credit for “discovering it” (like that lost-assed Christopher Columbus) or in fact, writing it. From the Library of Congress (please do click on the player and listen to the 1926 song, sung by Henry Wylie of Darien, GA of McIntosh County) and as you read, notice where this white guy claims he got this from):
Kumbaya: History of an Old Song
I am so sick and damned tired of white folk’s first, appropriation, then misappropriation of something that means the world to me. And worse, I’m equally sick and tired of supposedly “educated” Black folk using “Kumbaya” in the same way! Our stories and voices have long been stolen and used to fit the white gaze, so much so that even Black folk don’t have a damned clue of the origins of the words they speak, let alone their meanings and their history— even though we should! But, as Zora taught, “All my skinfolk ain’t my kinfolk.”
Since the days of slavery, White supremacy hates the not-knowing (which is why the MAGA folk always blow their tops when they hear someone speaking a language they don’t know). And while it’s mostly true the slavers erased our languages and forbade us to speak them, they were sh*t out of luck when it came to my Gullah/Geechee people of the Sea Islands of SC and GA. And because they were SOL, we had Harriett Tubman, Denmark Vesey and The Stono Rebellion just to name a few. But they’re hip to it now and, as usual, under the guise of “helping” (that whole “White Savior” thing) they’ve got a plan to make sure it never happens again. Hell, even Yale’s got their fingers in the Gullah honeypot!
Full disclosure: I've not had much for Melissa Harris-Perry, especially given her seemingly, undying fealty to our Murderer-in-Chief who ignores all manner of Blackness -- either here, or abroad. But I can't lie y'all -- I appreciate the HELLout of what she said and did here!
The guy at the 2:23 click sums it up hilariously and succinctly: "That's not The Shake, B!! Aw-w-w, no good."
As the Murderer-in-Chief in black-face, fakes out the nation with the Lincoln and King bibles (seeing as he and his "homeboy"are two peas in a pod, I've no problem with that particular manipulation) -- I'd like to take this opportunity to let Dr. King speak for his own damned self!:
I'd initially intended to embed a three-part interview of Dr. King, live, on The Mike Douglas Show in 1967 doing just that (most of you younguns don't know anything about that show, but I do -- I was 11 years-old when this one was broadcast on our black & white, living room TV) however, for some strange reason, "embedding has been disabled upon request" now. But family, it's a definite, must-hear, so here are the links. Please, DO take a listen so this BeelzObama conflation can end!:
(Check out Singer, TonyMartin's finger-in-the-face! Shades of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, no? I tell you, the more things change -- the more they stay the same!
Since I can't show him speaking, I'll just embed his "Beyond Vietnam" speech, because it equally debunks the whole conflation thing.
~#~
"When the things and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism, are incapable of being conquered."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
To all you opportunists out there, trying to conflate the Changeling with Dr. King -- put your big boy/big girl, thinking you're post-racial pants on, own your betrayal of him for "them dollar, dollar bills y'all" (or the ones you're hoping to get as you melt into the pot) and please -- just cut it the hell out because, they're no more alike than fire and water (the Changeling being the obvious latter)! Thank you.
UPDATE: Well, well, well! On the day after the inauguration, NOW two of the three links above are now embeddable (Part 2 still is not) -- but Lupe Fiasco's pre-inauguration concert video mysteriously was removed from YouTube! Thankfully Freedom Rider was able to snag a piece of it for posterity and proof of the police state we have certainly become. {smdh}
On a somewhat lighter note - I love Volkswagens. I've had one ever since 11 years ago, the safety of that wonderful German craftsmanship saved my and the husband's asses as we drove to our home near the National Key Deer Refuge, after a night of hanging out in Key West.
As I lay reclined, sleeping in the front passenger seat (one too many chocolate martinis), my designated driver swerved to avoid hitting a Key Deer (they're about the size of my youngest son's almost 2 year-old pit bull). Ended up hitting a white concrete pole holding up electrical wires instead. I woke up to the jolt saying, "Why didn't you hit the damned deer!" He answered dryly, "Endangered Deborah, big-assed fine."
The pole cracked in half and fell on the hood of the car - live wires spitting everywhere. We, on the other hand, were totally unscathed inside the passenger compartment, snug as bugs in a rug. The insurance company totalled my car. Yeah, I know, that in itself, is advertising for their ass, but it's the truth.
My nit-pick with Volkswagen is their commercial that uses Shirley Ellis's, "The Clapping Song:
White girls jumpin' around in the video notwithstanding (it was 1965, no Soul Train yet), I'm more than a little territorial here seeing as - I grew up with that damned song!
It gets on my nerves how they've appropriated it (for not enough cash, I'm sure) to promote their brand. When I first heard it on TV I started singing it, and my sons asked me, "Where'd you get that from?" I told them, "That's how the damned song goes!"
