thedoorkeeper said:

Yeah it was super nasty. Just the amount of criticism he got for his hair was overwhelming.

.

When did he make any sounds with his hair?

People did not listen to his music in live shows anyway when one listens to the blahblah from the crowd.

udo said:

ThisOne said:

I remember when Lotusflow3r came out - I was so excited and absolutely adored every song and my T Shirt !!! Hahaha yep I get 1 !!! Then I came here and..... !!! After that I then used to hope and pray that he never visited this site !

I still never got my T shirt, and 1 song download never came thru

But I still hoped the best for the site and era

rogifan said:

Marrk said:

I know right? I don't remember anything like that. A thread like that would blow up like crazy and run and run, Wish rogifan would post links to these threads he's looking at.

Here’s a couple http://prince.org/msg/7/388171 http://prince.org/msg/7/364089

those links show there were many threads that were positive or well balanced

TrevorAyer said:

rdhull said:

You were one of the biggest Prince trolls there ever was. And here you are on this thread with the audacity. If it were my site, Id ban you on general p, but I'm not. You were hateful and cruel just to get the negative attention a troll craves. As a grown man, you should be ashamed. But you're not, and that says a lot.

Ur right .. eye am not ashamed, and your dishonest personal attack on me says more about you as a person than the garbage u accuse me of ... more negativity came from bullies like you than anyone critiquing prince music ... u just like to pick fights ...

Nothing about me has ever been dishonest and this is not a personal attack as this thread subject is about the deplorable way people behaved regarding Princes person when he was alive. You came here because of the hit dog syndrome also know as guilty as a muthafucka syndrome trying to appease your conscience or attempting to clean up how you went about things the pst 10 years or whatever in case you were brought up, by stating some bs about legitimate critique of his music. Which is bull because you were trolling him as a person just as much. Dont think we all havent witnessed it or dont remember it. So please stop with the strawman bully nonsense that those who are always ready to cry when called out on their behavior or cant deal woth others who discourse with them in a way they cant handle sans trolling. And furthermore Mr. Let Me Disparage A Public Figure Just Because I Can Unreasonably...I dont pick fights. I win them.

[Edited 9/4/17 10:35am]

AhPook said:

1725topp said:

*

First, thanks so much for your kind response to my comment. The only thing I'll add about folks, mostly African Americans, complaining about Prince not dating or showcasing dark skinned women throughout his career is that comes from centuries of African Americans seeing their image/bodies, history, and culture marginalized and lampooned by American media. Often, the history of African-American entertainers was a history/process of trying to make white owners and patrons/audiences feel comfortable with blackness. (Even Prince, himself, once stated in a Rolling Stone article that “Wendy makes me more acceptable. When I sneer, she smiles.”) As such, lighter skinned blacks, regardless of talent, were always more accepted/patronized than dark skinned blacks. That's not an opinion. Just do some research on the "Brown Paper Bag" Theory. Unfortunately, after centuries of living under white supremacy, many African Americans began to internalize this notion, which evolved into black self-hatred in which African Americans, themselves, perpetuated the "Brown Paper Bag" theory as a way to ingratiate themselves to the white power structure. Thus, whenever an African American who knows/understands this history sees someone like Prince who is obviously a product of the genius of the black community/black culture exclusively dating and highlighting lighter skinned women, they, for the sake of history and racial progress, must wonder, if not ask aloud, what is the reasoning for this. Is it because he just so happened to find women with whom he is intellectually, emotionally, and artistically compatible who also just happen to be of a lighter skin tone? Or, is it that he, himself, is color struck--which is merely a way of saying that he has embraced/accepted the European aesthetic of beauty--and dates these lighter skinned women as a way to make himself feel better about himself or merely as some sort of status/class symbol?

*

To be clear, I don't know if I've ever heard someone say that Prince doesn't have the right to date women of any complexion. However, when one understands the history of centuries of psychological warfare that African people have endured, especially in America, then one realizes that the question of Prince's dating tastes/patterns must be examined as a way to understand/measure where society is in this course/journey of race relations.

