A couple of weeks ago the singer Aretha Franklin died. It’s sad news and at my band rehearsal we talked about her songs and her legacy. We listened to a couple of her recordings, and played one of her songs (an easy one).
I was very disappointed by the coverage on the BBC and in the newspaper. Nobody seemed to care about what a great singer she had been, it was all fashionable politics. People talked about her family's place in the civil rights movement, her being a woman, her being black, and even about her weight (which was apparently up and down like a bride's nightie).
If you hear the news that she's dead, and you think "A prominent black has passed away" or "A prominent woman has passed away" or "A prominent body positivity icon has passed away" then you’re the racist/sexist/fattist. I bet you only know her name because of what a fantastically spectacular and hardworking musician she was.
Richard "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." B
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