Love/Hate Mail
Blacks need to “do our own thing”
I am writing to commend Adam Ross on the much-needed, in-depth examination of the dearth of entertainment options for African Americans in Nashville (Cover Story, July 17). Such a story made accessible to the city’s mainstream (read: white) puts out the dirty laundry many blacks in Nashville have been figuratively washing, over and over again, in conversations with friends, colleagues and family members for a long time now. African Americans are not a monolithic people; some of us listen to Stravinsky and Bach; others watch The Parkers weekly; some of us read Jean Toomer and Ralph Ellison in our downtime; others tune into BET’s 106 & Park. Either way, there’s a sizeable number of African Americans of all flavors in a city that seemingly remains perpetually resistant to recognizing that we exist, we have various interests and, perhaps most importantly, many of us have money to spend. If certain proprietors continue to practice unspoken and subtle “black codes,” then the answer is clear: We need to do our own thing. After all, when it comes to entertainment ventures succeeding, the color that matters most is not the shade of any human skin; it’s green. What better way to fortify the black entertainment base in Nashville than circulate that cash flow internally?
K. Danielle Rucker, editor/reporter, The Rage
KRUCKER@nashvill.gannett.com (Nashville)
Listen up, White Nashville
First, I would like to thank the Scene for exposing First Fridays to the general Nashville community (Cover Story, July 17). Secondly, I would like to thank Adam Ross, who did impressive research for the article. Maybe by reading this article, people will begin to be more aware and sensitive to the challenges of “Nashville’s color line.” I also think that this will get African Americans in the city talking not only about the problem but the solutions to the problem. I wholeheartedly know that this is a problem that the African American community must resolve on its own. This is not to say that white people aren’t a part of helping with the solution, through alliances, partnerships and co-ops, but African Americans must pull themselves up “by their bootstraps.” On another note, White Nashville needs to start embracing diversity because not only is America “browning” but Nashville is too. As Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It’s my sincere hope that other publications will write more stories that expose people to the beauty of “difference.”
On a much more personal note, the day the article come out, I was downtown with a good friend of mine and we happened to walk into the 2nd and Goal lounge below Graham Central Station. We realized that it had closed as a wing place but didn’t know that it was being used as a rental facility for small parties and such. We asked the bartender if the venue was for rent. The bartender kindly said, “Oh yeah, people rent this out for private parties and different things.” By chance, the manager just happened to be sitting at the bar right. I introduced myself and gave him a short history about First Friday and some of the nice places on Second Avenue that we’d used for the event. My question to him was, “How much do you charge to rent the place?” His immediate question to me was, “What kind of music do you play?” Although I knew it was a loaded question, I told him R&B and some hip-hop and all kinds of stuff. His curt response: “25,000 dollars.” I asked, “Is that what everyone who has used this place has paid?” He answered sternly, “It’s 25,000 dollars sir.” My friend laughed and said he just proved the article in the Scene. We walked out saddened and hurt but still proud and undaunted in our quest to be treated fairly.
Jerome “Jay Dee” Davis, First Friday founder
info@firstfridaynashville.com (Nashville)
He’s not buying it
Just days after The Tennessean printed a story on “Racial mixing giving way to other concerns,” I read with great disdain Adam Ross’ July 17 cover article lamenting that “local blacks feel they have nowhere else to go.” Excuse me, please. After watching my neighborhood of the last 30 years being slowly destroyed by busing and special housing assistance to achieve some arbitrary mix (not just black/white) that is supposed to bless us with some great thing called “diversity,” we’re now told that the African American community has nowhere they can go to associate among themselves? Why is this not “racist”? Is this not what “they” wanted? I cannot seem to find a television commercial, radio station, public school, business, etc., which doesn’t feature, promote or in some other way deify African Americans. How is it that the African American community can, free of any backlash, demand a venue that caters solely to them, whereas to do the same as a white person will instantly garner the ugly label of “racist”?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with wishing to associate with people of your own kind. No one wants to spend their free time with people who have nothing in common with them. Societal engineers, I’m presuming here, have brainwashed us into falsely thinking that it is somehow wrong to enjoy the company of people whose cultures and experiences you are familiar and comfortable with. By God, if an association of black professionals wishes to create a venue solely for young blacks, then let them. Just don’t complain that it’s the white community that is exclusionary.
There are great and truly awful representatives of every race, but it is up to the great members of the African American community to conquer this perceived “racism” they seem to find around every corner. If a person continuously has negative experiences with a member of any race, they are likely to create negative “stereotypes” based on their experiences. This is what keeps us apart—not some institutional system, as so many want to believe.
Robert White
Imagewerks@msn.com (Nashville)
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