I think that touching on race in class is an important topic but I know it is also a very sensitive topic for some people. The idea of race and what it means has evolved and developed over the centuries and decades. There is no black and white bathrooms or black and white anything, that is a time of the past. However, there are still people who do not accept the fact that segregation is done with and look down on different races. As mentioned in class today, record labels were run by immigrants and it was odd for the blacks and whites to walk in and record something when it was run by immigrants. We spoke on how music back then had less to do with you are and more to do with what was available. I believe Miller in Segregating sound did a good job of explaining what artists back then went through. “The had to paint the pop tunes they loved with a patina of down-home credibility. Southern black recording artists were encourages to pretend they did not know about modern pop music. White southerners had to make Tin Pan Alley sound like a farm road” (p. 227). One last thing that I want to touch on in regards to today’s lecture was the idea of Romantic Nationalism. I have heard about romantic nationalism before but have never understood just exactly what it was. However, your example of country patriotic music with eagles and flags flying puts into perspective for me what it exactly means and I thank you for using an example I can relate to!

Sarah White