The Crusaders – Street Life (1979)

Learning to be anti-racist

“The common idea of claiming ‘color blindness’ is akin to the notion of being ‘not racist’ – as with the ‘not racist,’ the color-blind individual, by ostensibly failing to see race, fails to see racism and falls into racist passivity.” – Ibram X. Kendi

For years, I have been mistakenly under the impression that ‘racist’ and ‘not racist’ were opposites. I’ve since realized that ‘anti-racism’ is actually the opposite or ‘racism’ & I need to do a better job of being actively anti-racist.

As a starting point, I want to commit to doing two small things every week:

1. Listen & Learn. Share resources that I’ve found helpful.
2. Amplify Black Voices. Each Wednesday, feature a Black Artist from the 1001 list.

 

Last week, I looked at Curtis Mayfield’s There’s No Place Like America Today.

This week, The Crusaders’ Street Life.

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[Album 780/1001]

How do you know when you’re listening to a really solid group of musicians?

When each track of an album features a different standout instrument.

With The Crusaders & Street Life, that would include:

Guest vocalist Randy Crawford’s performance on the opening title track

My Lady‘s bassline

Rodeo Drive (High Steppin’)‘s mid-song guitar

The keyboard-driven chord progression on Carnival of the Night

The Hustler‘s anticipating cymbal hits (on the 4 +, rather than waiting for the downbeat)

The smooth saxomophone on Night Faces

I suppose there’s also another correct answer to the question, how can you tell when you’re listening to a really solid group of musicians?

When the band is listed as having been active during 7 (!) decades, as the Crusaders were from 1952-2010.

One would think that hitting a commercial peak 27 years after forming would be a late-career triumph – but it appears with Street Life in 1979, the Crusaders weren’t even at their halfway point yet!

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Helpful Resources

As a longtime fan of Top 5 lists, I really appreciated Franchesca Ramsey (Chescaleigh)’s video, “5 Tips for being an Ally.”

There are some excellent analogies (wanting to help build a house but lacking any training, wearing horse blinders, different roles in Destiny’s Child) & I quite like the closing message of ‘ally’ being an ongoing verb, rather than a one-time statement.