NuPwrSoul said:

Amen to that.....especially the "too busy living 'Uptown' part...lol

I forgot who said it up above, but they were right when they said that this whole "lynch" think was simply setting up the song "Family Name", and especially when you realize he uses the name "Lynch" IN that same song...any slightly intelligent assessment of this interaction would show that within the context of the song(which IS why he bothered to do this at all, yanno), he's not making a comment about the PERSON, but about how insulting it is to have your name taken away, and to be given a new one...

Think of it this way...if Prince goes over to a black man and says "you're name now is 'Lynch'..", he gets blasted for insensitivity towards his own race...("I can't believe Prince would call a black man "Lynch"!!...Might as well call him nigger!!")...and if Prince goes over to a white man and calls HIM "Lynch", he gets blasted for being a racist...("I can't believe Prince called that man a lyncher simply because he's white!!...Might as well have called him a KKK member!")...Of course nobody bothers to try understanding WHY he did, they just get pissed that he did at all...So what's the answer, to not say ANYTHING and just play his gee-tar and entertain the folks??...

Fuck that...I'm assuming Prince is expecting us to use our brains, minds, and logic, and figure this shit out on our own without having it spoon-fed to us...that was probably his ONLY mistake in doing this whole "Lynch" thing--that is, assuming the majority of us fans would bother to before reaching any conclusions...

wasitgood4u said:

And just HOW did you reach the conclusion that Prince's goal and intent by calling the white audience member "Lynch" was to lay blame at their feet for ANYthing??...You're reaching there, big time...

NuPwrSoul said:

Yes, those lines have always been there, but my point is...Prince's music and performances USED TO blur those lines and bring us closer together, or at least they tried too. Now he's redefining those lines, strengthening them, and tearing us apart. Just look at where this thread is going. It certainly is not helping bring us together!

wellbeyond said:

So what's your interpretation?

It is very clear from this thread that many people have no idea what racism actually is.

Somebody mentioned that it is an insult to a white person to be called "Lynch". Well bingo buddy!. How do you think it felt for the African man 350 years ago to be captured, put into slavery and renamed "Lynch", and for his lineage to still carry that name today?

Prince was clearly making that point. He didn't discriminate as he also renamed the black person who he dragged up. What it did do was bring attention to the arguments raised in Family Name.

You cannot ignore the sins of the past and pretend they didn't happen. You must attempt to understand them and learn from them otherwise you are likely to repeat them.

The effects of slavery are still very evident in the USA, even to an Australian resident like me. The socio-economic disadvantages caused by slavery are still very evident today and they need to be addressed.

This dialogue just lets me know how far we have to go when it comes to race and division. Of course most of us would like a world with peace and harmony. The fact is that it doesn't exist. Until we begin to face the fact, we can never change its course. It truly amazes me that people would get upset over the fact that Abraham Lincoln was a racist. He was. His statements are historical documents. Read them. He goes all the way just short of calling Black people a nigger. Who knows what he said when he alone. It is also amazing that when the tables are turned, people get so upset. Read your Bible. Follow what Jesus said. Do unto others... It is becasue we don't do unto others that we are in this big mess. Those racist who were actually slave owners thought they were the perfect Christians. They thought slavery was the way God wanted it. They even went as far a changing the meaning in the good book to illustrate that point.

Now for those of us here today, we must clean up the mess. Everyone should grab a broom instead of saying, "It's not my mess. I shouldn't have to clean it up". So would you rather just live in a mess because it wasn't yours? I hope not. The fact is that even though slavery doesn't exist in the form it did many years ago, slavery was a form of racism. Let me say that again. Slavery was a form of racism. Racism still exists today. It is not slavery. Instead it is unequal education. It is unequal pay and promotions. It is not being able to drive in a car or having a stick shoved up your behind by police. The problemm is that if it is not happening to us or if we did not do it, then we should forget about it. This is backwards thinking.

The Brother works in an idustry that is primarily controlled by whites. It is those whites that do not want him to own his master recordings. Even though they did not contribute to its creation, they want to own it. It is those whites that allowed many Black musicians to die without a dime while they still collect revenues from that musicians catalog. It is those whites that want to control all of the venues that The Brother plays. Ticketmonster keeps these venues under contract so that you have to go through them in order to play. Radio stations make it where if you do not play their game, there is no game. It's hard for a Black musician to cross over into White radio. But a white performer with a Black look or fake attitude can cross into Black radio with ease (N-sync, Jon B). Viacom, a primarily white operated company purchased B.E.T. The first thing they did was put on white acts and programming. If you think there are not whites out there that only look out for whites you are wrong. No matter how much education, money or clout I have, I will still have to deal with this. Unless of course I am a non-threatining Black like Jordan, Jackson, or Winfrey. The Brother used to be the same way but he evolved. When he became free from Warner Brothers (another slave institution), he did not have to be the Purple One. They couldn't even call him Prince. They had to give him a name like His Royal Badness, Purple One and the like. Why do whites have to rename every damn thing to their liking.

