Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song - A MEMORY OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF MELVIN VAN PEEBLES DEATH THIS WEEK.......

I'd moved to Atlanta, shortly after Otis Redding's funeral.......partially, to escape the racism and sexism of Middle Georgia's Rightist Prejudices........In 1971, I went to the Theater, across P'tree Street from the then popular Cinerama Theater,  to see this Melvin Van Peebles' Urban Black Action Flick........So much for Atlanta being a cradle of Liberal Humanism........I was one of 3 or 4 'white' people in the audience....trying to watch the film through my dark 'Peter Fonda' sunglasses and some mighty tall 'Afro-cuts'...... After the Film,  I remember being asked by a Jimi Hendrix 'look-a-like', "Whuffo yu doin' in OUR movie house, whyte boah!"......How could I reply?  Me, dressing in  orange, turquoise and lime-green Toreador pants, and a Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club shirt......to a pissed off black racist wearing a Roberta Flack wig,  leopard-print polyester jump suit, lizard boots with chromed studs and a pound of gold-plated hipster jewels, who viewed P'tree Street at North Ave. as a demarcation zone.........Just a few blocks, South,  Atlanta's 'hippie' culture was dressed like the cast of 'HAIR'.......Wanting to engage in some peaceful inter-racial  interchange.....we....the Jimi imposter and I,  journeyed down to 14th Street, where a small army of yet another sect of Atlanta Youths with shoulder-length hair and 'face paint' were marching, with placards, deprecating the Vietnam War....   That evening, after donning a second hand Mr. Witt shirt, army surplus khaki pants and thrift store 1950's lace-up alligator shoes, Uncle Johns old Rolex watch and a Gupton-Jones Embalming School class ring, that i traded for at a pawn shop in Stonecrest,  I took my new Afro-acculturated acquaintance to The Piedmont Driving Club, where he was, summarily, asked to leave...... Go, Figure!