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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
(3,573 posts)My thought was at the time--and has always been--that it was blatantly racist.
That was Lee Atwater's "blues face." He did it all the time when he played... even before he learned to play an actual guitar.
From www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brady-bad.html:
"Lee's addictive personality pulled him back into the spotlight, where he basked in crowd approval. He loved being the center of attention and could always devise a way of putting himself there. At school dances, he would get onstage and dance around, playing air guitar, mugging with his 'blues face,' upstaging acts, creating dance contests in the area right in front of the stage. Afterward he would apologize to Debbie for behavior that must have struck her as being compulsive. 'I know I acted badly,' he would say on the phone the next day. 'I hope you'll still go out with me.' "
"Blues face."
He was on the stage with African-American musicians.
That was his impression of what blues musicians looked like.
Racist. as. hell.