*

Finally, you should find a thread that was created when the "Black Sweat" video was released. There was a white member who basically called the model "ugly" as well as some other names. As such, we must ask ourselves, in light of that comment, how would Prince's white fans have reacted or embraced him had he dated mostly or exclusively dark skinned women? Of course, it's difficult to answer a hypothetical as we all feel/hope that the best of ourselves would be divulged in any situation. But, given the way many white fans reacted to The Rainbow Children, "We March," "Dear Mr. Man," many other songs, and when Prince stated during the Baltimore benefit concert that "The next time I come to Baltimore I want to play in a theatre owned by you and stay in a hotel owned by you," it is safe to say that a good number of Prince's white fans could only love him as long as he was their little racially ambiguous erotic nymph child. Yet, the moment that he, as an African-American man, began engaging issues specific to the African-American community, all hell broke loose. And, we have the threads on this site as proof.

*

Ultimately, all of us come to Prince for various reasons, and, at any moment/movement throughout Prince’s career, some of his fans have felt betrayed as when one white gay member of the org, Spinlight, who I greatly respect and like, said that he felt betrayed by “Dear Mr. Man” and the entire Rainbow Children album. While I understand his position, as an African-American man I also wonder why so many white fans had problems with or didn’t understand Prince’s need to address issues directly/specifically related to African Americans. As I said in my earlier post, even though The Rainbow Children is considered the racial linchpin, issues of race have always simmered just beneath the surface of Prince fandom.

Prince dated women who looked like him. His skin color preference was probably a symptom of that.

*

Maybe, maybe not, but you cannot ignore the history of physical and psychological oppression of African Americans, especially since Prince, himself, addressed this history as well as its effects on African Americans. As such, it was/is fair for African-American fans to discuss the issue/practice (not his right) of his showcasing lighter skinned women under the context or race and racism in America. Also, I'm caramel, and I've dated chocolate, caramel, and redbone sisters of all shapes and sizes. Being caramel didn't cause me to be attracted solely to caramel sisters.

rogifan said:

Going through some old threads on live shows and it’s just one complaint after another (with his new music sucks thrown in for good measure). The set lists are boring, same songs, too many covers, sampler set is stupid, too many singers on stage blah blah blah, bitch bitch bitch. Good lord I can only imagine what the bitching will be like once valet music starts being released.

no shit, what have i been saying the last year and a half, buncha assholes for fans.

rdhull said:

Prince.org before 2001 was a hell of a lot better than after 2001 for sure.

jaawwnn said:

People complained because they cared, people got offended by those who complained because they cared. Yeah people were and are overly nasty, and others were and are synchophantic nutjobs who don't listen to anyone else, so fucking what. World takes all sorts.

Yes, well said. I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree entirely with Prince’s statement that our judgements about others often reveal much more about ourselves (this is true in all sorts of contexts). I admire Prince’s self-determination and ability to stand alone, but equally I don’t think it’s ever healthy to be immune from constructive creative criticism. For most of us who were slightly disillusioned with his later work, I don’t think that it was ever a case of wanting him to retread what he had done in the 1980s. For me, as a rule, his studio work just lost some of the edginess, energy and lightness of touch that characterised his golden period (of course, there were always exceptions). Personally, I never felt the need to air my criticisms on a public forum while Prince was alive, since it wouldn't have changed anything. I can imagine how vitriolic and hurtful some of it would have been though (and ultimately pointless).

Lemoncrush19’s statement that a general nastiness is common in online discussions is true to an extent, but equally I’m a member of online communities in which I haven't seen a genuine spat in almost 10 years (literally). Considering that we’re all gathered around a shared interest, it’s quite spiky around here.

[Edited 9/4/17 17:20pm]

fen said:

jaawwnn said:

People complained because they cared, people got offended by those who complained because they cared. Yeah people were and are overly nasty, and others were and are synchophantic nutjobs who don't listen to anyone else, so fucking what. World takes all sorts.

Yes, well said. I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree entirely with Prince’s statement that our judgement’s about others often reveal much more about ourselves (this is true in all sorts of contexts). I admire Prince’s self-determination and ability to stand alone, but equally I don’t think it’s ever healthy to be immune from constructive creative criticism. For most of us who were slightly disillusioned with his later work, I don’t think that it was ever a case of wanting him to retread what he had done in the 1980s. For me, as a rule, his studio work just lost some of the edginess, energy and lightness of touch that characterised his golden period (of course, there were always exceptions). Personally, I never felt the need to air my criticisms on a public forum while Prince was alive, since it wouldn't have changed anything. I can imagine how vitriolic and hurtful some of it would have been though (and ultimately pointless).

