But I’m Here to Tell U…Prince was Black.
This piece was originally written as the mission statement for episode 2 of my webinar series with Dr. Mauri deGovia, The O+> Paradigm, entitled Blackity Black and Woke A.F.
This has been a tough year. While still in the midst of a global pandemic, I, like many of us witnessed yet another video of a black man being murdered by law enforcement in Minneapolis Minnesota. As protests were sparked across the city of Minneapolis, my city, New York, the country, and soon the world, I started taking note of and effectively blocking racists and their commentary from my social media platforms. Some of this commentary came from people I thought I knew, and some I had only befriended on Facebook because of our mutual affinity for Prince. Racist commentary by Prince fans was at once shocking and telling, but ultimately not surprising.
In general, I’ve been concerned about the “white-washing” of Prince that I have seen. There are already a few impersonator acts out there with lead singers dressed up in extremely light brown face portraying Prince. I’m sure they perform with love in their hearts, but a non-black performer imitating a black superstar, while not blackface (I … guess) is still in and of itself a not-so-subtle rewrite of who Prince was.
I have also seen a certain segment of non-black Prince fans that say they love and accept Prince, but they don’t see him as “BLACK”, because “Prince didn’t see color” and “we all bleed purple”. These fans tend to stick to the 80s catalog and really don’t bother to go much deeper. They certainly don’t have much interest in the songs Prince wrote exposing the grip colonialism and white supremacy still holds over us all. Songs like Colonized Mind or The War. What does he say in The War?
“Batter up, pitcher down, what your teacher say, it ain’t sound, pledge allegiance to your flag, U tie me to a truck, and then you drag” Then he lends a nod to Gill Scott-Heron with the chant “1.2. the evolution will be colorized”.
Ummmm, yeah, Dance Music Sex Romance, is way more fun.
I ended up posting about my deep frustration around this on social media because I couldn’t take what I was witnessing, and I had to say something. An “All Lives Matter” post pushed me over the edge. I unleashed on someone (thoughtfully) and I have no regrets. If you are a non-black Prince fan who says “All Lives Matter” I’m here to tell you…Prince was black.
Your hero was a black man.
I am also here to tell you that Prince said “Black Lives Matter”. That means, he agreed with and supported the movement. Because at some point in his early life, before he was “Prince” he witnessed and experienced the pain of racism, as every person of color does, probably more times than you can guess. And the flip side of that pain was the joy, love, laughter, and music that black people create to stay afloat. Prince was not created in a vacuum. He came from and was nurtured in, the black experience; all of it. He was very clearly destined for greatness, however, he would not be who he was and who he became without his community. The black community.
In the first episode of my show, The O+> Paradigm, I mentioned that I hadn’t yet brought myself to read Prince’s memoir, The Beautiful Ones. I finally read it about a week ago, honestly to do some research around his life as a black kid in Minneapolis. It was short but beautiful and it confirmed for me what I’ve already known. Despite becoming one of the biggest and brightest stars we’ve ever witnessed, Prince started out in a world just like mine. In fact, his story reminded me of my two brothers who were born respectively the year before and the year after Prince. I could imagine them telling the same stories, right down to the vernacular, about life, the girls, and high school during that same era.
Ok, so we can’t forget that in his early days he told interviewers he was half Italian and half Black, and then went on to depict that lineage in Purple Rain. I was always confused and conflicted about this, and questioned the reasoning behind it. Perhaps it had less to do with some form of self-hatred, than it did wanting to screw with the heads of the reporters asking about his racial background because of his complexion. I don’t know. Nevertheless, it got people talking. Years later, even though most fans generally know now both of his parents were black, I fear it could be a subliminal contributor to the “Prince wasn’t BLACK, black” ideology. Let’s not get it twisted, we met Prince with his afro, Prince left us with his afro. Prince was black. The hair always tells the truth.
So, why is this all so important? Because representation matters. Little black and brown children need to see themselves in heroes of color. They need this to believe that they can come from where Prince came from and make it too. They need to learn how he challenged the business model of commodifying music and told artists they categorically need to own their work or they will be owned forever by the business. They need to witness how this little black kid from Minnesota grew up and built Paisley Park! During my first visit inside Paisley, I was fairly quiet most of the time. Beyond just processing emotions, I was truly floored by the fact that he created all of this for himself. A monument of creativity. I’ve never felt more proud of him.
Historic truths need to be told and preserved about our hero. And Prince’s black fan base cannot be the only ones championing this cause. These issues are important because we need allyship among his fan community members who are not black, and an important part of that is acknowledging Prince’s background. That means, who he ACTUALLY was and not just “what you wanted him to be”.
