Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Blacks and Country Music. I have heard several stories about Black singers getting into today's Country music. (Remember Elvis and how he got into originally Black Rock and Roll.) It seems to be more difficult for Blacks, being a minority, to 'quietly' be Country today. Those Blacks who have done so and spoken out, Tell of the hardships and negativity towards them, For venturing into a genre which, on its facade, should be white. (To go back again, remember that there were in real life--not movies-- Many Black cowboys.) Humans are all the same species--Homo sapiens--with superficial variations. All humans are imitators--from childhood, we take on behaviors of all sorts: Our voices, our language, our behaviourisms, even our hand movements! But humans are also gregarious joiners. We must-- at least most of us--must be in some sort of group, Which gives us identity to be part, with others, of some identifying category. (Consider religion, politics, sports, caste, musical genres, Racism, gender, educational level, profession, etc.) This is just normal human, primate behavior. Humans exhibiting differing polymorphisms, when entering a 'fixed stereotype' group, Can ruffle feathers and cause anxiety and the blood pressure to rise: Consider skin color, eye shape, various behaviors, accents, or hair morphology. 'They just don't belong here; they don't 'fit in' ' What is to be remembered is that we are basically all one species With a few polymorphisms sprinkled in! Frank Maurer 14 August 2023 1530 Hours.