Lemoncrush19’s statement that a general nastiness is common in online discussions is true to an extent, but equally I’m a member of online communities in which I haven't seen a genuine spat in almost 10 years (literally). Considering that we’re all gathered around a shared interest, it’s quite spiky around here.

Good points.

I've seen the various points on other Prince centered FB pages 1. 100% adoration 2. 90% Bitching 3. evened criticism

I think it depends on people's commitment to the page/site they joined in some degree. There was a FB page Prince the Living Legend that had it all happening

TrevorAyer said:

rdhull said:

Nothing about me has ever been dishonest and this is not a personal attack as this thread subject is about the deplorable way people behaved regarding Princes person when he was alive. You came here because of the hit dog syndrome also know as guilty as a muthafucka syndrome trying to appease your conscience or attempting to clean up how you went about things the pst 10 years or whatever in case you were brought up, by stating some bs about legitimate critique of his music. Which is bull because you were trolling him as a person just as much. Dont think we all havent witnessed it or dont remember it. So please stop with the strawman bully nonsense that those who are always ready to cry when called out on their behavior or cant deal woth others who discourse with them in a way they cant handle sans trolling. And furthermore Mr. Let Me Disparage A Public Figure Just Because I Can Unreasonably...I dont pick fights. I win them.

[Edited 9/4/17 10:35am]

No see people like you like to shit all over people like me because you don't like my opinion ... i am always happy to discuss prince in ALL his glory ... the good and the bad ... i stand by what i have said and i certainly don't fall in the category of troll or bitching about his hair ... you on the other hand like to run off anyone who thinks differently than you .. making blanket false statements you can't back up and personally attacking others instead of dicussing the topic ... you are already calling me names and being generally abusive by attacking me personally .. you still mad cuz I didn't just disappear like u hoped? .. did u really "win" any thing if you are still singling me out as your next abuse victim ... i suggest you start your own forum .. then you can bann everyone until there is noone left but your own winey self ... i honestly don't remember you ... but you remember me .. maybe u changed your screen name ... who pissed in your corn flakes .. jesus

Trevor I'm not going to get into any further fighting with you as we had enough of that in the past but for crying out loud you once said -among many other such things- that Prince needed drums lessons! I think this speaks for itself.

And you keep accusing people of bullying you whenever they disapprove your behavior, but I can't see how the way you spoke about Prince all those years was anything less than bullying.

However ever since Prince passed I've noticed that you've been much more positive about him, so maybe tragedy has made you rethink certain things in your thinking pattern, and all the better for it. Now the next step is admitting it. You were incredibly mean towards Prince. Fact. Dozens and dozens of threads could be quoted. Fact. But it's OK, for one thing you were far from being the only one, and anyway people can do wrong things, it doesn't mean they're bad people, but just admit it and let's all move on and be friends, shall we?

fen said:

jaawwnn said:

People complained because they cared, people got offended by those who complained because they cared. Yeah people were and are overly nasty, and others were and are synchophantic nutjobs who don't listen to anyone else, so fucking what. World takes all sorts.

Yes, well said. I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree entirely with Prince’s statement that our judgements about others often reveal much more about ourselves (this is true in all sorts of contexts). I admire Prince’s self-determination and ability to stand alone, but equally I don’t think it’s ever healthy to be immune from constructive creative criticism. For most of us who were slightly disillusioned with his later work, I don’t think that it was ever a case of wanting him to retread what he had done in the 1980s. For me, as a rule, his studio work just lost some of the edginess, energy and lightness of touch that characterised his golden period (of course, there were always exceptions). Personally, I never felt the need to air my criticisms on a public forum while Prince was alive, since it wouldn't have changed anything. I can imagine how vitriolic and hurtful some of it would have been though (and ultimately pointless).

Lemoncrush19’s statement that a general nastiness is common in online discussions is true to an extent, but equally I’m a member of online communities in which I haven't seen a genuine spat in almost 10 years (literally). Considering that we’re all gathered around a shared interest, it’s quite spiky around here.

