[kirklancaster]

This THREAD is banal, but I just want to redress a few wrongs, starting with Elvis Presley - Elvis did not 'steal' anything from anyone.

Elvis Presley - like Sinatra and Bobby Darin - was a champion of 'Black Civil Rights'.

Elvis grew up dirt poor in East Tupelo Mississippi, played with dirt poor black friends, and would spend hours 'over the tracks' in 'Shake Rag', a poor Black community, listening to black musicians playing their music on the porches of their shacks.

As an unknown kid trying to cut a record in the legendary 'Sun' studios in Memphis, it was Elvis who first played the 'black' music he so loved, in the form of his version of Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup's 'That's All Right', whilst he and guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black were stuck for what to play.

Producer Sam Phillips heard the impromptu 'jam' session and the rest is history.

Elvis went on to record other black artists music such as 'Hound Dog' by Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton, as well as record - and make famous - other 'little known' Arthur Crudup songs, and was later to be instrumental behind-the-scenes in helping Crudup receive over $60,000 (a fortune then) in royalties which the record companies had fleeced him out of.

Crudup himself payed compliment to Elvis and said; "I'm sure glad Elvis did those songs, I sure as hell wasn't going anywhere with them".

Elvis LOVED black people and from his cooks and housekeepers, Mary Jane Langston (for whom he bought 3 cars and a 3 bedroom home) and Nancy Rooks, to black musical legends like James Brown, BB King, and Sammy Davis Jnr, to the thousands of black people weeping uncontollably as his funeral cortege passed, BLACK PEOPLE LOVED ELVIS.

Sammy Davis Jr : -- "The only thing I want to know is, 'Was he my friend?', 'Did I enjoy him as a performer?', 'Did he give the world of entertainment something?' - and the answer is YES on all accounts. Early on somebody told me that Elvis was black. And I said 'No, he's white but he's down-home'. And that is what it's all about. Not being black or white it's being 'down-home' and which part of down-home you come from'. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Elvis eleven"

James Brown -- "I wasn't just a fan, I was his brother. Elvis was a hard worker, dedicated, and God loved him ... I love him and hope to see him in heaven. There'll never be another like that soul brother. I loved the man and he was truly the king of rock and roll".

It is wrong to besmirch someone like Elvis in a thread which has descended into yet another 'racism' argument, when the man did so much for black people and was so respected and loved by the black people who actually KNEW him.

I KNOW, because the people off-Tibb who really KNOW me are astounded that I am often (wrongly) perceived as 'racist' or 'xenophobic' on here by some because of my views.

As to the sporting of 'dreadlocks' by white people - So what?

Assimilation is a two-way street - or ought to be.

Part of the huge problem with the Muslim immigrant women in Western Society, is the Hijabs, Niqabs, and Burkas.

Rightly or wrongly, indigenous people in Western Countries would feel more comfortable were Islamic women to wear more 'Western' type clothing - as SOME courageous Muslim women in the UK already do, much to their own risk - and NO ONE in their right mind would point the finger at a Muslim woman wearing Western clothes and berate her for doing so, or accuse her of 'copying' our culture.

From the height of Tamla Motown, when The Supremes and other superstars straightened their afro-american hair, to the '80's when singers such as the half-Jamaican singer Yazz ('The Only Way Is Up') sported bleached blond hair, to the present, with Beyonce and a host of others sporting blond tresses and even wearing blue/green contact lenses over their brown irises, I can not ever recall ANYONE anywhere ever accusing any black celebrity of either 'betraying their own culture' OR '(mis)appropriating' a Western culture, and the whole subject is just ludicrous.

As ludicrous as 'Colour Recognition' itself:

Does ANYONE in the world who is sane, REALLY look at Muhammad Ali or Wesley Snipes and automatically THINK; 'there is that BLACK boxer Muhammad Ali' or 'there is that BLACK actor Wesley Snipes'?

NO - THEY SEE JUST A BOXER AND ACTOR.

If I disturbed a burglary at my home and saw a BLACK burglar running away, I would use the descriptor 'BLACK MAN' in my report to the police - purely as an aid to identifying the possible culprit.

But if I were discussing the song 'All The Single Ladies' with a friend who had not heard the track, I would NOT say; "You remember, by that BLACK singer Beyonce" - it would simply be; "It was by Beyonce".

There is a very disturbing and sick 'Culture of Fear' in society now; one which prevents ordinary people from doing erstwhile innocent things, or speaking certain erstwhile acceptable truths, because they FEAR that their actions and words will be misinterpreted and that they will be 'pounced upon' with grave consequences by the P.C. Brigade.

Perhaps those who consistently perceive 'Racism' in all its forms in people who are not racist, and in innocent situations where racism does not exist, should start self-analysis and looking deeper into their own tormented psyche.