{"id":40944,"date":"2020-02-14T11:47:40","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T10:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/washington-white-power-black-capital\/"},"modified":"2021-02-09T16:08:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T15:08:52","slug":"washington-white-power-black-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/washington-white-power-black-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington, white power, black capital"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><b class=\"pam-featured-content\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36804 pam-featured-content\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/3f72d1d9-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1064\" height=\"870\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/3f72d1d9-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city.jpg 1064w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/3f72d1d9-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-759x621.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/3f72d1d9-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-1010x826.jpg 1010w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/3f72d1d9-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-661x540.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/3f72d1d9-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-465x380.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/3f72d1d9-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-375x307.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/b><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #7d5f97;\"><b>Released in 1975, the political-funk delirium \u201cChocolate City\u201d by George Clinton\u2019s Parliament imagined the American capital under black sovereignty and a White House entrusted to figures of Black Power. Here is the third episode of our series dedicated to the&nbsp;<a style=\"color: #7d5f97;\" href=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/tag\/black-history-month\/\">Black History Month<\/a>.<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Photo by Bruce W. Talamon \u00a9 2018 All Rights Reserved<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Slumped in the Oval Office, and imagine instead Muhammad Ali in the White House, Stevie Wonder as Minister of Fine Arts and Aretha Franklin reigning as the First Lady in the American capital now renamed \u201cChocolate City\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This cosmic version of \u2018I Have a Dream\u2019 germinated just forty-five years ago in the brain of George Clinton, the Pope of P-Funk, who gave birth to this hymn that dreams of black power. It seemed prophetic upon Obama&#8217;s arrival in 2008 and now sounds like a rallying cry for the resistance<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400;\">.&nbsp;<br style=\"clear: both;\">&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5sUaE6Db1xk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br style=\"clear: both;\">\u201cChocolate City\u201d then. The track and its eponymous album are a political manifesto that journeys into the black heart of Washington, DC, and its \u2018vanilla suburbs\u2019 \u2013 clean streets populated by well-dressed white WASPs. On the now iconic cover, we see the emblems of the federal capital \u2013 the Lincoln Memorial, the Obelisk, and Congress \u2013 are coated with thick, dripping chocolate, seeping into the city\u2019s back alleys as well as the corridors of power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Parliament\u2019s LP appeared in March 1975, the idea of a black capital was something of a pipe dream. Watergate had got the better of Richard Nixon and his beliefs in a racial hierarchy, but his successor in the White House was hardly a supporter of the Black Power Movement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Put simply, from the Secretary of the Treasury to the diplomatic chiefs the Ford administration consisted almost exclusively of white men, who no longer had to worry about strong black leaders such as Malcolm X or Martin Luther King because they had all been murdered during the previous decade.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But things were changing. The Vietnam War was coming to an end and hedonism was all the rage. Under its glitter and bass, the fight for black empowerment was being swept along in the wave of disco.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With his cardboard spaceship, thigh high wedge boots, and rainbow deadlocks, George Clinton didn\u2019t exactly conjure up the image of a deep and serious <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">artiste<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The name of his group, founded in the suburbs of New York in 1955, The Parliaments, which later became Parliament, is misleading \u2013 it isn\u2019t an ode to legislative power but rather a reference to a brand of trendy cigarettes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And yet, behind the pure and simple celebrations of pleasure (\u201cMake My Funky P-Funk\u201d) or Afro-futurist parties (\u201cMothership Connection\u201d), Clinton and his crew \u2013 sometimes under the name Parliament, sometimes under the name Funkadelic \u2013 deliver the occasional sucker punch to a nation that devours its youth of colour (\u201cAmerica Eats Its Young\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cChocolate City\u201d is in this vein. Nothing quite as upfront as \u201cThe Revolution Will Not Be Televised\u201d by Gil Scott-Heron (1971) but a subtle groove to get the message across to white people looting power in a black city \u2013 look out, it&#8217;s not going to last.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This warning isn\u2019t issued with a banging drum, but with a smooth guitar, quickly joined by the synthetic harp strings of genius keys player, the late Bernie Worell. \u2018We just took [the riff] and went in the studio&#8230;Bernie played all this classical kinda stuff on top of that and the next thing you know it\u2019s like wow! The song was born\u2019, said Bootsy Collins, the legendary bassist of P-Funk, in 2010<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400;\">.&nbsp;<\/span><br style=\"clear: both;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36821\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/08527866-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1730\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/08527866-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/08527866-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-759x938.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/08527866-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-1010x1248.jpg 1010w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/08527866-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-661x817.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/08527866-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-465x575.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/08527866-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-375x463.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br style=\"clear: both;\">All that remained was to add the finishing touches \u2013 Sir George Clinton\u2019s declaration of love for \u2018CC\u2019 AKA Chocolate City in his spoken word style using explicitly political lyrics. His message: Washington belongs to black people.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Founded in 1791 on a swamp infested by mosquitos, the city was the first to free its slaves in 1862. For 150 years Washington had been home to Howard University, an establishment dedicated to the education of black elites, and segregation had been less violent there than elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inventor of the go-go Chuck Brown, Duke Ellington, and Marvin Gaye were among the many black citizens who had been attracted to the capital. In fact the black population far outnumbered the white one.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018The last percentage count was 80<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don&#8217;t need the bullet when you got the ballot<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you up for the down stroke, CC?\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">asks George Clinton during \u201cChocolate City\u201d playing with the close sounds of the words \u2018bullet\u2019 and \u2018ballot\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to him, black sovereignty over the city was the only fair compensation for slavery, its horrors, and the hollow promises made after its abolition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018Hey, uh, we didn&#8217;t get our 40 acres and a mule<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But we did get you, CC\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">intones Sir George, referring to the compensation promised to slaves after the Civil War. He prophesies a change of colour at the heart of American power \u2013 \u2018they still call it the White House, but that&#8217;s a temporary condition\u2019 \u2013 and the beginning of a black wave sweeping the land: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018We got Newark, we got Gary<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Somebody told me we got LA<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And we workin&#8217; on Atlanta\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Clinton had not foreseen the danger coming to his \u2018CC\u2019. In the 1980s, crack would decimate the black population of Washington and lead to the loss of the city\u2019s African-American hero, former mayor Marion Barry, filmed smoking the cocaine derivative by the FBI during a sting operation in 1990.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">funkateer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">-in-chief had not foreseen another, far more insidious, threat \u2013 the very white and very swift gentrification of downtown Washington, once the haunt of pimps, junkies, and soul food, now invaded by gyms and salad bars selling $20 lettuce.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018Gainin&#8217; on ya!\u2019 proclaims the \u201cChocolate City\u201d refrain, hot on the heels of white power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open your eyes. The White House has never had a more appropriate name and Trump, still seated in the Oval Office, may well be there for another four years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36824\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/30a78096-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"990\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/30a78096-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-cover.jpg 600w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/30a78096-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-cover-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/30a78096-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-cover-465x460.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/30a78096-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-cover-375x371.jpg 375w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/30a78096-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-cover-85x85.jpg 85w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/30a78096-parliament-funkadelics-george-clinton-chocolate-city-cover-73x73.jpg 73w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Released in 1975, the political-funk delirium \u201cChocolate City\u201d by George Clinton\u2019s Parliament imagined the American capital under black sovereignty and a White House entrusted to figures of Black Power. Here is the third episode of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":36804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10913,7834,9398],"tags":[32591],"location":[7976],"yst_prominent_words":[8403,10662,25111,9258,8414,8447,32656,32649,32650,32655,8435,32651,32654,31210,32652,32653,32648,8543,8438,10551],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40944"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=40944"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=40944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}