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In reply to the discussion: Wanna Know Who Made Racism ''Acceptable Again'' in the good ol' USA? [View all]Chiyo-chichi
(3,579 posts)But in his racist mind, I think he thought he did.
https://books.google.com/books?id=RLRzAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102&dq=lee+atwater+and+the+destruction+of+black+music&hl=en&sa=X&ei=J2uEVd6WJcSyoQSew4CYBg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
" Atwater's) first act was to organize an inaugural party that he told the media, without any irony, would be 'the Woodstock of rhythm and blues."
"...When Lee Atwater played the blues, he frowned, pursed his lips, and jutted his chin forward. He got on his knees and fell back like a believer catching the spirit. He exploded into a manic dance that ended in James Brown splits. He screamed and made that grimacing smile. If it all looked like something you might have seen before, maybe it was--Atwater playing Michael J. Fox playing Marty McFly playing his parents' desegregated 1955 high school dance in Back to the Future."
"This neocon boogie made perfect sense. Reaganites had tried to evoke imperialist nostalgia--transfiguring the memory of the thing destroyed into beautiful, romantic delusion. Native American author David Treuer called the performance 'kill the Indians, then copy them.' Ishmael Reed summed up the performance in a word: 'Blackface.'"