You and me both. I am the token white guy they have to pull occasionally.
Seems everyone is itching to get the boot in. Can’t wait for the Pacino tweet denying he’s white.
Jesus of Nazareth played by a white guy. Problematic for anybody? Robert thingy as I remember.
Edit Robert Powell
Anybody have any problem with the casting in a nearly half a century old film that they only saw because they were forced to watch it once in primary school where a white guy plays a person that the Church has inaccurately portrayed as white for a couple of millennia?
I’m not sure that either answer to this is wrong, but taking it to it’s logical conclusion, if you consider JC to be a fictional character then the casting is okay. If you consider him to be a real person but the events of the movie to be entirely fictional, then again that’s okay. If you believe that JC is a real person and the film is an accurate portrayal of his life then the casting is wrong but understandable in the context of when it was made, but you would hope if they made it now, efforts would be made to use actors of at least Israeli descent.
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Not counting Mel Gibson versions.
Well, Mel Gibson seems to have a lot of issues and probably shouldn"t have been involved in the first place.
Hmmm. Sounds you might be part of the global Jewish conspiracy, there. 
“I am the token white guy they have to pull occasionally.”
I never knew the police offered that kind of service
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Pulling is fine, it’s the gloves that sting……
and spoke English as well, don’t forget 
I thought he spoke the unversal language of peace tolerance and love
I wrote the above a few days ago and a couple of people intimated that it was possibly racist or a “racist trope”
I wondered if there was any justification in this and also why was I drawn so powerfully to this kind of music.
I found this excellent explanation of why modern people are so drawn to this type of music.
"Much of West African music is based on polyrhythms, ie. two or more rhythms occurring simultaneously, while pre-20th century European music uses one rhythm exclusively (aside from changes in tempo, time signature, etc.). Black slaves brought to the U.S. a West African polyrhythmic musical concept which was later blended with European styles when they were no longer slaves. This blending created such forms as ragtime, blues, swing, big band, rock and jazz. The “back beat” or “swing” in rock and jazz and ragtime is polyrhythmic. The musical term “getting behind the beat” means playing polyrhythmically, rather than everyone playing “on” the beat. Another term for this is syncopation.
The idea that “blacks have excellent rhythm” is a very old meme which refers to a time, long ago, when non-black Americans and Europeans were so unfamiliar with the West African concept of polyrhythm (as filtered through U.S. black musicians) that they could not “get it.” This time has long passed, since the musical concept of a backbeat is now worldwide.
Also, some people have an innately better ability to hear and respond to polyrhythmic music than others. It requires either pure ability (like having perfect pitch), long exposure to that style of rhythm from childhood, lots of practice, or all three. If you were brought up hearing and singing music in 5/4 or 7/8 from birth, you could do it without much thought. For everyone else, it’s not easy to learn."
In essence it is true - it’s maybe not that black people have more or better rhythm - it’s that they have different rhythm - just the same as Indian rhythm (which is a complete mystery to me) is so different.
“West African” inspired music makes sense to me and countless others - that is not a good or bad or even remotely racist thing.
And if it doesn’t make sense to you that is not a good or bad or racist thing.
It just is.
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It’s a bit away from any discussion of racism but there is a fair bit of truth in that. There are different musical traditions and much of American popular music is a fusion between the folk styles of European settlers and the traditional music of those that would have originally been taken there as slaves from West Africa. I listen to a fair bit of old blues and you can hear this in the music of WC Handy and, in particular, Lead Belly who documented a lot of these original tunes.
Of course this then crossed back into European music and you had the likes of The Beatles and Led Zeppelin who took black American music and mixed it with Indian and North African influences.
It works the other way as well. Early influences on Hip Hop were the likes of Kraftwerk which was sampled extensively.
I suppose that the DNA of music is much like the DNA of people. At a genetic level there is no such thing as race. It’s merely a social construct.
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I think you haven’t quite understood the racist connotations to what you are saying. Please don’t take offence - I’m accusing you of ignorance rather than racism.
Consider the use of the word ‘they’ in the context of what you are saying. ‘They’ is an incredibly problematic word in any discussion like this.
The use of polyrhythms and unorthodox time signatures might be true in an tradition African music context (I have no idea if it is). So how does that apply to people who grew up in Leicester, or London, or Manchester?
Is there something physiological about the genetic heritage of black people that makes them more naturally responsive to rhythm? I don’t think you can suggest that. If you are arguing an African cultural basis to a natural sense of rhythm, then obviously that applies only to the people versed in that culture, which is not universal to black people, and not even widely held amongst black peoples in the UK.
This is right up there with asking a black person where there are really from. You are seeing black skin, and making a huge, sweeping assumptions about the background of the person with it - and that, I’m sorry to say is the textbook definition of racism.
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[quote=“BigJon, post:1866, topic:1336, full:true”]
That’s just factually wrong, clearly whoever wrote this has never heard Chopin, Brahms or even Beethoven.
Once again you have misunderstood the intent and basic understanding of this quote. I do not know if you do do it on purpose or if you are unable to grasp concepts that go against your deeply entrenched thinking.
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The West African music refered to morphed into Blues R&B and Gospel - that is exactly how it is relevant for people from London or Liverpool or Manchester. Modern music - not classical. I was expressly clear on that.
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The “they” I refer to is West Africans not people labeled by their skin tone.
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To say it is the same as asking “No where are you really from?” is bogus bullshit of the highest order. I 100% stand by my remark - It is absolutely true that in the main Black people are more successful in the music industry. That is a good thing. Drawing attention to it is not being racist - it is a compliment. As I said before the cream rises to the top. The best music gets listened to, bought, acclaimed and admired. It is transcendent of race. It is once again the Pareto principle in action.
I will leave it there - no point in continuing this argument as there seems to be no understanding (deliberately or not) by you of what was intended by my comment.
My original comment is in no way racist and would only be construed as such by someone perpetually seeking to find offense - or by someone who has no reasonable argument.
I note you have managed yet again to move the conversation away from the original topic (slavery) as your somewhat weak and imprecise comments were floundering in the marshlands of lazy thought and rote learning.
I don’t make assumptions - the proof is in the pudding so to speak.
Just a final thought -
If I said " Those white European architects in the 17th Century sure knew how to design and build a Cathedral" Would that be racist? Attributing a specific skillset and talent based upon their skin colour. Even though it is a true fact that they did design and build magnificent Cathedrals? Even though it is a compliment to them?
You have a great day and please don’t take offense.
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That’s what Mascot responded to. The ‘they’ here is black people, not West Africans, so ‘people labeled by their skin tone’.
How - grammatically - am i supposed to express that?
Semantics at best!
FFS
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Genuinely don’t understand your point. You couldn’t have swapped ‘black people’ for ‘West Africans’ for grammatical reasons?