The left has become so predictable. A classic case in point is the dust-up regarding Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. When Mr. Marsalis deigned to voice his opinion on the issue of race in a recent podcast, we knew he put himself in the left’s crosshairs.
Wynton Marsalis
As usual, they did not disappoint.
We prophesied the looming beat down Mr. Marsalis was bound to receive from all the racists on the left. There was no way they could allow Marsalis his viewpoint without publicly calling him out. For reference, here is the lede line from our article on Liberty Nation just a few days ago:
Music composer, educator, and dazzling jazz artist Wynton Marsalis is doubtless the next whipping boy about to be hounded and punished by the left. This is because he articulates a sensible and cerebral perspective on the race issue in America and refuses to buy into the empty racist narrative of the uber-left.
Without missing a beat, lefties came crawling out of the woodwork with hammers in hand. This is because the famous jazz composer and trumpeter said, “I started saying in 1985, I don’t think we should have music talking about n****** and bitches and ho’s,” then he pounded it home, “to me that’s more damaging than a statue of Robert E. Lee.”
Let’s face it – them’s fighting words for the left. Mr. Marsalis is not afforded the right to his own opinion. And so, the hammering cometh in full force this week.
The first such assault comes from Renée Graham, a columnist for the Boston Globe. “Perhaps the real pathology is Marsalis’ belief that hardcore hip-hop is worse than Confederate monuments,” Graham wrote. “He should know that black respectability means nothing to white supremacists.”
Then there’s Jarvis DeBerry, columnist for NOLA.com, who tried to couch his criticism through a musical metaphor that did not make much sense. Then Mr. DeBerry took issue with Marsalis’s use of the n-word – as if rappers never use it:
“But if Marsalis is the race man he says he is on the podcast, then he should be able to express his hatred of that word without obliterating distinctions between oppressors and the oppressed. He should be able to express hatred of the word without pretending that a genre that has given so many marginalized people a voice is the equivalent of statues that were emblematic of black people being terrorized into silence.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Marsalis felt the need to explain himself, which he did at length on Facebook. However, he did not make a full retreat and in many ways stood his ground when he said, “When we lose the right to critique (especially inside of groups we belong to) and have to accept mob rule, it is a step back towards slavery.”
Then he went on to defend his point with a few qualifiers:
“A number of (NOT ALL) hip hop musicians have gone on record saying that the marketplace and the industry encourages them to make their material more commercial by adding violent and profanity laced, materialistic and over-the-top stereotypical images and concepts to their work. They too know that this mythology reinforces destructive behavior at home and influences the world’s view of the Afro American in a decidedly negative direction. If you love black people how can you love this?”
When a black person such as Mr. Marsalis voices a viewpoint that differs from the radical left-wing narrative, he must be subjected to a whipping. Indeed, the oh-so-tolerant left cannot stand for someone with a mind of his own. Everyone must become part of their political ghetto – especially blacks.
But more and more as we’ve seen with Kanye West and Candace Owens, aka Red Pill Black, blacks are willing to state their opinion and take the hits. This demonstrates a brazen disregard for the party line. But Marsalis so eloquently disclosed, “The party line? That’s just not my vibe.”
