Spin Dry

This is the man who should be getting all the media hoopla and a state funeral. Put their life achievements next to each other, and Reagan doesn't even come close. After all, Ray Charles was never responsible for anyone's death, and he never came up with that ridiculous "Just Say No" and "War on (Some) Drugs" bullshit.

Ray Charles was a true American hero. He was a blind black man, and overcame both handicaps at a time when it was far more difficult to be the latter than the former. This man broke barriers, entertained the world and never came across as anything less than a nice, caring, fun person. He was one of those great African American Trailblazers (along with people like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole) who used the power of art to pull off the most subversive act of all -- prove to paranoid white America of the 50s that black people were okay, because they could sing, they could entertain, they weren't all out to mug you in a back alley.

That may sound patronizing and somewhat facetious, but trust me -- my relatives of several generations back were those scared white people, and yet all of them loved Armstrong and Cole and Charles. After all, how could a blind man who played piano like an Angel be dangerous? And while people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King certainly have their place in Black History, it's often the quiet souls who do the best ground work in knocking down walls.

To give a comparison to which I can relate -- Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly did more for gay rights among middle America than the most militant member of Act-UP ever could have. Act-UP, after all, was scary, but I doubt that many parents in the 60s would have had second thoughts about hiring Uncle Arthur as a baby sitter. And this extends to the modern age -- Ellen DeGeneris and Sean Hayes are "safe" queers who have paved the way for the more dangerous homos to move forward.

Ray Charles was a "safe" black man, and if it weren't for him and his compatriots, rap and hip-hop would not be major industries now, and pale white marketing wonks would not be knocking themselves dead to sell to the "urban" (i.e. "not white") audience.

Think about it. What's his best known song? Georgia. And what's Georgia best known for? A bunch of white assholes who still call the Civil War the "War of Northern Aggression" and think that it's okay to display the Confederate flag next to the gunrack in the FD-150.

I salute Ray Charles, and I mourn his passing. So, let's pretend that all the flags are at half-mast and everything is closing tomorrow in his honor, not in honor of that dead white asshole named Ronald.