CSotD: What you saw was what you got
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Keith Knight with a dignified tribute to a dignified man. I never quite got how Don Cornelius, who seemed so grown-up and cool-in-the-dispassionate-sense fit in with the music he featured. But that was part of the deal, and, while it was good to bring soul to mainstream audiences, I was old enough by then to be out of the demographic, so it's not surprising I only saw the show in passing.
Tributes to Cornelius have talked about how he gave exposure to artists like Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Tina Turner, but, trust me, anyone who knew anything about pop music knew their work well before Soul Train ever went on the air.
It was the lesser known, less crossover acts that he brought to the forefront. Not that anyone who had never already heard of Aretha Franklin, James Brown or Tina Turner was going to be watching the show to see them.
Whatever the merits of the "exposure" argument, what Keef describes is a far more important matter.
The crucial factor was that the show was on the air, and that it wasn't considered extraordinary. It seemed like a good niche show for the weekend and it became part of a landscape that had changed remarkably.
Years before this, Sidney Poitier was asked in an interview about the noble, heroic characters he always played, and he said that, until there were more black faces in the media, it was important that the ones you saw were positive. When African-American actors had reached the level of acceptance where they were featured in deodorant commercials, he said, he would be willing to play villains.
TV began to dip its toe into the diversity pool very delicately — with Bill Cosby and Room 222 and Diahann Carroll and Lieutenant Uhuru. It's a well-known part of Star Trek lore that Nichelle Nichols told Martin Luther King that she was thinking of quitting Star Trek and he urged her to stay on because she was such a positive image of normal, accepted equality.
That sense of normalcy, created by those shows and by Poitier and some others, paved the way for programming like the Flip Wilson Show, where a character like Geraldine Jones could emerge from the shadows of the Apollo Theater and play for a mainstream audience without having to be a beacon of freedom and justice, but, rather, a really funny act based solidly in the African-American community that would, along the way, lend the computer industry a critical acronym.
And which would attract guest stars like Bill Russell, Muhammed Ali and Jim Brown who were not interested in underplaying or mocking their heritage.
Maybe that's where dignified ol' Don Cornelius fit in: An adult saying, "These are our kids, this is their music. Why wouldn't it be on TV?"
And out there in the audience were little Keef and his sister, absorbing a message of inclusion that was, by then, becoming a reality rather than a novelty.
And now, a couple of heads-ups on the funny pages:
Something is shifting at Elderberries, possibly several somethings. The General has proposed to Ludmilla and doffed his helmet, and word has come down that the place is closing. If I still worked at a paper, I'd sneak down to production and get a peek at the strips ahead, but I have no idea what's going on.
But it would be a good time to check in. Corey Pandolph has done some fine work on the strip since taking it over a few years back and this seems more like a restructuring than a ride off into the sunset. At least I hope so.
Whatever happens will be worth watching.
And also:
If you've got a Daily Ink subscription , Rip Kirby is about to launch a new adventure. And, if you don't have a Daily Ink subscription, here's an excellent excuse to finally pony up.
Twenty bucks a year isn't gonna kill you, and tossing a nickel a day towards cartoonists is literally about the least you can do.
And, yes, it would ironic if you broke down at last in order to read a strip whose artist is no longer around to get paid. Yes, it would.
Okay, okay — here: Scratch that bothersome earworm:
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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