[Edited 9/4/17 17:20pm]

Agreed, I was an active member of a US comics board for several years and people over there are incredibly respectful of both each other and comics professionals, while good manners are being stricly enforced by both mods and senior members. As a result the board is highly respected in the comics community and both publishers' editorial staffs and comics writers/artists feel they can safely go there and interact with board members. I wish the same could be said about the org, as I'm certain many Prince collaborators may have thought twice about coming here after reading certain threads. However I must admit that I myself have lost my nerves more often that I should have and even if it was mostly against those disrespectful people, it was wrong and certainly not helping making the board a respectable place. I'm trying to be more careful now. I hope others will, too.

databank said:

i got banned defending prince about five years ago, that's when i said fuck this place. I still don't understand why some of his "fans" are here, honestly, there are many more artists out there if you don't like his stuff.

Could it be that these people were bigger fans of the 80's Minneapolis Sound over all, or Sheila, or Wendy and Lisa or Jesse Johnson or the Time or whomever than of Prince's individual talents? And Prince was just like a figurehead in a way to them? And this was the only place to discuss those folks and slam on the dude who got most of the attention they were unable to attain?

Kind of like a fan of early 50's rock going on an Elvis page because that's the only page out there (even though this person is a bigger fan of Chuck Berry and Little Richard.)

PeteSilas said:

i got banned defending prince about five years ago, that's when i said fuck this place. I still don't understand why some of his "fans" are here, honestly, there are many more artists out there if you don't like his stuff.

[Edited 9/4/17 18:26pm]

purplerabbithole said:

Could it be that these people were bigger fans of the 80's Minneapolis Sound over all, or Sheila, or Wendy and Lisa or Jesse Johnson or the Time or whomever than of Prince's individual talents? And Prince was just like a figurehead in a way to them? And this was the only place to discuss those folks and slam on the dude who got most of the attention they were unable to attain?

Kind of like a fan of early 50's rock going on an Elvis page because that's the only page out there (even though this person is a bigger fan of Chuck Berry and Little Richard.)

PeteSilas said:

i got banned defending prince about five years ago, that's when i said fuck this place. I still don't understand why some of his "fans" are here, honestly, there are many more artists out there if you don't like his stuff.

[Edited 9/4/17 18:26pm]

some of them sure, but not all of them, and not when people talk about things that do not have much to do with the actual music. Place was toxic, said it before, elvis and mj have fans who'd die for him, prince had fans who hated him.

OldFriends4Sale said:

TrevorAyer said:

Nobody here hates prince .. some people love everything he does ... that's fine .. some people study his successes and failures and why ... thats fine too ... some people just want to shoot the shit and say how they really feel good or bad ... nothing wrong with that .. some people lose their fucking minds if you say the first half of phase one sucks .. then they try to harass you off the org .. or it hurt prince feelings ... jesus .. half of prince marketing involved doing outlandish things that he knew would upset people ... and it made him rich .. ever heard of a song called controversy ? ... and u wanna act like it hurt his feelings if a fan does not like everything he does

don't give me that bullshit, that's what the ts stated, they went back and saw how bad these assholes were, i was here, i saw it, it was vile.

PeteSilas said:

databank said:

fen said:

Yes, well said. I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree entirely with Prince’s statement that our judgements about others often reveal much more about ourselves (this is true in all sorts of contexts). I admire Prince’s self-determination and ability to stand alone, but equally I don’t think it’s ever healthy to be immune from constructive creative criticism. For most of us who were slightly disillusioned with his later work, I don’t think that it was ever a case of wanting him to retread what he had done in the 1980s. For me, as a rule, his studio work just lost some of the edginess, energy and lightness of touch that characterised his golden period (of course, there were always exceptions). Personally, I never felt the need to air my criticisms on a public forum while Prince was alive, since it wouldn't have changed anything. I can imagine how vitriolic and hurtful some of it would have been though (and ultimately pointless).

Lemoncrush19’s statement that a general nastiness is common in online discussions is true to an extent, but equally I’m a member of online communities in which I haven't seen a genuine spat in almost 10 years (literally). Considering that we’re all gathered around a shared interest, it’s quite spiky around here.

