Talk:Curtis Mayfield

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Just wanted to explain my edits.

"Perhaps most notably, Mayfield's lyrics included hard-hitting commentary on the state of affairs in urban ghettos at the time, unusual for black music in general and unheard of in relation to blaxploitation films."

There was also an earlier reference to Curtis being the first to infuse social commentary into his music. Not so! I had to change it/qualify it. And I wanted to mention some of Curtis' earlier music -- which a lot of people have never heard. And "blaxpliotation" flicks DID have message music! -- deeceevoice, June 26, 2004

Went back and edited my earlier edit after reflection -- and checking I'net sources for certainty. While Mayfield's socially conscious lyrics in "Super Fly" were pretty much a first for blaxploitation flicks, they were by no means unknown to black popular music of the day. -- deeceevoice, June 27, 2004

Contents

[edit] Astounded with Bran Van 3000

maybe it would be worth mentioning the collaboration on Astounded with Bran Van 3000 on their Discosis CD?
it might be the last single Mayfield recorded. Zenzizi 21:35, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

was it recorded with them? or did they just sample it? I thought the bran van song came long after his death..? Andrzejbanas 23:51, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] error found

I have found an erroneous link in the discography section : if you click 'back to the world' (5th album from top) you land on a page about the second album from punk band 'Street Dogs', not the lp of Curtis Mayfield. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.50.34.97 (talk • contribs) 29 June 2006.

Now disambiguated appropriately. No article on that album yet, but it now points to where one should eventually be. - Jmabel | Talk 21:04, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] POV

I'm always hearing about the need for a "NPOV," and just as often seeing that "rule" broken. This article is pure hagiography and propaganda; fan sites are typically less idolatrous. But then, Curtis Mayfield was black, so apparently the NPOV "rule" doesn't apply. "Hard-hitting social commentary"? Gimme a break! "Black pride"? Let's see. If someone tried writing an article praising to the heavens someone for promoting the "white pride" movement, it would be deleted, and properly so. There are several synonyms for "black pride": black power, black racism, black supremacy. There is no "neutral" term, but one could at least be honest enough to observe that for most Americans, "black pride" is a form of racism, rather than something praiseworthy.

Alternatively, it would be more honest of the gatekeepers here, if they would just drop that "NPOV" crap. 70.23.177.216 22:45, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

There is quite a difference between organizing to increase the power of the oppressed and organizing to increase the power of the oppressor. Just like there is quite a difference between actual concern for journalistic neutrality and making cynical use of the forms of neutrality in the service of racist views. - Jmabel | Talk 05:14, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

That’s black racist sophistry. In plain English, you are simply repeating what I already pointed out: Blacks can be as racist as they wanna be. The rules are imposed on whites to make life impossible for them, while they are violated with abandon by racist blacks. 70.23.177.216 04:36, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

No, actually, black Americans don't usually get to effectively apply "racism". Some of them are as racially prejudiced as all get-out, which is just as ugly in a black person as in a white person, but their are only a relative handful of places where, very locally, they can create systems of racial oppression comparable to what white people can create: they simply don't have the numbers, the power, and the dominance of institutions. Within my lifetime (I don't know about yours: most people here are younger than me) lynching was still somewhat common, and cross-burnings more so (one happened within 200 yards of my house in the 1960s, and I lived in the north). There was almost no such thing as a black executive in the corporate world. There were some black doctors and lawyers, but damn few with any white clients. Etc. Black Americans have never been in a position to impose this kind of oppression on white people (except, as I say, very locally: oppression of white youth in a predominantly black high school can, indeed, constitute true racism by blacks).
If you don't think that Mayfield's lyrics for Superfly, which leveraged an essentially mediocre blaxploitation film into a rather serious commentary on the damage wrought in the ghetto by drugs, were "hard-hitting social commentary," my guess is that there is little to which you would grant that sobriquet.
Your rhetoric "'black pride': black power, black racism, black supremacy" suggests that perhaps you have a greater familiarity with the rhetoric of "white pride," which indeed is often a codeword for white power, white racism, white supremacy. "Black pride" is not. It was a call for pride among people who had been actively held down for centuries. That is a different thing for calling for pride on the basis of an identity—whiteness—that simply does not have a comparable history. In America, various ethic groups being "admitted to the ranks of the white" has always been a step out of ethnic oppression. Black people are clearly not going to "become white" like the Irish, so, inevitably, they seek a different route out of oppresssion. - Jmabel | Talk 09:59, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] previous post in the "comment" section of the Curtis Mayfield wiki article

Mr. Jmabel, give us a break. I find your post offensive and inappropriate to put it mildly. If I were a wiki talk editor I would consider removing it. I find it racist and ridden with resentment. Incidentally, I am white, politically centrist, and find the extremes of politics and culture abhorrent. I would certainly put your post in this category. Curtis Mayfield was a brilliant musician and composer. Did you grow up black in a racist milieu in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, Mr. Jmabel? Did you have death threats issued against you when you performed in the Jim Crow South if you dared to enter a "white" restaurant, use "white" washroom, or allow your eyes to stray, even momentarily, toward a white female? Mr. Mayfield experienced these things first hand, and yet never went on record embracing pro-violence, anti-white rhetoric. If you're resentful about certain things in your life, don't take it out on the memory of Curtis Mayfield. Sincerely, Maccb 02:15, 13 February 2007 (UTC)maccb

Of course Mayfield was a brilliant musician and composer. You seem to be simultaneously agreeing with me and saying I am "offensive and inappropriate". Did you actually read what I wrote? -- Jmabel | Talk 03:21, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

To Jmabel and all comments users. I apologize if my previous remarks gave the impression that I thought Mr. Jmabel was racist or offensive; it was based on a misreading of his previous post. We can all agree that Curtis Mayfield was an extraordinary musician who, like all of us, was caught up in his times. In his younger professional days Mr. Mayfield, like virtually every African-American professional (musician or otherwise) was subjected to vicious racist attacks when he travelled in the South (and such behavior was not confined just to the South). Sincerely, maccb —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.194.142.25 (talk • contribs) 8 March 2007.