All-Black Talladega Marching Band Raises $320,000 to Play Trump Inauguration

Talledega College’s marching band has taken an entirely different approach. The historically-black band not only agreed to play Trump’s parade, they’ve raised more than $300,000 to do it. In fact, their GoFundMe page has gone absolutely wild over the past 24 hours.


All-Black Talladega Marching Band Raises $312,000 to Play Trump Inauguration

This is great!


Now, I wonder what Mr Lewis would have to say about an 'All White Marching Band' from a White College?

Good for them. I hope they have a fun time.

volsrock said:

Talledega College’s marching band has taken an entirely different approach. The historically-black band not only agreed to play Trump’s parade, they’ve raised more than $300,000 to do it. In fact, their GoFundMe page has gone absolutely wild over the past 24 hours.


All-Black Talladega Marching Band Raises $312,000 to Play Trump Inauguration

This is great!

Click to expand...

Excerpt:

“Some alumni have come at me pretty hard; they don’t want the band to participate and say I am a disgrace to my race,” Mr. Hawkins told host Bill O’Reilly. “But this is about the students having an opportunity to participate in this national ceremony.”A number of artists, including prominent African-Americans, have said they would not perform at the inauguration of a president who built his political career leading the birther movement against President Obama, and on the campaign trail refused to disavow white supremacist supporters. No other historically black colleges are participating in the Trump inaugural events, and the Talladega band had been condemned in the African-American community and by many of the school’s alumni. But donors, giving mostly between $5 and $20, applauded the students’ courage and independence. “Ignore the hatred!” a woman who gave $100 said on the GoFundMe page. “Enjoy one of the greatest moments YOUR COUNTRY has to offer. Safe travels and GOD BLESS you all!!!

“Growing up, I had Klan night riders coming through my neighborhood. My freshman year we loaded up in a bus and went to the march on Selma. Racism is not theoretical to me,” Mr. Singley said in an interview. “The idea that a college that has long stood for civil rights would celebrate and normalize a man who got elected denigrating the first African-American president really is appalling.” He said he feared Mr. O’Reilly’s viewers who made donations were motivated mainly to try to prove Mr. Trump and his supporters were not racists, and had little interest in the fortunes of his small, financially struggling alma mater.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/us/black-college-trump-inauguration.html?_r=0


Band that wants to participate in national ceremonies does so in the face of lack of support resulting from whom they are supporting, but may now do so after flood of donations (from __________, _________, and ________ sources).



The way one reads that may or may not be affected by bias, and any quote can easily cut either way, depending on the viewer.

Well, hopefully the marchers at least enjoy themselves.

volsrock said:

Now, I wonder what Mr Lewis would have to say about an 'All White Marching Band' from a White College?

Click to expand...

And I wonder what Mr. Trump would have to say about an invasion of Mexican Space Raptors, but that's neither here nor there...

With all of the press this has received (and we do know how much the President Elect pays attention to it) I would not be a bit surprised if they actually get some kind of audience or a visit. This should be viewed as an opportunity.

In the early '80s, my high school was the Honor Band of Texas and as a result, we wrangled an invitation to China to perform. Thankfully, no one that I knew of condemned us for visiting a communist country or pushing for us to refuse the invite. It was an incredible experience for any young person and was rightly viewed as an honor for the school and honor for the band and not some kind of statement on our host.

This is a regular but relatively rare event for the country. It is even more rare that a person would be in a position not just to attend but actually perform. They should rightly view this as a performance for the nation at a national event on a national stage -- not a performance for Donald Trump.

volsrock said:

Talledega College’s marching band has taken an entirely different approach. The historically-black band not only agreed to play Trump’s parade, they’ve raised more than $300,000 to do it. In fact, their GoFundMe page has gone absolutely wild over the past 24 hours.


All-Black Talladega Marching Band Raises $312,000 to Play Trump Inauguration

This is great!


Now, I wonder what Mr Lewis would have to say about an 'All White Marching Band' from a White College?

Click to expand...

I think that's great. Good on them. The racists among us should take lessons.