From the New York Times:
For centuries, black music, forged in bondage, has been the sound of complete artistic freedom. No wonder everybody is always stealing it.
By Wesley Morris
AUG. 14, 2019
Something I’ve noticed growing in strength since 2008 is the feeling among black intellectuals like Mr. Morris that, while they haven’t actually composed any songs, they still deserve to get a monthly royalty check for the contributions of blacks to popular music. If F. Scott Fitzgerald’s granddaughter was getting a royalty check for The Great Gatsby until a year or two ago, why shouldn’t Wesley Morris get a royalty check for slave spirituals, owing to his racial relationship to the slaves of 154+ years ago?
It’s a perspective that I’d enjoy seeing explicitly articulated rather than just hinted at.
