am i overreacting? probably, but you be the judge...

so last week at work (i work at a blues club and restaurant that shall remain nameless unless you ask me personally) , a contracted painter came in and painted a dope picture of Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues on one of our walls. if you have even a marginal interest in the blues (like i did obsessively when i was, like, 16), you'd recognize the guy. at the very least, it was a cool old-school portrait of a bluesman, cigarette dangling from lips, clutching his guitar like he sold his soul for it (or maybe that's just me). it was in blues and greens and people who came in to look at the club were quickly snapping shots of it. why? because it was well done, and added something extra to the club that separated us from say, Applebee's or TGI Fridays or some such shit.

i walk into work this morning and it had been painted over.

when i asked why, i was told that one of the members of management "thought it looked like Wesley Snipes". the levels of the ignorance of that statement made me livid on levels heretofore unheard of. it's the subtleties of racism that slap you on the face the hardest, i guess. and i am constantly amazed at how people assume that because i have baby blues and sandy blondeness, that i share their antiquated views and that i'll chuckle and say something about "those wacky coloreds".

now i could go into a diatribe about how there's very little blues in this blues club, and how the little bit that i've seen is um, a bit...whitewashed...

i think they're scared of real blues. or excuse me, i should say, blues music performed by black people.
the only black performers i've seen in here are churning out generic "r and b" that's wholly unoffensive to anyone except people who like good music.

meanwhile, let's book another "alt-rock" night! now THAT'S entertainment!