Azizi:

I haven't checked into this discussion for a day or two, so this is a late response to your message of 12 Dec 04 - 06:59 PM.

I never meant to imply that ALL Africans who came to America were enslaved in exactly the same way in the same geographical area. -- only that the shared experience of second-class citizenship (or more often, non-citizenship) typified by but not limited to slavery, most common in but not limited to the South and its plantation system, created conditions that led to the development of a distinct African-American culture.

The only point I was trying to make was that, while black musicians may indeed have made contributions to British folk music *as individuals*, there was never a distinct "African-British" folk *culture* at all comparable to the culture developed by African-American people in the US. The contributions of black persons to the folk culture of the UK would therefore be qualitatively different from, and more difficult to identify and describe than, the contributions of the black community in the US to American folk culture.

I may have expressed myself too concisely, in a sort of "shorthand"; I certainly didn't anticipate being quite so misunderstood.

As for your deigning to educate me about the Mardi Gras Indians and the Zydeco community -- puh-leeze! I daresay I have more firsthand experience of Zydeco music, and number more Big Chiefs and Spyboys among my personal acquaintances, than you or indeed anybody reading this forum.

(Please don't take offence -- I don't mean to be nasty or personal about it, but just had to get that off my chest.)

Changing the topic just a bit, I hear what you've been saying about American blacks being ethnically diverse in their ancestry. Very few black Americans (if any at all) are of purely African descent; in fact, most are probably fairly close to half-Caucasian/half-African. I've often wondered why it is that a person with one African great-great-grandparent is automatically (and often recognizably) "black." Even thinking about myself: three of my grandparents were Irish imigrants, the other German. I identify myelf pretty much as Irish-American, but at Oktoberfest I have no problem being German. If I had one African grandparent, however, I would have much less choice in the matter -- I'd be black, not Irish, and if I were a generation older, I'd be subject to Jim Crow laws and all the rest of that evil nonsense. Sure is a crazy world, ain't it?

If I had an hour or two to spare, I could start rambling on about the exceptionally weird race-relations history here in Louisiana, inlcuding the Octoroon and Quadroon balls, black and white Creole society, etc., etc. But I don't, so that's it for now...

As for the "Otis Day and the Knights" scene in "Animal House" -- sure, I've seen it. I have to say that it does not at all gibe with my own experiences as the only white guy (or half of the only white couple) in a black nightclub. I'm sure it has everything to do with the attitude with which you enter the place, but *every* time I was ever in that situation (it doesn't happen so much these days; I'm talking about 15 to 30 years ago), people were falling all over each other trying to be gracious and welcoming -- sometimes embarrassingly so. All because I/we obviously had a sincere interest in the music; not really much unlike Bluto and the boys from Animal House. Of course, I often *really* knew someone in the band, who knew I'd be there or with whom I may even have arrived -- Bluto and them busted in crying "Otis! My main man!" -- but Otis didn't even recognize them.