Entertain Me

Okay, I couldn't pull up the clip where Mookie asks Pino to list all of his favorites :
Basketball - Magic Johnson
Movie Star - Eddie Murphy
Musician - Prince ('Bruuuce!')
The thing is, as long as they're just there to entertain they're alright.
Even Laura Ingraham could deal with LeBron as long as he would just 'shut up and dribble'.

I've never experienced racism or even discrimination but I'm sure it exists. I've always been the acceptable Negro - even when I was the only and/or first Negro.
Sure, I've been in riots, police chases, shootouts,.. - all the hood stuff, but I've never been in any real trouble.
I'd walk away unscathed from bad situations and when once asked by a pretty blonde girl why I'd never get caught-up, 'Oh, because different rules apply', I said as I walked to a friend's car and was driven away.
The American Black Experience? I guess I've seen it on television or in movies but I never thought of Blacks as being a cohesive and monolithic group - our expectations and experiences are just too varied.

My club's social media accounts are littered with praise for Beyonce after her performance at Coachella.
It's as though people are surprised that Bey could slay at what many see as a festival for rich white kids.
But why?

Bey is just the right person at the right time.
Years ago, Larry King's son had a Pino moment when he declared that he wanted to be Black.
And why not, like Pino, all of his favorite entertainers and athletes and even the POTUS were Black.
Bey is just riding the Wakanda Forever wave and she is not seen as a threat.

Bey and her nalgones came along at a time when she (along with J-Lo and Kim-K) and other callipygian women came back into fashion.
Light skin, pretty face, long (not nappy) hair, glamorous lifestyle,... - Beyonce is an acceptable Negro made for Coachella.

The thing about Coachella is that it was never intended to appeal to a solely white audience.
One of its founders (Bill Fold from the '98 Posse) would drop by our crib for Wednesday Night poker. The last time I saw him, he had to leave early because one of his homeboys (Greg? Maybe Tiny-James?) had a piece of metal in his eye from his day job and had to be convinced to be taken to the hospital.
Their crew was named after an old Public Enemy song.
The first festival included hip-hop DJs (Among others, Raymond Leon Roker - the founder of URB magazine.), Ben Harper and the militant Rage Against the Machine.

Coachella was never about one's race - unless to you, everything is about one's race.