Now being Black, I must explain to my white colleagues out there what "White" is. White is not a person. It is an institution. The regular joe that lives next to me is not a White person in that sense. His situation is not better than mine. And those "White" people have rejected him just like me. The only difference is that if they had to take one of us, they would take him first. "White" reflects a sense of superiority. It is what makes a person of european descent think they are better than another person.

There are many companies out there that have benefitted from slavery and racism. Aetna is one of them. They used to sell insurance to cover slaves if they ran away or were killed by accident. Many whites have stock in this company. I don't see any of them getting rid of the stock because of this. Then they say, I am not racist. The hell you are not. You support it! If Aetna had not did what they did then, they probably would not be around now.

How many whites have gone and demanded that a proper view of history is place in the books of our children. Very few if any have done this. Instead, blacks get a white perspective. They never see themselves included in this land of milk and honey. "Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free". Blacks have been yearning for freedom for years and are still slaves in an institution that promotes it.

If you don't want to be in the mess, help clean it up.

Last but not least, if you are white and not a racist, then don't get upset when Blacks bring up racism and slavery. Show some understanding. The Brother was making a point. Look at the point. Blacks do not know their history. Blacks do not know their real family name. Many whites can trace their history back to europe. Blacks can only trace their history back the end of the civil war. Some can't even go that far. I personally tried to trace mine and found out that the records for Blacks in a perticular county were not kept. Some of the others were kept in the courthouse basement but it flooded. What a shame. What can I pass on to my children other than slavery and racism.
The Brother isn't trying to court his minority fans (why are we called a minority, might as well say inferior) he is telling the truth. Ye shall know the truth and it shall set you free. Welcome it with open arms.

MusicAngel said:

I think that the first step in dealing with a problem is to acknowledge it's existence. No matter how ugly it is. The early stuff by Prince was quite Utopian, and yes it brought folks together who for the duration of a jam, concert, CD, etc. could enjoy the music together... and then proceed to go back living our lives in a messed up world.

I would say that the early Prince was an escape from reality... and this new Prince is an attempt to deal and confront reality. There's always pain at the beginning of creation... that's how life comes into the world, so if we just hold on through the pain even as we cry out (but hold on!), we can all come through this together.

wellbeyond said:

now i am begginging 2 c why u keep winning all these orgies 4 best debater a very well made point IMO.

that's precisely what we're doing. but, we'll all have different opinions and reactions to prince's actions.
isn't it grand how much love for one another this particular action has generated?

wellbeyond said:

Ok, I'm switching sides. (Thanx Wellbeyond...)

The 1st reason is 2 try and get some more blurring and some less battle-line drawing going on.

The 2nd reason is that it just occurred 2 me, that I had made the point that Prince might have been trying 2 make (whether he was conscious of it or not is irrelevant): he knew NOTHING about the person whom he named "lynch" and did it purely based on skin-colour. For all he knows the guy could b a Kosovon or a Jew, Which is exactly what slave-owners did 2 Africans - mixed them up irregardless of their separate cultural and national identities and gave them new names.

The point is really that Prince didn't invent an epithet and apply it 2 a white person, he took a deplorable historical practise and demonstrated its absurdity.

XxAxX said:

There are a lot of ways to show love. Didn't yo momma or daddy ever spank you? Some folks on here need a slap (j/k)

oh! that was really funny!

(j/k

NuPwrSoul said:

Prince sure likes to complain about things lately...maybe he needs to be a preacher and not a musician...the two don't mix very well. I don't really care about any slavery that occured 150 years ago...I guess Prince has a right to obsess on it, but it will just be a distraction from the music. What is his hangup over names? He changes his and says he'd never change it back...then he changes it back...and now he's upset that some dead person named another dead person "Lynch" over a century ago. He just has WAY too much free time to get upset over nonsense.

As far as the race issue, the WORLD is not concerned with race or with the color of one's skin. There are some people in the world who care about such things and other people who do not. Prince apparently does, which is disappointing after some of the messages in his music from year's past.

wasitgood4u said:

It was both a set-up for the song "Family Name", and a way of switching roles...the white guy now gets to be the one who has his family name taken away, only to have it replaced with something insulting, and the black guy gets to have his name in return...just something to make the lyrics of "Family Name" seem more obvious...

Well spoken COI.

Ppl r beginning 2 deal with the issue rather than the idea of "Prince" (which I was also guilty of doing in my first post).

