Because they're anti-Negro, that's why
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Alan Freed called white copycat records “anti-Negro” and refused to play them on his nightly radio show."--Let's rock! : how 1950s America created Elvis and the rock & roll craze (2016) by Richard Aquila "“Because they're anti-Negro, that's why,” Freed said. ... (Fredericks, 1958, p. ... 59)"--Popular Music, Popular Myth and Cultural Heritage in Cleveland (2019) by Brett Lashua "It’s important to note that Freed never pushed a record he didn’t like. Not only did he give exposure to Fats Domino, Little Richard and other stars, he also played obscure R&B and rockabilly songs, making short-lived stars out of Billy Brooks, Mac Curtis, Barbie Gaye (who sang the original ‘My Boy Lollipop’) and dozens of black vocal groups. He refused to play Pat Boone or the Crewcuts and attacked disc jockeys who preferred their pale imitation cover records. ‘They’re anti-negro,’ he told Vic Fredericks. ‘If it isn’t that, what is it? Oh, they can always excuse it on the grounds that the covers are better quality, but I defy anyone to show me that the quality of the original ‘Tweedlee Dee’ [LaVern Baker] or ‘Seven Days’ [Clyde McPhatter] is poor.’"-- Bill Millar, "Alan Freed: Mr Rock'n'Roll," The History of Rock, no. 11 (1982) "When asked why the industry continued to resist black originals, he responded, "Because they're anti-Negro, that's why."86 One insider was amazed that the ..."Race, Rock, and Elvis Page 77, Michael T. Bertrand - 2000, referring to Gruenberg, The Negro |
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"Because they're anti-Negro, that's why" is a dictum attributed to radio DJ Alan Freed. Its source seems to be “The Negro Issue in Rock and Roll” (New York Post, 9 October 1956) by Charles Gruenberg.
It is the answer to the question why he does not play the white covers of black original rock and roll recordings such as "Hound Dog" (1952), originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton and later covered by Elvis Presley.
Most secondary sources cite it as coming from Vic Fredericks's Who's who in Rock'n Roll (1958).
See also
- “Highway Robbery across the Color Line in Rhythm and Blues” (1955) by Langston Hughes
- Ripping Off Black Music
