nurse said:

Also, if we can't have free speech on an internet forum, then where the hell can we!!

I meant that you can't possibly know what he feels about race based on who has in his band, those thoughts are his own. But it is common knowledge that a widely held belief back then by the "marketeers" that a mixed band sells better than a non-mixed band. It has to do with numbers, nothing else. The only color they cared about was green in that regard. What he thought in his heart about race is unknown, therefore it is useless to speculate.
That is why I said by the same logic ... blah blah blah about Rosie and company.

GoldenGlove said:

That doesn't mean he loves blacks, it just means he hates whitey.

Jesus fuck. It's times like these I feel very cold and alone. We're all just M&M's in the dreamer's big sweetie shop in the sky.

Number23 said:

That's my little joke.
I know prince doesn't hate whitey.

MickG said:

I was just beingly post-post-modernlyironically nieve. I genuinely have no idea if Prince thinks whitey has no funk. Meh.

altavista said:

I've also noticed Prince embracing his "blackness" more and more lately and I think it's great and long overdue. I think people wanted to believe that Prince was half white so badly. People can't bare to think he's 100% black and proud! I wonder how his wife feels about him hanging out with Tamar so much??

Krystal666 said:

Back at ya Krystal666 .

nurse said:

this thread is comedy

Prince is black and proud,so what? All people should be proud of their heritage, no harm in it. Tamar is pretty,I wonder if he tapped her yet? Mani better watch out!

Prince is black and proud,so what? All people should be proud of their heritage, no harm in it. Tamar is pretty,I wonder if he tapped her yet? Mani better watch out!

Prince is black and proud,so what? All people should be proud of their heritage, no harm in it. Tamar is pretty,I wonder if he tapped her yet? Mani better watch out!

GoldenGlove said:

LOL! You've come to the wrong place then, buddy

pepper7 said:

I don't believe anyone here is claiming to have intimate knowledge of Prince's innermost thoughts. People form opinions about Prince based on his words and deeds. They form opinions about you and I the same way. Prince is not exempt from this.

People are not making this stuff up. For whatever reason, Prince did make favorable comments about Reagan in the 80s. He deliberately obscured his heritage/orientation, and he deliberately chose some band members with crossover appeal in mind at the time. He did what he felt was best to get him where he wanted to be and people making observations about it doesn't translate to expecting him to be flawless.

Generally speaking, a man's perspective at 47 is not the same as it was at say, 27. Becoming more confortable in you own skin is a sign of growth and not an indictment of anyone else's skin.

I'm not sure why you would be distainful of the term black consciosness? How does his self acceptance and identification threaten anybody else's well being?

Revolution said:

I know that's right whatever happened to "Am I black or white, am I straight or gay" I miss Ambiguous Prince.

Morningstar said:

HAHA.

She is pretty and talented-- Lord knows Prince will never be attracted to women w/both these qualities. Maybe if she was a d-list singer...

nurse said:

So u can't forgive a harmless joke with a sincere apolagie?... and u say that U R the grown up?...

whatever...

GoldenGlove said:

Jesus Saves and forgives.

babynoz said:

Well just tell me what exactly is Black Conscionsness??? I can't understand why everyone makes such a big deal out of the colour of someone else's skin. Isn't up to Prince who or what he is ?? You can't tell a person that just because they have a certain skin colour then they SHOULD act a certain way. Is as rascist and as stereotyping as ANY other type of rascism.

Your arguments are far too simplistic. You have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to skin colour. What do you mean by "His self acceptance and identification??" What the hell does your skin colour have to do with who you are???? Really I'd absolutely love to know...

It's like the arguments about women having to get back in touch with themselve becuase they are having to confirm to a male dominated society. You just become a victim if you aspire to these ideals
[Edited 2/28/06 17:08pm]

dancerella said:

You don't have to be 100% black to embrace it. That's good especially since he isn't. I too have noticed that he's more "conscious" these days. That's normal-- for a 20 year old. I guess he's been living in his own world so long it hit him late. Self-discovery is important, however, whenever it occurs.

As somebody that follows his music I can only appreciate this as part of his journey. In my early 20's Family Name and Avalanche, etc. would've resonated deeper. I'm no longer at the point where I'm surprised or bitter about past injustices. Now, his little ribbing about screaming like a white lady is kind of silly but I wouldn't read too much into it.

As far as him messing with Tamar, I doubt it. We have no reason to believe it.

From what I can see, Prince has always emphasized his human being-ness.

The rhetorical question "Am I Black or White, Am I straight, or gay?" seemed to render these issues irrelevant.

Revolution said:

I'm all for self-awareness but it did get to a point where it seemed a matter of convience for Prince to embrace his race during the Warner Bros. battle...but that convience may have been the catylyst to provoke his interest in true racial awareness, which I think he has reached today...So, good for him..

nurse said:

So am I. Some of you orgers that are old enough and have been Prince fans for a long time need to hang that shit up about Prince being "BLACK" back in the day. You know good and damn well that he used to didn't want to be black. If he did he wouldn't have came up with that shit about this father being black and Italian and his mother " a mixture of a bunch of things". The revolution was mostly white except for him and Brown Mark and like somebody just said he wouldn't have in a million years had a protege' like Tamar. Look at his past resume.

TurnItUp said:

Exactly.This is one of the few things that bothered me about Prince back then.Those early interviews make me cringe.

TurnItUp said:

People are products of their environment. Look where Prince grew up? It had to have an impact on him. Had to. Plus, Prince was no dummy. He knew how to "play" the game. At least that I the way I've always seen it. -Mg

nurse said:

now who's acting childish? LMAO ur a joke. , but a good one!

This is something I noticed several years back, Im sure Prince was always conscious
of African American issues but I get the feeling that overtime he has maybe embraced that more so, in his youth it didnt seem as prominant, i didnt notice
those sentinents as much compared to later in his career.

Well just tell me what exactly is Black Conscionsness??? I can't understand why everyone makes such a big deal out of the colour of someone else's skin. Isn't up to Prince who or what he is ?? You can't tell a person that just because they have a certain skin colour then they SHOULD act a certain way. Is as rascist and as stereotyping as ANY other type of rascism.

Your arguments are far too simplistic. You have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to skin colour. What do you mean by "His self acceptance and identification??" What the hell does your skin colour have to do with who you are???? Really I'd absolutely love to know...

It's like the arguments about women having to get back in touch with themselve becuase they are having to confirm to a male dominated society. You just become a victim if you aspire to these ideals
[Edited 2/28/06 17:08pm]
[/quote]

I'll try to keep this a simple as possible. When EVERYTHING that you are has been stolen away from you, your name, relatives, dialect, home, etc....(slavery) you tend to walk around in a state of confusion. Dig? Black Consciousness is simply being aware of who u are and not cooning down to anyone? I'm not going to go any deeper than that because unless you have been where black people have been, you will NEVER understand it. Dig? A lot of people want to ignore history but it is a real part of who you are today. If you choose to ignore that, it's on you but the world will always keep in mind what "set" you are from. I hope this makes sense. -Mg

nurse said:

Maybe but I also think maybe its just something that has happened as he has gotten older, maybe when he was younger it wasnt something he was really thinking about, i mean his focus was elsewhere, Im not so sure his (non black) video's back in the day were just about conformingfor the public , perhaps the same could be said for those few vids he did with NPG band in early 90's where he was trying to play the kinda macho homeboy brotha dude,I thought that character didnt suit him and he looked like he was trying to conform to something that didnt really suit him.