People wear
masks for different reasons but the main reason is to either pretend they are
someone else or to hide who they really are. Discrimination isn’t always
plainly visible in front of your eyes. I’m going to present two cases of
discrimination where their intent to infer racism was masked.
The first one
involves the Osmond Brothers and the Jackson 5 who were both youth rock groups.
Nearly every Black person I’ve worked with said the same thing. Their comment
was that the Osmond Brothers are copying the Jackson 5 since the Jackson 5 was
performing before the Osmonds were. So let’s take a trip down memory lane and
see what the truth is shall we?
The Osmonds
began performing in 1958 while the Jacksons began performing in 1964. The way I
was taught Math in school that comes out to the Osmonds performing for 6 years
before the Jacksons did. So if you look at those facts one could turn it around
and claim that having a singing group consisting of brothers was started by the
Osmonds and copied by the Jacksons.
The second
incident involves what is commonly called a Talk Box along with various other
names. It is used to transfer your voice to your music so that when you talk or
sing your voice sounds like the music. The two most famous uses of this technology
were Peter Frampton on his Frampton Comes Alive album and by Stevie Wonder.
So where does
the masked racism come into play here? Most Blacks I’ve worked with said the
same thing. They said that Stevie Wonder invented the Talk Box and he was the
first one to use it for a musical performance. Once again let us take a walk
down memory lane and see what the truth is.
The technology
for the Talk Box was invented and manufactured in 1939 by Alvino Rey. This was
11 years before Stevie Wonder was born. Alvino Rey had his wife, Rosie King,
who was one of the King Sisters musical act, stand behind a curtain while he
was on stage with his guitar. As he played the guitar his wife, Rosie, spoke
the words and it sounded like Alvino’s guitar was talking.
When I
mentioned this to the people who tried to state that Stevie Wonder invented the
Talk Box they then changed their tune quickly to try to sound like what they
really meant was that Stevie Wonder was the first to make it popular. Again a
false claim as the Talk Box was in continuous use from 1939 mostly in the
Country Music industry.
Rest assured
that people mask their racism in every possible way they can. Instead of being
up front and honest about how they feel they have to put on a mask and pretend
they are not who they are. When confronted with stuff like this please feel
free to reach out, rip off their mask, and call them out for being the racist
they really are.
Everyone has their own masks.
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