He is trying 2 provoke thought and discussion, and the thought and discussion should b about the issue: injustice.

BTW, COI, I agree with most of what u said, but I don't believe that "Whites" r holding the power. The power is being held by corporations and their financial interests. Attributing social injustices primarily to racism serves their ends by hiding the real motivations of their actions - increasing their own power.

When they do this, those who suffer most are those who r already the weakest - the poor and those who suffer from other kinds of oppression: blacks (in the US), migrants, women.

ALl u Americans also have 2 understand: institutional racism based on skin-colour is primarily an American thing. Some of us non-Americans may not quite get it. Our countries have other forms of institutional prejudice of which they're guilty.

If anyone is really angry about this false article and this pop critic please e-mail him. Do not forget he is a pop critic Prince does not do POP this critic should stick to NSYNC & B. Spears they are eaiser for him to understand! His e-mail address is jimdero@jimdero.com. I already e-mailed him about 4x. Please e-mail him he owes Prince a sorry.

OK this guy has finally convinced me that P wasn't even provocative enuff! It's 1 thing 2 have an opinion, but 2 say u don't give a s--- about slavery and history and that race is not an issue 2day. Wake up, sonny boy. Hey P, if TonyC's in the audience, try calling him out!

TonyC said:

wellbeyond said:

Ok, now u've got me confused. If it's meant 2 b insulting, then how?
(U R gonna end up having me switch sides again)

Finally...a balanced review of the show. And from a journalist. Imagine that!

TonyC said:

Maybe you should.

wasitgood4u said:

LOL...as an exact account of what happened as any, and most likely on target...that's why I wasn't bothered by it at all, and why I didn't see it as "Prince is assaulting whites cuz he's a bigot and blah blah blah..."...

GotAttitudeWithoutDynasty said:

Last time Prince was in Buffalo, didn't he say something like the white people weren't singing during Face Down?

wasitgood4u said:

The act of having your name taken away is insulting, and having it replaced with a name which calls to mind the violence of racial lynchings adds to that insult...

Don't switch sides..lol

kellyannemcclure said:

If I remember correctly, I think he did...

I can't wait to drive 5 hours to Buffalo only to be insulted...

welcum2thedawn said:

Yanno, you're right..and I seem to remember Prince singing on "DMSR" something about "all the white people clap their hands on the floor now.."...damn, how seperatist can this guy get before we all wake up??!!

I think one of the stumbling blocks here is not what Prince said per se, but - as usual - it was the cack-handed, muddled manner in which it was said.

Throughout his career he has attempted social/political comment, and indeed in recent times the online fanbase have leapt to dissect his every utterance as if it were some razor-sharp indictment. The problem we're forgetting is that Prince is not a incisive commentator.

It ought to be clear to most of us that he's spent the last few years going through yet another of his personal/spiritual changes, and if there's one thing his history has taught us, it's that he utters some of the most bafflingly confused psychobabble this side of the World Scientology headquarters.

We all sit here, furiously typing into our computers, trading racist and counter-racist banter, feverishly analysing this latest stunt as if it were the most profound statement mankind has ever known. I think we all aware that Prince was making some kind of racial/political point, but for goodness sake just think about the ludicrous and muddled way he made it. As ever, the only person he truly made sense to was himself.

Prince is probably at the most esoteric, indulgent and infuriating phase of his personal and musical development. Maybe we should try to ignore his political hubris and enjoy the music.

wellbeyond said:

I thought you died, Wellbeyond. You once promised that you'd never respond to one of my quotes again...

wellbeyond said:

Cool. Well, if u & I've reached some level ground, mayb all those previous comments about P's actions only causing friction can go 2 bed (which is what I'm going 2 do, it's 1:30am here).

After all, truth is not a unilateral statement, it lies in between the gaps of many flawed ideas. What is important is the search, and the knowledge that u haven't reached the destination. (Ok this is starting 2 sound like it belongs on the Holy River, time 4 me 2 crash)

Who gives a shit about any of this? Didn't slavery become illegal in America over a century ago? If you want an African name here's one for you: Kareem Inmycoffee. How's that, bitch? Problem solved. And you can actually type it, unlike that fucking symbol you used to insist people called you. You don't see me bitching about the potato famine, do you? Forget about the fact that it not only resulted in the death of nearly 2 million Irish men and women and nearly as many fleeing their country (which, considering the size of the country is proportionality a hell of a lot more damaging than slavery's impact on Africa), it altered nearly every imaginable thing that could have been altered in that country and in many ways that are still being felt today. Erin Fo Bragh, motherfucker. Time to just get over it, Prince, you vertically challenged racist shitwizzle. Do your fucking song and dance routine and go on to the next city. Huh.

TommyK01 said:

Well, said...