Joan Baez showcases her imitation of a fifteen-year-old black girl for a disbelieving audience:
Posted on 11/05/2004 6:15:17 AM PST by conelrad
Charlottesville, VA—America's "culture war" was on full display last night at the Joan Baez concert. Tickets to the concert were a present to my mother-in-law for her 69th birthday. My mother-in-law certainly fit the demographic of the audience, or as she described it, "All the old hippies are out tonight." Let's just say that by attending, my wife and I dropped the average age of the audience by several months.
Sixty-three year old Baez came out on stage and asked how the audience felt about the election? Of course the audience groaned and moaned—after all, this IS a Joan Baez concert. For her part, Joan said that she felt like she had been run over by a truck. One audience member yelled, "You give us hope." Now I like a good rendition of "Joe Hill" or "Diamonds and Rust," as well as the next person and I do recognize her talent as a singer. And Baez has a perfect right to dedicate a song, as she did, to that insufferable, lying self-promoter Michael Moore, whom she praised for doing his best to save the country. Later Baez announced that she was going to sing a song that she sang only in countries that were undergoing extreme political strife. In fact, she hadn't sung it in the United States in the last 20 years. The song? "We Shall Overcome."
However, the most remarkable and disturbing episode occurred halfway through the concert when Joan stopped singing and announced that she had "multiple personalities." One of her multiple personalities is that of a fifteen year old poor black girl named Alice from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas. Baez decided to share with us Alice's views on the election. Amazed and horrified I watched a rich, famous, extremely white folksinger perform what can only be described as bit of minstrelsy—only the painted on blackface was missing. Alice, the black teenager from Arkansas Baez was pretending to be, spoke in a dialect so broad and thick that it would put Uncle Remus and Amos and Andy to shame. Baez' monologue was filled with phrases like, "I'se g'win ta" to do this that or the other and dropping all final "g's." Baez as Alice made statements like, "de prezident, he be a racist," and "de prezident, he got a bug fer killin'." Finally, since Bush won the election with 58.7 million votes to Kerry's 55.1 million, Alice observed, "Seems lak haf' de country be plumb crazy." Since Baez was reading Alice's notes, it is evident that she thinks that Arkansas' public schools don't teach black children to write standard English.
Once Joan finished her minstrelsy riff, the audience, in which I did not see a single black person, went wild with applause and hoots and hollers. I have never felt so embarrassed for a bunch of "liberals" in my life. I wonder where Baez got her notions of how poor black country folk talk—she couldn't be stereotyping, could she?
Don't eat the brown acid.
These folks really need some serious therapy.
can you imagine if bush had done that? or ted danson?
Taken out of context, a video of her talking and acting like an uneducated black teen girl could be very damning.
Heck, even taken in context.
Uh Joan, these nice men in the white coats want to talk to you...
Very disturbing.
Joan Baez showcases her imitation of a fifteen-year-old black girl for a disbelieving audience:
Hearing "The Night They Tore Old Dixie Down" on the radio used to give me severe headaches.
Dear God, thank you for putting a brain in my head that works. The alternative is frightening.
Old hippie hypocrites. Not surprising.
These people were nothing but patronizing, condescending opportunists from the very beginning.
And Joan Baez, contrary to the author's statement, is not a talented artist.
She has never written a memorable song, for starters. All her signature tunes are either folk standards, Pete Seeger songs or songs borrowed from her ex-boyfriend Bob Dylan. She has zero talent as a writer.
Her voice does not have any range - it's very flat sounding and as a result, all her songs sound the same because she cannot emotionally modulate with her material. Compare her to a Billie Holiday or even a Janis Joplin or Joss Stone - Baez sings rotely as if she's going through the motions. Her interpretations of her material are colorless and completely unmemorable.
She takes no stylistic chances of any kind - her music is in perfect stasis: a derivative coffee shop singer from 1963, singing other people's music as if she was in a high school chorus.
Why is the author shocked by this?
Hello??? Democrats are racist???
I was horrified when she sang "We Shall Overcome".
My Gawd, people, she's singing a strong from the civil rights movement because she thinks a rich, white, Northeastern Liberal and his huge entourage was oppressed???? Their rights were violated because he lost an election??? Is she insane??
Oh, and that other crap about Alice - bet me she does this at cocktail parties making fun of black folks. Bet me.
That's one beeber that's been seriesly stuned.
; )
Sad about Charlottesville. It is a beautiful little town, but the freaks are taking it over.
My youngest daughter (13 years old)who is more conservative than I am always wanted to go to W&M said she would rather work at McDonalds her whole life than attend there now.
Funny because I worked at that McDonalds every summer for college money! LOL
What is that from?
I can't read the letters on hair rags. Is it significant?
Judas Preist did a great cover of "Diamonds and Rust".
Dunno. Just Googled "racist imagery," and that one popped up within the first few pages. (An old editorial cartoon, if I had to guess.) :)
The header is priceless.
Perhaps Joanie next will be able to channel a dead Vietnamese teenager in a loin cloth lamenting the defeat and praising the heroism of J effin Kerry?
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