There are douche bags everywhere. Some might be at the same event you attended. That doesn't mean everyone at the event or the event shares the same mindset. Classic knee jerk armchair criticism. But why be eloquent when you can be reactionary? Why see it as an incredibly rare event that many different ages, races and social classes to come together for two days no matter how stupid and offensive a portion of them are? It's easier just to lump it into one pot and wonder why it tastes shitty.
I guess all the Minorities involved in The Drive Invasion and the day to day operation of The Starlight are invisible to this guy. I know my black friend set up in the front row must have been. I remember showing BLAZING SADDLES this year. If that's not a discussion on race I don't know what is. I guess he wasn't there the year we had Rudy Ray Moore at the festival and showed two of his movies. Knowing Mr. Moore, he would be pissed he wasn't black enough to count.
What gets me is not that he pointed out out the few racist shitheads that may have been there, it's that he consistently calls the event racist. Just because one of those dicks is in Kroger buying Milk doesn't make the Grocery Store a Bigot or the Frozen Pizzas a Nazi.
Here's some of last years moaning:
Guess what... A swastika or SS tattoo is moronic. Last time I looked it wasn't illegal - just in bad taste, ignorant and childish.
I also get the feeling that the "All these Tattoos" mindset is bordering on judgmental and classist as well. It's not anyone else's business and the individual's right to self expression. If I had the right to control who could and could not come to the Event by the way they looked then there wouldn't have been anyone in MANDALS.
This is not the case and I saw Man Feet for 2 days.
4 comments:
I did my duty. My comment was that maybe he was hanging out with the wrong people. Its true, one bad apple can spoil his view.
I remember reading that at the time. I spent a good chunk of the DI hanging out with my buddy Toine, who I'm pretty sure is black and by no means has any interest in disowning his racial identity, and he had as much fun as I did. By the way, he was also there in '07, strangely enough not even in disguise. How he wasn't murdered is amazing. Remember when Gravyboat played? Ron clearly must be too stupid to realize he was in a rock-n-roll/country band. Why, they weren't very funky at all! Alan in the Road Devils must be a subservient idiot too, what with hanging out with all those Klansman car club-types. My friend Monique was there in '07 too. With a bunch of her white girlfriends her age. No middle aged man in sight. But I didn't see one Hendrix portrait tattoo so I can draw only one logical conclusion...
Meh ... another crackpot with a blog. I think you did the right thing in giving a counterpoint but don't let it eat you up.
You can't live in this city without having to deal with race in one way or the other. It either drives a lot of your day to day decision making OR your going to be on the receiving end as someone else is making an evaluation of you. It's a frustrating and wearing aspect of life in Atlanta. To pick out The Drive Invasion as some kind of racist festival is fucking absurd.
Try the Dogwood Festival!
Hell if you really want to see racism, go take a walk from the Five Points MARTA station to a Braves game someday. Drive Invasion will look like fucking Woodstock in comparison.
I was switching trains one day when some 18 year old white kid from the burbs comes up and asks me for directions. I told him and then he thanked me and said "I don't trust black people, thanks" ... well he had gotten bad directions from some black guy and he was a douchebag ... shit, how do i absorb that?, I'd really just like to push them both in front of a train and move on.
Last I checked, it was against the law to forbid entrance to a public event to anyone with the $ to pay based on their race, creed, color, religion, sexual orientation and political affiliation. So, if you DO ban the skinheads & Aryans from attending, you not only break the law, but open up the event & the Starlight to a federal lawsuit. You can only throw them out if they start shit. Until then, easily offended, balding baby boomers in mandals and Hawaiian shirts will just have to take it up with the Supreme Court.
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