Black Racism, Donna Summer, and Some Race-Baiter Named Touré
Did you know that if you didn’t like Disco that you are a racist and “homophobe”? That’s the latest from some guy named Touré. I never heard of the guy, but I’m not up on the Hip-Hop culture, which, of course, makes me a racist.
With the death of Donna Summers, the Disco Queen, as she was sometimes called, Touré used her death as an opportunity to push his two favorite subjects of racism is everywhere and homosexuality is the new sexual norm.
In an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, Touré had this to say about the “Death of Disco” movement:
“[T]here was a homophobic, and to a certain extent racist, response against disco, largely not just from the music industry, but from a large group of fans who wanted to proclaim the resurgence of white male power, of rock ‘n roll and punk, almost again, sort of a systematic, like, ‘We’re going to attack disco and push it back into the closet.’”
Music styles and tastes change along with fashion and hairstyles. To use the word of the day, music “evolved” from the rhythm and blues of the 1950s, the classic rock of the 1960s and early 1970s, to multiple genres in the following decades. Race and homosexuality don’t have a thing to do with any of it. Whites embraced music performed by blacks. Elvis Presley was the bridge. Here was a white kid from Memphis playing songs that sounded like he might be black.
But this isn’t good enough for a race-baiter like Touré. Even Mitchell didn’t know how to respond to his way-out-of-left-field tirade. Instead of honoring the memory of the superb talent of Donna Summer, Touré had to inject his filthy politics into the discussion. It took Rush Limbaugh to do the right thing. Here’s some of what he had to say about Donna Summer:
And a little Donna Summer into the bumper rotation. Donna Summer, dead today, 63 years old, of cancer. We grew up with her, Snerdley. It really is sad. We grew up with Donna Summer. . . .
During her big string of hits, the disco era, I played those records on the radio. You listen to ’em; I played ’em. When I was in charge of producing the games, Kansas City Royals, I played Donna Summer stuff, pregame between innings and so forth. Yeah, there was a guy in the business department at the Royals that just had a crush on her that wouldn’t stop. He would talk about nothing but Donna Summer. And nobody knew she was sick. Well, people knew that she was sick, but not that it was as advanced as it was. But, yeah, she was a committed Christian. She was one of us. She was a right-winger. She came to hate the smut on the radio. She was not a fan of rap music at all.
Rest in peace, Donna.