BIGOTRY & SOUL = AN AWKWARD HOMELIFE

Discovering soul music in my teens was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Not only was it terrific stuff to listen and dance to, but it helped me to reject the bigotry under which I had been raised.

Unfortunately, my father (rest his soul) was raised in a conservative working-class home during the 1940s and 1950s, when conformity and racism (both overt and covert) reigned supreme in America. The whole time I was growing up (in the '70s and early '80s), dad, honestly believing that he was guiding me in the right direction, filled me with his invective. So imagine his reaction when I hit my teens and discovered '60s Soul music!

Dad certainly was disgusted over my newfound tastes. I don't know how many times he'd walk past my room when I had Aretha, Otis or Pickett on the stereo, and ask, "What are you listening to those nigger records for?" That from a man who had grown up digging jazz and R&B! Go figure.

But I didn't let my father's unsolicited opinions deter me. I was hooked on soul and nothing could change that.  I didn't realize it at the time, but collecting soul records was causing me (subconsciously at first) to question my family's bigotry.  As my record collection grew, so did my tolerance, not only of African-Americans but of all the groups of people I had grown up hearing my family rail against (Latinos, gays and lesbians, feminists, immigrants--you name the group, they were prejudiced against it!).

Unfortunately, recovering from bigotry is not unlike recovering from alcoholism. It's a lifelong process that requires constant diligence. Lucky for me when it gets difficult, I have the music to fall back on. If for no other reason, I thank god that soul music exists!

Dean Fiora
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.
June 1998