You know, I'm trying, but I just can't get my hands around the idea that anyone who can legally vote would need to call a 15 year old a "fucking loser". I suppose that's the nature of the democratization of the Internet.

This is one of those "it no longer matters if you were right or wrong originally, now you're wrong" issues. There's the line, and there's over the line. It's over the line to tell a 15 year old kid to get a motherfucking life.

I certainly agree with that - they lost it and now look really bad. They seem to be admitting they lost it at least, now.

And you know what the beautiful thing is?

The kid tapped into something with this. Doesn't matter whether he had a legitimate reason for the take or not - he and his fellow petition signers (and there were a wholly non-zero number - wasn't this the most active petition on that site for a week or so?) believe that there are far more deserving R&B artists to carry on the name of Aretha Franklin than one Ashanti. Legitimate take.

And the webmaster of SoulTrain.com seems like a very common type of dork in the industry - he works for the firm, so the firm is always right and everybody who disagrees with anything the firm does is a f'ing idiot. Run into more than one webmaster or PR type with that take. You just wish they'd engage their brain every once in a while, y'know?

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And, because the site is called Blogcritics.org - it must be said that, in my not-so-humble opinion the high school kid is EXACTLY right. Ashanti has her place in the industry because of placement dollars - no further reason. She has no artistic presence whatsoever, she appears to be nothing more than a decent-looking vehicle for the splendidly-named label Murder Inc. - and I'm sorry if I'm being horribly biased and culturally illiterate for thinking that this is a label up to no good whatsover, but there is nothing POSITIVE about what the label is up to whatsover. Why not India.Arie - a woman who is (God forbid) actually comfortable with who she is and feels no need to hide behind any kind of airs, but simply present herself as herself artistically?

(Of course, if I'm going to go on like this, I ought to actually get around to updating my journal at length...)

"admitting they lost it"? uh, huh - doesn't look that way if you go to the soultrain.com website. prepare to be shocked by the arrogance, contempt and unhinged logic, mere music fans:

Indeed, we were astonished to learn of the existence of such a large group of individuals, who are under the belief that they, as mere, although, extremely valued, music fans and record buyers, could even, imagine having an honest justification for, aggressively, challenging a, fairly, routine creative decision, made by people
who have been, enormously, successful at making sound creative decisions, for more than three decades.

While not, in any way, intending to promote racism, we must concede that we are also, quite, amazed that such a large group of individuals, undoubtedly, mostly African-American, can be provoked toward such vivid expressions of disrespect and hateful speech (against a young, Black recording artist, as well as Soul Train), under the leadership of an individual whose foreign-sounding name (Rommel Zamora), may be an indication that he is not African-American.

Accordingly and regardless of whether Zamora is African-American or not, we are no longer angry over what has been a turmoil of insults. We remain, however, much saddened and we will, probably, never understand the psychology which breeds such mass Black-on-Black disrespect and hatred. Nonetheless, we will continue to pursue our original dream and to follow our own creative instincts, while remaining committed to an idea of resisting outside interference from those having a tendency to overvalue their personal opinions. A commitment, which we have, miraculously, succeeded in maintaining, for all of thirty-two (32), consecutive, years.

- http://www.soultrain.com/losa8/ashantipetition2.html, and:

It is our view that (with the exception of the majority of such e-mails received, which are in, full, support of our position) all such e-mailers should, not only be concerned but outraged, over the fact that a people, whose ancestry suffered 400 years of slavery, can be herded, so easily, into a, virtually, bottomless mud hole and be taught to sling such mud therein, on command, at parties who, essentially, mean them no harm, whatsoever.

Indeed, we at Soultrain.com, are very saddened to learn that, during an age when suicide terrorists have been able to level skyscrapers, in America, more than eighteen-thousand (18,000) mud-slinging, petition signers and a handful of, hateful and negative, e-mail writers, have nothing better to do with the precious time they all have left on Earth.

May we take this opportunity to make it very clear, that during an era when a number of Internet Web sites are visited or clicked onto by tens of millions of persons, worldwide, every single month and many, many TV outlets are viewed by tens of millions of viewers each day and each week, eighteen-thousand (18,000) responses to anything, on the worldwide Internet, cannot and must not be construed, in a relative sense, as a large number.

- http://www.soultrain.com/losa8/rebuttal081502.html

Who the hell composed those rebuttals?? William Shatner?