What made them change it - the monkey gettin' choked?? Or is that how they "made it their own?" Kinda like that E-trade Baby singing, "Nobody Knows..." - talkin' about some damned 'solitary'. {smdh} There's something morally crude and reprehensible to me, about this little alabaster baby, mouthing the beginnings of a song, made necessary by the absolute horrors that his alabaster ancestors visited upon Black folk - for money (and don' get me started on Pizza Hut, bitin' Malcolm's, "By any means neccessary" to sell tomato sauce-covered dough!). But that's just me.
Thanks to TV (and that demon, capitalism), we can check off one more piece of our cultural upbringing that little Black kids won't ever know! Hegemony can kiss my behind!
Perusing Salon.com, I came upon, "American Idol" recap: Crystal Bowersox saves by Mary T. Kelly and damn if that Montell Jordan title didn't just pop into my head! Here's a little of it:
Alicia Keys, a woman who could make believers out of the most cynical among us, was the mentor for the week. Talk about a god in the music industry. This woman has earned 12 Grammy awards and sold over 30 million records. However, Keys' gentle and compassionate guidance wasn't miraculous enough for most of the contestants, and. quite frankly, Crystal Bowersox and Lee Dewyze would have done as well without her feedback...(emphasis mine)
...Crystal Bowersox sang"People Get Ready" -- without any kind of instrument! I was so excited. I've been waiting weeks for Crystal to go solo. Alicia, like so many, named Crystal one of her favorites.
Crystal's rendition of the song had the angels and saints singing from the rooftops of heaven. People were rolling around in the aisles, throwing up their hands and speaking in tongues. Forget about goose bumps! I had been filled with the Holy Spirit and was jumping up and down in my humble living room screaming, "Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia!" (emphasis mine)
We-l-l, this excellent, 1994 interview with Curtis Mayfield in the UK's Independent, described Mayfield's obviously enduring, mid-60s hit, "People Get Ready," this way:
That decade was barely halfway gone when he began to expose a third facet of his work - and perhaps the most important. With 'People Get Ready' in 1964 he had revived the coded messages of the old negro spirituals to imply support for the civil- rights movement. (emphasis mine)
While young Crystal certainly S-A-N-G that song (she reminds me a little of Joss Stone), both she and Ms. Kelly seemed to only have gotten the "religion" part that definitely influenced Mayfield's penning of the song - but nothing else. It always seems that when white privilege and cultural difference collide, the result, more often than not, is a huge amount of co-option for financial gain and revisionism. Hell, ask Chinua Achebe about "It takes a Village to raise a child, " or even George Lopez about flat-bottomed tacos! But I digress.
I was around eight or nine years old when this song came out. It was important to us - as a people - which is why, even today, I still feel and prefer The Impressions version whenever someone else sings this, and many other back-in-the-day songs. It harkens back to a social consciousness and cultural bond that sadly, seems particularly lost on this generation of young, Black folk:
During "Elvis Week" on Idol, Ms. Bowersox got rave reviews for her rendition of, "Saved." Yes - Elvisdidrecord "Saved" - but HE covered it. It was originally written and produced by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller for a Black female vocalist from Chicago - the inimitable, LaVern Baker. But somehow, with no props to Baker at all - it's an "Elvis Presley" song.
Well, in honor of LaVern Baker, here's how "Saved" made its way to American Idol (my sister, Cinie - musical archivist extraordinaire and former Chicagoan that she is - probably hasthis Baker 45 in her collection!) :
Young Crystal did pay an homage of sorts to both Gospel music and Blues saying, "That's really where my roots are." I get wantingto claim those roots as her own - after having lived in Chicago for some time and being influenced by its great, Black music scene - but what happened to those, born-and-raised-on-an-Ohio-farm-playing-the-harmonica-and-guitar-since-she-was-seven "roots" from whence she came? Is it just me feeling that we still can't have shit of our own?? Hell, I never signed on for that whole "melting pot" thing - I prefer the "tossed salad" analogy, where everybody brings their own distinct flavors to the bowl that we enjoy together. But that's just me.
Don't get it twisted, my issue is NOT that there aren't any commonalities among all of us in the experiences expressed by "Saved." But my issue IS, the mis-education about, and the slow-but-sure diminishing of, OUR musical "roots" by first attacking it (the same things they're saying about Rap, are the same things they said about R&B back in the day), and then co-opting it for financial gain while slowly whitewashing Black folk completely out of the picture.
Even though I think this "girl-child" (as my Grandmama used to say) has an amazing voice, my soul can't help but feel a different kind of Jill Scott wince at the continued cultural genocide of a people who, among all the ethnicities in this country, were forced to surrender - everything about themselves that made them themselves - just so white America could build a culture of their own (not to mention plenty of this country's stately edifices) on their backs .
