photo credit: maiabee[/caption]As an avid fan of the show Star Trek and its countless spinoffs, my favorite being the one helmed by Sir Patrick Stewart, as Captain Jean Luc Picard, I once watched a documentary on how the show was made and to this day, I have regretted it. I regretted it because it showed me how the special effects were made... destroying the illusions.
One such special effect in particular was when they would beam one up (beam me up Scotty)... this was done by simply shaking up a mixture of water and soap, which created suds to create the illusion of human molecules being disassembled and reassembled.
We all like things that may not warrant our liking… but sometimes we do not want to know because indeed ignorance is blessed. How many of us have worn Che Guevara’s shirt, the one with him in the beret and revolutionary garb. Now, most of us only know the cursory story, but if one were to dig deep into Guevara’s life, one would find that he was a rank racist… spewing and believing the negative stereotypes about blacks.
Take the Country and Western band, Lady Antebellum, they make great music… but the name Antebellum denotes slavery and all its negative attributes. The very word Antebellum is defined as the pre-civil war southern way of life. Do I think that the members of Lady Antebellum meant any slight to African Americans by choosing that name for the band? I don’t know. They may be akin to those who like flying the Confederate Flag… whereby not-with-standing the negatives associated with that flag, there are those who still find pride in it. Are these people racist or harbors racist thoughts? Many of them will vehemently tell you otherwise.
One of the greatest sets of riffs and anthem-like songs ever written was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama. I love that song to this day and it was recently given life again by Kid Rock… who combined the original rock riffs with a hip-hop beat, resulting in the same party groove. With all that said, that song was borne out the racial tensions of the sixties.
When the singer, Neil Young berated the South how they were treating blacks during the Civil Rights era, Lynyrd Skynrd replied with the song, Sweet Home Alabama. Now, years ago, when I found that out, I was very disappointed… but did it mean that I stopped listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama - of course not. I say again sometimes one doesn’t want to know because living in ignorance causes us to listen and enjoy good music, television, and folk revolutionary heroes.
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