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Ralph Stanley and American tradition
I've long held that if you go back fifty years you would find that that the most progressive segments of American life were athletes and musicians, and therefore inevitable that those would be two of the earliest integrated professions.
It's pretty clear at this point that racism is, at its root, an emotional response that no number of facts can dissuade. Music and sport are, more than any other fields, governed almost exclusively by emotion. How many times have you unconsciously cried during a song or jumped out of your set and screamed at a long fly ball.
Obviously, I don't romanticize them as these great bastions of progressive utopia, but if they could get people to cry or cheer or maybe just forget for a second that that guy doesn't look like you then that's a pretty good start.
Good on Ralph Stanley, he's a good man and the world is a little bit richer for his presence in it.
ps do yourself a favor and check out William Elliot Whitmore to hear Mr. Stanley's continued influence on us kids.
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