Thanks for the big props youngca. You know since I was away for a while (I wish I hadn't left) a lot of really cool things were discused. I am going to post one more post to sum up my thoughts on things said here within a day or two. I also which BlackKnight had not decided to stop posting. Like all of us here, I enjoyed his insightful and eloquent commentary greatly. However maybe he felt he had contributed all he wanted to.
Don

DonRants said:

yes d-rants i agree. b-knight probably feels he said
enough...(which might be true) but i dug what he said.
and told him so. his comments (i agree with loveroflife)
were something else and got me to throw in some musical
history stuff i hadn't thought about doing to add to
what he said, its funny...most on line "things" that ive
checked out are pretty lame. but this one...is quite
fascinating. its the first one i've ever gotten involved
with. there are at least 30 of my fellow collegues who
are my faves...every time i see these peeps names i know
what i'm gonna read is gonna be GOOD...insightful,funny,
sexy,hip,and make me wanna say...hmmm...

youngca...i wonder if anji had titled the thread...
is there any doubt about Mj...what would the response
have been?

Anji said:

The better question is:

Why does it matter is he is black, white, yellow or red?

Maybe people should just worry about if he is a "strong" human instead of a "strong black male" or anything like that. I have really never understood that crap.

IceNine said:

Wow fancy seeing you in this forum... bored with the GD and PR forums??? I knew you still thought Prince is cool. and by the way he isn't any of those colors... he's purple

Butterscotch

IceNine said:

Me neither, Ice. I truly believe it doesn't matter what color Prince is. I have never cared.

stymie said:

But "fans" like Anji here, who has written thousands of ass kissing threads on the org thinks it matters. In fact he thinks it is cool that prince alienates even more fans solely based on the color of their skin. that is how "black" prince is and how big a fan Anji is.

huggy said:

I was going to disagree with you on that but when I scrolled up to see your name I realised, oh it's just huggy.

There are a lot of good points and interesting opinions listed here, and though I doubt I could add much more to the topic to give it anymore steam, I do want to add one other element that hasn't seemed to be mentioned, though I believe it affects Prince's behavior in his self-identity especially in accordance to being a black man. It's has got to be hard to be a high-yellow, short, very short black man in America, how does one get taken seriously in such a circumstance? Claim to be mixed, that ends (so to speak) the obvious questions, now let's move on to the music; wearing make-up, pretty boys were in in the 80's; thinking of the Debarge's (Hey, see what happened when Chico tried the hard core role, it just didn't work). I guess what I am trying to say is this, what other image could Prince have developed except the one he choose, taking in account what he had to work with (he ain't no Arnold), and become the success and to have paved the way as he has done.

"Is there any doubt left that Prince is indeed a black man?
I never understood where the confusion came from."

Any confusion that blurs the obvious fact that he is black comes from Prince himself. His earliest incarnation of a controversy-brewing young man trying to break into the music business. He needed an angle. Is he black or white? Is he straight or gay. And of course, a lot of people saw Purple Rain, saw Olga Carlotos and Clarence Williams III - and assumed their roles reflected Prince's real life parentage. And of course, some people will insist on calling him African American.

excellent point morningsong.
prince's small stature has to have bothered him...i know
back in his hey-day (80's) many feamle friends of mine said
they didn't care for him because he was too "little".
they preferred bigger more masculine brothas like marvin
barry white..etc etc..

your comment about chico debarge make me laugh. but its
true. he went hardcore and it didn't work!

how prince chose to market himself probably has some basis
on how he looked...
i do know his "look" did appeal to a lot of girls (of all
races) "he's sooo cute...and sexy..." the "feminine look
he added to his visual presentation didn't bother these
fans at all!

as for some of the threaders saying all of this talk about
race is "immaterial" (tha's my word for it) i dig what
you're saying but like me...b-knight (and others ) it
DOES matter to a large segment of the music buying public.

to ignore this fact is foolish.

like i said...p has always been black to me. but thats one
man's opinion! how record companies,other fans,video &
tv peopke,advertising firms,rock magazines and prince himself...that's another story!

peace & love y'all (youngca)

IceNine said:

It matters because it clearly resonates with much of his following. It may not matter to you, I don't think it does to me either. Then again, I can't quite imagine Prince being white, so maybe colour does matter?

My question was actually in response to the first view on this thread by June19. She first introduced this concept of a strong black male. I simply questioned whether Prince would necessarily need to conform to be seen as such.

I don't see how your question is a better question. We are what we are and it's good to see Prince embracing what he actually is. Unfortunately, he has been doing so recently in an antagonistic fashion. I suspect he'll learn to embrace a more balanced viewpoint in time...

huggy said:

what a load of crap.


boring.