Woodstock Question

[HarmanKardon]

The language barrier is fucking shitty crap - anyway I can't stay away from this forum entirely... I tried but as you see I failed...




I watched the Woodstock video some zillion times and I always asked myself: Hey where were the black kids in the audience? I mean - how many of them were black? Some 0,1% or so?

Love peace and racism?

[JJIII]

At that time in our history, at least in my experience, the black and white races stayed pretty much with their own. As an example, in the Army Mess Hall at Ft. Stewart, Ga., blacks were on one side of the room and whites were on the other, often separated by a section of empty tables. Anyone could have had a seat anywhere within the room but that's the way it worked out.

That being said, the black musicians at Woodstock were certainly welcome. Richie Havens, Sly, Jimi, did I leave anybody out?

[donquixote99]

It was a music entertainment event. Then and now, while there are some black entertainers that find white audiences, there are few white entertainers that find black audiences.

It was a "60's youth culture" event. The long-hairs were basically middle-class kids rejecting the culture of their parents. There weren't so many black middle-class kids, and those that existed tended to be focused on hanging tightly onto social status, not rejecting it.

[finnbow]

It still remains the case that African-Americans don't really get into the same music as their white counterparts (though a lot of white youth do get into black music (e.g., hip hop). For example, I went to the Dylan, Wilco, My Morning Jacket show this summer and, despite a very large crowd, there were precious few, if any, blacks there.

OTOH, I went to the Mississippi Delta Blues Fest in Greenville, MS in September. There were upwards of 10,000 people there, only 50-100 of which were white (most of whom were young northern Europeans).

[HarmanKardon]

This is very very astonishing. I thought Woodstock was about music. I never discriminated between white and black music. I loved black music when I was ten listenting to Dad's Satchmo vinyl and I loved black music watching Mother's Finest live on TV when I was 13. I DID NOT NOTICE that the musicians of Mother's Finest were black, apart from the bass player, I was fascinated by the groove of that great funk rock band.

This is very confusing. Young black people with a crappy barrier in their brain. They had just to close their eyes listening to Joe Cocker's black music.

JJIII what about the uniting reconciling character of music? I can understand that young black and white people in the late sixties liked to be amongst each other but a music festival - isn't that an exceptional event?????

Finnbow what you say about this Delta fest is astonishing as well...

[Dondilion]

There is also this thing in the black community:The fear of appearing white or going white...selling out:

Listen to country, rock music or classical music.

Speak grammatically correct.

Play golf before Tiger Woods era.

Show an interest in astronomy or in general appear studious.

[icenine]

I think you are missing something Haman Kardon


people go to shows that they want to see...most artists at Woodstock appealed mainly to whites....

If the playbill had included more of the soul and R&B artists who were hugely popular at the time more African Americans would have attended.

In other words I do not think there was any overt segregation or racism going on at Woodstock ...on either side.

[JJIII]

Originally Posted by HarmanKardon

This is very very astonishing. I thought Woodstock was about music. I never discriminated between white and black music. I loved black music when I was ten listenting to Dad's Satchmo vinyl and I loved black music watching Mother's Finest live on TV when I was 13. I DID NOT NOTICE that the musicians of Mother's Finest were black, apart from the bass player, I was fascinated by the groove of that great funk rock band.

This is very confusing. Young black people with a crappy barrier in their brain. They had just to close their eyes listening to Joe Cocker's black music.

JJIII what about the uniting reconciling character of music? I can understand that young black and white people in the late sixties liked to be amongst each other but a music festival - isn't that an exceptional event?????

Finnbow what you say about this Delta fest is astonishing as well...

I guess you would have to have grown up here in the U.S.A. to understand just how separated the races were and are still. In some ways things are better but we have leaders, both black and white, that gain monetarily from stirring up as much hatred as they can.

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by HarmanKardon

The language barrier is fucking shitty crap - anyway I can't stay away from this forum entirely... I tried but as you see I failed...




I watched the Woodstock video some zillion times and I always asked myself: Hey where were the black kids in the audience? I mean - how many of them were black? Some 0,1% or so?

Love peace and racism?

In his book "Woodstock: An Encyclopedia of the Music and Art Fair" James Perone cites a study that reported 95% white, 1.5% black, 1% Latino, balance...uh...other. That said...

Anybody who wanted to go through the ordeal required to get there was more than welcome when they got there. And it ended up being free so if you couldn't afford tickets and were able to get there, so nobody can suggest that it was discriminatory toward anybody who might have been financially disadvantaged at the time.

Back in those days we spent most of whatever disposable entertainment money we had at one of the great local Chicago blues clubs, usually the original Kingston Mines club on Lincoln Ave. The musicians were 99% black, the majority of the audience was typically white...but I'm remembering that blacks usually made up at least a quarter of the blues club audiences back then...certainly a higher number than their percentage of the general population.

Love, peace and racism? I'm not sure what this question is actually all about.

[HarmanKardon]

JJIII Is that so? Oh my - what a pity. I confess that I am obviously too far away to register the current sad significance of American Apartheid.

Ike Bana just try to understand that it is the point of view of a European.