Prompt: "You have some fucking BALLS for picking this song for this particular reason"
Selected by Brianna
"I Killed Robert Johnson"
The Stone Foxes
Bears & Bulls, 2010
My friends and I occasionally run a music league. It's similar to YSC but competitive. Each week, there is a category of music (a song with a sick guitar solo, a song about summer, etc.), and every person submits one that fits the requirement. Typically, we try to keep it to music we don't think the others have listened to, but there aren't a ton of guidelines outside of that. Then, we receive a playlist of all the submissions and vote on our five favorites, as well as downvote the single least favorite. We don't know who submitted what song until the results are revealed. It's the best time, truly, but there have been a couple of incidents. Today's prompt reminded me of one.
Our first ever music league was huge. Friends of friends somehow got involved and there ended up being 20+ people submitting each week. We all knew of each other to some extent, but I imagine some outliers in the group felt like they were among strangers. There was one such fellow; let's call him Tim, he was a friend of an outlying friend and far removed. He also happened to be the only Black man in the league that session. I say this with purpose, I promise.
Anyways, one week comes up and the song category is "related to a color" in title or content. We listen, we vote, we dive into the results a couple days later. Down at the bottom, with downvotes galore, was a close friend's—let's call him Greg. Turns out, while the rest of us picked songs about actual colors, Greg picked his song because it discussed a "colored man." While not the most seriously offensive thing I've seen in my life, I knew that wasn't going to go over well.
You see, Tim and Greg had never met. In his ignorance, whether malicious or naive, Greg didn't think about his choice. Tim did, though, and voice it did he ever. "I guess we're okay with calling people colored, huh?" was the opening line of that dialogue. What started as a lighthearted music experience brought up an uncomfortable moment for us all. To this day, Greg will say he really didn't mean to be offensive and that he just really wanted to share the song with us. And to him we say, dude, why didn't you just pick another one?
Our first ever music league was huge. Friends of friends somehow got involved and there ended up being 20+ people submitting each week. We all knew of each other to some extent, but I imagine some outliers in the group felt like they were among strangers. There was one such fellow; let's call him Tim, he was a friend of an outlying friend and far removed. He also happened to be the only Black man in the league that session. I say this with purpose, I promise.
Anyways, one week comes up and the song category is "related to a color" in title or content. We listen, we vote, we dive into the results a couple days later. Down at the bottom, with downvotes galore, was a close friend's—let's call him Greg. Turns out, while the rest of us picked songs about actual colors, Greg picked his song because it discussed a "colored man." While not the most seriously offensive thing I've seen in my life, I knew that wasn't going to go over well.
You see, Tim and Greg had never met. In his ignorance, whether malicious or naive, Greg didn't think about his choice. Tim did, though, and voice it did he ever. "I guess we're okay with calling people colored, huh?" was the opening line of that dialogue. What started as a lighthearted music experience brought up an uncomfortable moment for us all. To this day, Greg will say he really didn't mean to be offensive and that he just really wanted to share the song with us. And to him we say, dude, why didn't you just pick another one?
2 comments:
YSC x Music League crossover when?!?!?!
OMG this story has my jaw on the floor!
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