[Edited 9/4/17 17:20pm]

Agreed, I was an active member of a US comics board for several years and people over there are incredibly respectful of both each other and comics professionals, while good manners are being stricly enforced by both mods and senior members. As a result the board is highly respected in the comics community and both publishers' editorial staffs and comics writers/artists feel they can safely go there and interact with board members. I wish the same could be said about the org, as I'm certain many Prince collaborators may have thought twice about coming here after reading certain threads. However I must admit that I myself have lost my nerves more often that I should have and even if it was mostly against those disrespectful people, it was wrong and certainly not helping making the board a respectable place. I'm trying to be more careful now. I hope others will, too.

Yeah, but maybe it just indicates that Prince’s fan-base is quite a broad church, whereas more niche communities tend to attract people of a common temperament and disposition, so this implies a natural filter... I dont know. I’m not sure that the mods could do much more than they do to be honest (it’s a difficult line to tread between maintaining civility and outright censorship). Objective disagreement is healthy, but I always remember Artaud’s example whenever I feel the ego becoming embroiled:

“The distance that separates me from myself suffices to cure me of the judgements of others.”

I can't be arsed with online one upmanship.

I look at fan pages this way. There are plenty of naysayers of any artist on the internet. Why did the hate have to come here? His hair, makeup, height,clothes, girlfriends, interview techniques, his favorite fucking color?--should those things garner the same amount of discussion than the lyrics of "In a large room with no light"?

Constructive Criticism (about his work and even to some extent about the distribution of his work and his public image) to some extent is understandable. But even constructive criticism too frequently is really not what a fan page should be about. The best way to constructively criticize (IMO) is discussing what he did right more often than what he did wrong . (It would certainly resemble the family he was talking about rather than the fanatics). If Prince wanted attention for his newer work, he would have make it good enough to garner a great deal of respectful discussion on his board--I would think that that would be better than anything he did musically getting disparate knee-jerk reactions ranging from hyperbolic adulation to off the chain hatred. Accepting that the man was human and wasn't going to hit it out of the park every time and then deciding to pick out what he has succeeded at and pointing out why it was a success rather than a failure wouldn't that had been more beneficial to Prince himself than constantly hearing what people didn't like. Its not like he could go back in time and throw it out.. (When fans discuss the works of Spielberg, you know they don't spend equal time dissing on Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull than they do admiring Schindler's list. Spielberg could learn about his mistakes simply by recognizing which works of his get discussed with thoughtful analysis and which get dismissed rather quickly as mistakes and get little attention in later discussion.

Some of the silliest things divided people on here. I am a big fan of that New Girl episode and decided to read up on the initial reaction to the episode. the public and the critics generally liked his work on the show calling him charming and dryly funny. I came on here and looked up old reactions to the show and about half the reactions to him were negative in some way or another (or at least lukewarm.."well, he wasn't horrible" kind of stuff.) P playing a likable love guru version of himself complete with self parody still rubbed some people the wrong way and they made fun of his makeup and his getting older. GOOD grief. Would it have killed some people to just say he did just fine?

[Edited 9/4/17 19:27pm]

Maybe its that the fans of the Minneapolis SOund are a broad base. COuld it be that some fans wanted the minions to overthrow their king?

fen said:

databank said:

Agreed, I was an active member of a US comics board for several years and people over there are incredibly respectful of both each other and comics professionals, while good manners are being stricly enforced by both mods and senior members. As a result the board is highly respected in the comics community and both publishers' editorial staffs and comics writers/artists feel they can safely go there and interact with board members. I wish the same could be said about the org, as I'm certain many Prince collaborators may have thought twice about coming here after reading certain threads. However I must admit that I myself have lost my nerves more often that I should have and even if it was mostly against those disrespectful people, it was wrong and certainly not helping making the board a respectable place. I'm trying to be more careful now. I hope others will, too.

Yeah, but maybe it just indicates that Prince’s fan-base is quite a broad church, whereas more niche communities tend to attract people of a common temperament and disposition, so this implies a natural filter... I dont know. I’m not sure that the mods could do much more than they do to be honest (it’s a difficult line to tread between maintaining civility and outright censorship). Objective disagreement is healthy, but I always remember Artaud’s example whenever I feel the ego becoming embroiled:

“The distance that separates me from myself suffices to cure me of the judgements of others.”

I can't be arsed with online one upmanship.

[Edited 9/4/17 19:20pm]

Is it a chicken before the egg or egg before the chicken type of thing? Was Prince tough on fans/ fan magazines (when it came to unauthorized pix etc) because they started to get a little too negative about him (after the name change and switch to JW beliefs/cleaned up lyrics and new band configurations? Or was he a little too tough on fans so they overreacted in their opposition to his religious beliefs and career and personal choices by being mean and unsympathetic?

