Wednesday, January 21, 2009

99 and 1/2


99 and 1/2 by Mavis Staples from her 2007 cd We'll Never Turn Back produced by Ry Cooder. The footage is from the 2007 May Day March in Los Angeles.
Mavis Staples is one of the artists who can always move me on an emotional level. This woman lived the Civil Rights Movement. The Staples Singers were always there singing at the forefront. On the cd, Mavis weaves an autobiographical quilt of her life embroidered with the movers and the real moments of the struggle.
The footage from 2007 is almost 50 years after the struggles in the south, the violence in the north and the hard held and fought for progress America has made.
Yesterday, we inaugarated Barack Obama and many people feel that this somehow proves that racism is banished from the psyche of America.
It proves that we have progressed and have gone far as a society, but it ain't 100% and let me tell you, when it comes to freedom, 99&1/2% just ain't enough!

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