After the news broke earlier this week that City Commissioner Bob Langstaff was trying to block the apparently much anticipated Gucci Mane concert, battle lines seem to have been drawn. OK, maybe not, but plenty of people are coming down on various sides of the issue. There are a fair number of people, who happen to be white, who side with Commissioner Langstaff.
There’s also a lot of white folks defending the concert. Now that is a promising sign.
Albany’s racial history has always been front and center. From all the discrimination of the past, to the civil rights movement, to the more veiled racism following that movement, we’ve always been a racially charged city. Deny it as much as we want, racial tensions have been a part of the fabric of this town. But for how long?
Langstaff’s efforts are what they are, but the response shows whites and blacks standing side by side to protect free speech. They stand side by side in arguing that an empty Civic Center is a drain on resources, but concerts and events – regardless of the target audience – means income for the City and possibly a reduced tax burden. Albanians, both black and white, are taking the same side of an issue…and it ain’t just a few white folks either.
Commissioner Langstaff wants events like this stopped. The possibility of a lawsuit seems to be the only thing making sure Gucci Mane gets to perform in Albany, but if Langstaff gets his way, we’ll see even fewer events downtown. Like it or not, someone like Gucci Mane has a following, and there’s a segment of our population that actually likes this kind of thing. I have no idea why, but they do. Those same folks probably don’t understand why I like Eric Clapton and Toby Keith either, so I guess we’re even.
I just find it amusing that people will argue how desperately we need events at the Civic Center, but then try and block a popular act. Apparently, they want events but want control over what type of events take place. I can understand the sentiment. I honestly can. The problem is, it’s tyranny.
Yeah, use of the “T” word sounds melodramatic. I’ll be the first to admit it. But remember that tyranny occurs pretty much any time the government decides they know what’s best for you, regardless of your opinions. Is this the most egregious example? Hardly. It’s not even the most egregious example in Albany. But it is what it is. By trying to censor Gucci Mane, Commissioner Langstaff has crossed the line in what government should do and what it shouldn’t.
While I’m big on what government shouldn’t do, this is one that it looks like a lot of people are with me on.
Well said! Seems Bob Langstaff needs to review freedom of those rights…They are in place for a REASON. However it’s not just local government it’s government all over that wants to control those rights that benefit THEIR rights, not the rights for ALL.
To Mr. Langstaff election time is coming, keep making those waves, and you will see the voters waving you good bye…
Well said and Very True. I’m a life long resident of Albany, GA
I think people are missing the point on this one. As I understand the situation, this is a concert that Don Buie originally promoted as a downtown event for the Ray Charles Plaza. I have actually seen the cards Buie printed to advertise this concert taking place at the Ray Charles Plaza. While I do feel free speech bars us from banning such acts from the Civic Center, the Downtown Manager should not promote this act as a City sponsored downtown event. I don’t see this as a free speech issue.
I agree that the city shouldn’t have sponsored any such event. But they did, and a city commissioner trying to use his office to stop an act simple because he finds it “appalling” thrusts it into the realm of free speech.
I’ve said before that I’d prefer the city government not be in the business of “entertainment” anyways
has anyone ever looked at the lyrics to david allen coe’s song…’my wife ran off with a ni–ar’ probably as an offensive a song ever written….coe played at the civic center may 1st 2004….where was the outrage then??? this is a purely race based grandstanding effort by commissioner langstaff…. what would the outrage have been if arthur williams would’ve demanded coe not perform at that time?? and why did langstaff not demand an emergency meeting when 100k+ of taxpayer money was stolen from us?
Why is everyone getting so riled up about this, instead of taking a moment to laugh hysterically at the fact that this fellow is named “GUCCI MANE”?
Ha ha ha ha.
The stupid name overshadows the entire thing.
The laugher might be that this whole discussion just might be moot…. Recent rap offerings at the Civic Center have done very poorly.
I recall a hot national performer a few years ago that had just won a Grammy (or was it Oscar for Best Song or something) and either cancelled for lack of sales or sold all of 300 tix and went on stage … can’t quite recall and not worth checking back, but…
Other rap acts flat out cancelled before and after with dismal presales.
Sooooo Gucci Pucci Domanoooocci, make a back-up plan that night. I think there’s a Best of Lawrence Welk on TV. Ah One, Ah Two ….
And time will tell how brisk sales have been. However, poor sales is perfectly acceptable reason to not book an act like Gucci Mane, or to cancel the show. You’ll never hear a good old capitalist like me say otherwise
The act was Three 6 Mafia and they had, in fact, won an Oscar. It was for their theme song for the movie “Hustle and Flow” entitled “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp”
Guest:
You ask “Where was Langstaff when $100k+ of taxpayer money was stolen?”
Well, he was here warning us of the dangers of “sign blight.” That’s where his priorities are.
