At least here in America, it seems to me that African American
people don't need constructs such as 'folk music clubs' to find
musical genres which appeal to them on a direct an visceral level.

Whereas we palefaces have had to give CPR to the notion of
self-made music, that very important part of civilized culture
is and has always remained alive and well in the African-American
culture. Even the commercial music (i.e., 'gangsta' rap, and
hip-hop) sources its artists mostly from the community itself,
and those artists' lyrics come right out of their own experiences.

From the time they hit the beach, these folks have been making and
re-inventing their own music. Whether it's the Americanization of
the 'banjar' to the discovery of how 'samples' on a cheap Casio
keyboard or the 'scratching' of an old phonograph record can become
a rhythm track or a central 'riff,' they've never stopped inventing
both instrumentally, lyrically, and in a genre (which they probably
invented as well!).

Black folks don't need to be looking back to some pre-industrial
angst to find relevant music. Nor do many of them seem to care to, beyond certain stand-out educators who occasionally get paid to come
'slum' with the rest of us. They've got a living, breathing, healthy,
musical 'tradition' which lives right in the here-and-now. In
fact I'd assert that it's MORE healthy than it was in the days of
over-studioed and over-orchestrated Motown Records. Marvin Gaye
me 'sound prettier' than Snoop, but Snoop is more true...more like,
dare I say it, 'folk.'

I think, too, that there are cultural differences as to where
upwardly-mobile middle-classers gravitate. Among Anglo-Saxons
it seems to be classical or in a few cases folk or jazz. (You
know, when music actually becomes a bit of a status symbol,
or a sort of indulgence?). In the African-American culture,
the 'approved' music for the upwardly mobile (particularly
male) middle-class seems to be classic jazz. Coltrane and
Parker seem to be the heroes there. That's what the role-
models say you're supposed to listen to.

In other words, I think the divide is real, not imaginary.
Where you can point to the 'exceptions' they are just that...
exceptions.

It's not so much a question of not being comfortable, or wanted.

Black folk pretty much just don't need the run-of-the mill
folkie crowd. We're just...irrelevant.