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Fight the Power: falsely calls Elvis a racist!

posted 8 years ago by zensixties
9 replies | jump to latest

The theme song Fight the Power by Public Enemy has the lyric:
"Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant *beep* to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain

Mother *beep* him and John Wayne"
----------
However Elvis not only wasn't a racist; he brought African American music to popular culture more than any other artist in history! Racism is the opposite of who he was. This link sets the record straight:

http://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_racist.html

On the other hand a much stronger case could be made for John Wayne being racist, which is not contradictory to his persona. But anyway Do the Right Thing is a classic film with a race theme at it's core, but also a great picture of 1980s Brooklyn. And gotta love the 20 battery radio!

For who would bear the whips and scorns of Hollywood... (;-p)

[–] Iceman-15 8 years ago

Yep, just another reason why this movie sucks so bad. The song is heralded as being some classic, but it calls two dead people racist! One clearly wasn't and the other who knows? They were just iconic white men that PE figured if they put them in the song and called them racists they'd sell more records.

I graduated from the college of the streets, I gotta Phd in how to make ends meet.

[–] Information-Police (4895) 7 years ago

"he brought African American music to popular culture more than any other artist in history!"

I don't know if Elvis was racist or not, but how does that, in particular< make him "not a racist"?

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

How does it not?

[–] Information-Police (4895) 6 years ago

It's uninformative on the subject. He exploited their music and made a lot of money from it. It doesn't say anything about how he thought about them.

[–] EricCartmanBrah (439) 5 years ago

Claiming he exploited their music is so racist by itself. Please also, tell me. Which iconic rock n roll songs predates his first single 'That's All Right'?

[–] Palanador21 (217) 6 years ago

Elvis making himself rich by basically stealing Black people's music doesn't mean that he wasn't racist.. It was alleged that Elvis once stated that the only thing that a Black man could do for him was buy his records and shine his shoes.. Sounds pretty racist to me..

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Elvis never said that.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

How does a culture* get to lay claims to an art form that is based off of other art forms?

* to consider a race a culture is a hard pill to swallow for me. I'd like to think most other people feel the same way too.

[–] EricCartmanBrah (439) 5 years ago

Which iconic rock n roll songs predates his first single 'That's All Right'?