Langstaff needs to go. This ready-made controversy was a PR move from Bob to distract from his woefully incompetent handling of the ADICA fiasco.
And you’re quite right on another issue: Several other Civic Center acts were equally objectionable. The only difference here was that Bob Langstaff needed a diversion.
Nothing will improve at the civic center until folks in SW Georgia realize the importance of buying tickets in advance. AS former CC Director Irwin Ellis said, he could have booked the second coming with Elvis as emcee and folks would have still bought tickets the day of show.
ticket sales have increased since Bob off-loaded on Gucci! so we have the best of both worlds, Bob looks good and so does Mazzola. thanks for the controversy, richard thomas is boring…
Sorry, but Langstaff doesn’t look so good. I mean, unless you’re against free speech, in which case he looks great.
And for the record, I don’t think Commissioner Langstaff looks at this as a First Amendment issue at all. Of course, people rarely do when they’re trampling on the First Amendment.
guccimane thrives on controversy just like swgapolitics.com u see
langstaff did free speerch a favor
don’t dare censor (moderate) me
We moderate everyone because people were getting nasty with their attacks on others. As this is PRIVATE property, it’s a whole different ball of wax. The government doesn’t pay the bills for this site, I do.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson almost never gets upstaged and I had never seen the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson cry in public until last month. Jackson invited Bill Cosby to the annual Rainbow/PUSH conference
for a conversation about the controversial remarks the entertainer offered on May 17 at an NAACP dinner in Washington, D.C. when America ‘s Jell-O Man shook things up by arguing that African Americans were betraying the legacy of civil rights victories. Cosby said ‘the lower economic people
are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting.
They are buying things for their kids. . $500 sneakers for what? But they won’t spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics!’ Bill Cosby came to town and upstaged the reverend by going on the offense instead of defending his earlier remarks. Thursday morning, Cosby showed no signs of repenting as he strode across the stage at the Sheraton Hotel
ballroom before a standing room only crowd. Sporting a natty gold sports coat and dark glasses, he proceeded to unload a Laundry list of black America ‘s self-imposed ills. The iconic actor and comedian kidded that
he couldn’t compete with the oratory of the Reverend but he preached circles around Jackson in their nearly hour-long conversation, delivering brutally frank one-liners and the toughest of love.
The enemy, he argues, is us: “There is a time, ladies and gentlemen, when we have to turn the mirror around.”Cosby acknowledged
he wasn’t critiquing all blacks. . .. just the 50 percent of African Americans in the lower economic neighborhood who drop out of school, and the alarming proportions of black men in prison and black teenage mothers. The mostly black crowd seconded him with choruses of Amens.
To the critics who pose, it’s unproductive to air our dirty laundry in public, he responds, “Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day.” It’s cursing on the way home, on the bus, train, in the candy store. They are cursing and grabbing each other and going
nowhere. The book bag is very, very thin because there’s nothing in it.
Don’t worry about the white man, he added. I could care less about what white people think about me. . . Let them talk. What are they saying that is so different from what their grandfathers said and did to us? What is different is what we are doing to ourselves. For those who say Cosby is just an elitist who’s “got his” but doesn’t understand the plight of the black poor, he reminds us that, “We’re going to turn that
mirror around. It’s not just the poor-everybody’s guilty.”
Cosby and Jackson lamented that in the 50th years of Brown vs. Board of Education, our failings betray our legacy. Jackson dabbed away tears as he recalled the financial struggles at Fisk University, a
historically black college and Jackson ‘s Alma mater. When Cosby was done, the 1,000 people in the room all jumped to their feet in ovation. We have shed tears too many times, at too many watershed moments before,
while the hopes they inspired have fallen by the wayside. Not this time!
Cosby’s plea to parents:
“Before you get to the point where you say ‘I can’t do nothing with them’ , do something with them.” Teach our children to speak
English. There’s no such thing as “talking white”. When the teacher calls, show up at the school. When the idiot box starts spewing profane rap videos; turn it off. Refrain from cursing around the kids.
Teach our boys that women should be cherished, not raped and demeaned. Tell them that education is a prize we won with blood and tears, not a dishonor. Stop making excuses for the agents and abettors of black on black crime. It costs us nothing to do these things.
But if we don’t, it will cost us infinitely more tears. We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages regarding life choices, people think twice about sharing. The crude, vulgar, and sometimes the obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of decency is too often suppressed in the schools and workplaces.
mister man won’t you moderate me?
you say it isn’t censorship,
you say your speech is free,
are you in favor of transparency?
Yes, we are. In fact, we’re SO in favor of transparency, that if you post again as “guest” we’ll be happy to provide some transparency to your identity.
My daddy taught me that you do not do anything or say anything that you are not willing to have your name associated with.