Chez Chesler

Update, thanks to an anonymous commenter, the original article is here. I couldn't find today's Boston Herald op-ed by Cornelius Chapman, president of the Roxbury Educational Foundation, on their site. He writes:

As the Rolling Stones "Bigger Bang" tour moves across the country with the force of a financial hurricane, it is time to ask the troubling question that will not be hear from the lips of the group's lascivious logo.

Do the Stones owe reparations to African-Americans?

Seriously.

Consider the Stones' company profile: there has never been a black member of the group.

Even the most drug-addled Stones fan knows that their product is a priated version of African-American music. In some cases the group paid royalties to living artists such as Chuck Berry, whose works they copied. In most other instances -- Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," for example -- they were able to get what they want for free.

Sigh. Has Chapman given any thought to what the logical conclusion of this reasoning is? I don't buy into the whole racial-identity politics, so my mind, addled not by drugs but by the recent events on the Gulf coast and my own economic and health woes, can't come up with but one example before I start foaming at the mouth. We all have always been dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants. Meanwhile, Ty Taylor gets booted from Rock Star: INXS, and plays the race card. See my earlier post on Elton John's similar complaint about American Idol. Update: the Herald published at least two letters critical of Chapman in the days following.