PeteSilas said:

purplerabbithole said:

Could it be that these people were bigger fans of the 80's Minneapolis Sound over all, or Sheila, or Wendy and Lisa or Jesse Johnson or the Time or whomever than of Prince's individual talents? And Prince was just like a figurehead in a way to them? And this was the only place to discuss those folks and slam on the dude who got most of the attention they were unable to attain?

Kind of like a fan of early 50's rock going on an Elvis page because that's the only page out there (even though this person is a bigger fan of Chuck Berry and Little Richard.)

[Edited 9/4/17 18:26pm]

some of them sure, but not all of them, and not when people talk about things that do not have much to do with the actual music. Place was toxic, said it before, elvis and mj have fans who'd die for him, prince had fans who hated him.

[Edited 9/4/17 19:37pm]

[Edited 9/4/17 19:39pm]

http://prince.org/msg/7/417108

TrevorAyer said:

PeteSilas said:

don't give me that bullshit, that's what the ts stated, they went back and saw how bad these assholes were, i was here, i saw it, it was vile.

I haven't read every thread on the org ... but i never saw anything vile and i am sure not gonna let anyone lump me in that category ... prince did a lot to upset his fans on the regular so its not surprising if people were pissed ..

it's a bit different being pissed at the guy for saying something stupid and being pissed because they didn't like his makeup and wardrobe. the fucked up thing was, these same clowns, that i still see around here, the ones who got me banned, can't take it when they get criticized so they forward your shit to a mod who decides you attacked some tenderfooted pussyboy.

fen said:

jaawwnn said:

People complained because they cared, people got offended by those who complained because they cared. Yeah people were and are overly nasty, and others were and are synchophantic nutjobs who don't listen to anyone else, so fucking what. World takes all sorts.

Yes, well said. I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree entirely with Prince’s statement that our judgements about others often reveal much more about ourselves (this is true in all sorts of contexts). I admire Prince’s self-determination and ability to stand alone, but equally I don’t think it’s ever healthy to be immune from constructive creative criticism. For most of us who were slightly disillusioned with his later work, I don’t think that it was ever a case of wanting him to retread what he had done in the 1980s. For me, as a rule, his studio work just lost some of the edginess, energy and lightness of touch that characterised his golden period (of course, there were always exceptions). Personally, I never felt the need to air my criticisms on a public forum while Prince was alive, since it wouldn't have changed anything. I can imagine how vitriolic and hurtful some of it would have been though (and ultimately pointless).

Lemoncrush19’s statement that a general nastiness is common in online discussions is true to an extent, but equally I’m a member of online communities in which I haven't seen a genuine spat in almost 10 years (literally). Considering that we’re all gathered around a shared interest, it’s quite spiky around here.

[Edited 9/4/17 17:20pm]

^This.

TrevorAyer said:

Nobody here hates prince .. some people love everything he does ... that's fine .. some people study his successes and failures and why ... thats fine too ... some people just want to shoot the shit and say how they really feel good or bad ... nothing wrong with that .. some people lose their fucking minds if you say the first half of phase one sucks .. then they try to harass you off the org .. or it hurt prince feelings ... jesus .. half of prince marketing involved doing outlandish things that he knew would upset people ... and it made him rich .. ever heard of a song called controversy ? ... and u wanna act like it hurt his feelings if a fan does not like everything he does

You don't have to love everything he does, of course not, there should be some critical thinking and Prince was just human. But to hide behind a keyboard and spat out stuff about his appearance, getting older, playing the same songs live, making crap music, whatever is increadibly rude and most people would not do it to his face or to anyone's face for that matter. Take for instance your example. Saying the first half of Phase One sucks in a forum at the time rumoured to be visited by the man himself if plain rude. You could have just said you did not like it and proceed to explain why. That's called constructive criticism in my book. Or saying he needed drum lessons. Now Prince was a big boy and he could take as much as he got, but some things are plain rude and criticising the appearance of a man who always worried about his, a man who actually chose to age relatively gracefully in my opinion, having gone back to natural look with the afro, the looser and more confortable clothes, the flat (ish) shoes.