Jamestown's 400th "Celebration"...Roots Style

I love the Roots EVEN MORE for this moment in history:



Allow me to give you some background on this moment:

(From QuestLove's Myspace Blog)
Tuesday, May 29, 2007


Blog 99: Never Scared

the kudo-ians please.


ok-
so there comes a time in every man's life in which he is presented with a "man"/"mouse" situation.

i was presented with such a challenge.

normally on our home website

(www.okayplayer.com)

the roots get all types of messages with political agendas in em.

some we scoff at ("how come yall don't do more shows that cater to black people?!?!)
some we get caught with our hands in the cookie jar ("how the fuck yall doing (enter corporate sponsor name here) shows? what sense that make?!!?" my answer? "what the hell you doing giving them your money then?)
and some we take serious.

this was one of them.


i got this letter from our message boards about 6 hours before the show
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Peace Qwestlove,

This is brother manifest, I am a brother who lives in Virginia, and I wasn't sure but figuring that you are a pretty astute brother I wanted to pick your brain on some things.

The show you all are doing in Richmond on Tomorrow is in commemoration of Jamestown's 400 year Anniversary. The situation is kinda of funny because the way it is being marketed is as a Fridays at Sunset concert (which it is) however it is ironically Free (which is dope) but the issue lies in the politics involved of why it is free, what it is commemorating, and most important the location.

Alright, well you know black people and indigenous people suffered greatly as a result of the imperialistic endeavor of the Jamestown colony which is the foundation of this country - the first Western Business and beginning of the exploitation of any non-white by Europeans in the North American soon to lead to United States, (we can speak on spain and its colonies in florida but they not cele ahem commemorating that)

Well since this 400 year anniversary of Jamestown has been promoted, it has been thoroughly though not suprisingly whitewashed that blacks and native americans (which if we read ivan van sertima's work, or talk to any moorish science temple brother is a synonomus concept) actually were exploited, enslaved and bred for resale and that genocide was the rule of the day post Jamestown. Not susprising because how does one in the Virginia Tourism / Richmond Region 2007 market that? hmmm....Lets talk to Johnson Marketing about that....

I work in the community and work as an event planner so I know that many marketing companies were contacted to get African American and "minority" involvement in the celebra...ahem commemoration of Jamestown. But Africans really could care less in most instances, and if they were hip were like that is some bullshit, I aint celebrating shit. This issue is even deeper because the VA legislation waited until the week before the offical jamestown celebration (May 13th, 2007) to offically recognized the native american tribes. They were threatening to protest the cele...ahem commemoration if they were not recognized...Urban Marketers were contacted and purses were put in the air for whoever could get black folks to get into celebrating jamestown.

Johnson Marketing linked with Richmond Region and got the money.

They are making the show free so it will be a maxed out turnout and the VA tourism people can say look all the black people are celebrating Jamestown. Which really they aren't they are happy to be seeing the ROOTS for free. VA tourism then uses these numbers as data to show African American involvement in the celebration. It might not mean shit, but then you gotta think of where they having it.

The spot is a dock (intermediate Terminal ) more than likely a dock where our ancestors were taken off of slaveships and walked to Shockoe Bottom and sold. Remember Richmond VA was at one time the leading exporter of slaves.

I hope this is a good (though I will admit a very long) explaination of how things are very interesting that Virginia has you all performing at a slave dock in honor of jamestown's anniversary which is simultaneously (though they wont talk about it) a commemoration of slavery and genocide.

Anyway, just wanted to put you on that. Some brothers and sisters will be wearing t-shirts to put people on notice about this stuff. If anybody on the board here wants to get a t-shirt holla at us via email happilynaturalday@gmail.com. The shirts are being sold at the cost of 15 bucks as a fundraiser for our event Happily Natural Day and for Camp Diva a african american female rites of passage program here in the city. Also we will be passing press releases and pushing the issue to folks. Hopefully we can get you and the band some t-shirts to wear as well.


Note: this aint in no way trying to say that the ROOTS shouldn't play or nothing like that, just want to get you all hip if you weren't hip to another perspective of the situation.

Stay blessed,

Brother Manifest

-------------------------------------------------------

well....
that morning in the shower i too wondered how that show woulda come off.
back in the days of recording Voodoo, d'angelo always told me about James River.
the body of water in which the slave ships would import the stolen africans and his belief of the spirits of evil lurking within those waters (at one point this was going to be the title of his 3rd album)---not that i had a clue i was going to perform at james river, but he told me that the history of slavery runs DEEP in richmond. with the same plantations and "feeling" still brewing throughout the city.

my concern was how were black folk and red state white folks gonna take to the very "blue state" sounding "masters of war" the bob dylan anti corrupt government song we have been covering in our shows.

i thought well perhaps i should make a speech or something.


and then this letter comes.

my manager thought it would be a PR disaster for us to partake in this celebration.

but i really didn't want to blow off a show that only happens once in a blue moon:

giving a free show to 12,000 people.

so we decided after voting that "we'd say something about it"

then we decided that right before "masters of war" to talk about it.

problem is....

THIS (myspace) is where i talk.

so it was like "wait....I have to talk about this? i drum!! i don't talk!!! what do i say?!!"

"talk from the heart ahmir"

i admit....i know how kanye felt during that whole "bush"/"black people" remark---

cause if you could just see that crowd:

there was a BIG ASS american flag behind us.

and of the 12,000 im sure only 2,000 really knew who we were.

last thing you want to do is shit in someone's backyard and not be prepared to
fight your way out....

...no matter how righteous the shit.

someone caught my lil speech on youtube and i decided to share it.

i was nervous as hell and yet the point was made.

Stand your ground. Have some balls.