Blues People is a seminal study of Afro-American music (and culture generally) by Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...

, who published it as LeRoi Jones in 1963. In Blues People Baraka explores the possibility that the level of assimilation of black Americans into American society can be traced through the evolution of African-American music. Baraka dedicates the book to my parents ... the first Negroes I ever met.

Lay-out

The 1999 reprint begins with a reminiscent piece by the author, now 65, titled Blues People: Looking Both Ways, in which he credits poet and English teacher Sterling Brown with having inspired both him and his contemporary A. B. Spellman

A. B. Spellman

A. B. Spellman , is an African-American poet, music critic, music historian, arts administrator, and author. He first garnered attention for his 1964 book of poems entitled The Beautiful Days...

. Baraka does not here discuss the impact his book has had.

The original text is divided into twelve sections, thus :

The Negro as Non-American: Some Backgrounds

In the opening section Baraka argues that Africans struggled in America largely because Western culture was so alien to them. He describes various fundamental differentiations, starting with the language gap between Africans and Americans that influenced the first generation of slaves. This argument is supplemented by historic references to ancient slave societies like Rome where the slaves spoke their masters' language, allowing for human communication rather than complete dehumanization. Baraka proceeds to a more philosophical difference, the humanism of western society following the Renaissance in contrast to African spirituality. He argues that the centrality of the human experience in America would have been too difficult for African-Americans to comprehend immediately, creating another barrier.

The Negro as Property

This section focuses on the unique position of Afro-Americans. First, it is shown that Afro-Americans are fundamentally different from other immigrant groups that eventually attained equal status in America because Africans were the only immigrants brought here unwillingly. Then, the book considers the African diaspora as a whole, showing that Africans in America have the lowest retention of their cultural background of any localized group of Africans. The book argues that this is caused by the unusually high amount of contact between masters and slaves in America.

Classic Blues

This is the section which one hears read aloud in Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....

's film One Plus One (1968). The reader is a Black Panther. Most of Baraka's first paragraph (beginning What has been called classic blues was the result of more diverse sociological and musical influences ..) is audible even while the camera moves off toward other Panthers, before the ambient noise of activity and other speeches drown it out. In a later section of the same film (titled All about Eve) a scrum

Media scrum

A media scrum is an impromptu press conference, often held immediately outside an event such as a legislative session or meeting. Scrums play a central role in Canadian politics and also occur in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand....

 of reporters follows a woman representing the spirit of Democracy

Goddess of Democracy

The Goddess of Democracy , and the Goddess of Liberty , was a 10-meter-tall statue created during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.The statue was constructed in only four days out of foam and papier-mâché over a metal armature...

; one wants to know with whom she was just now on the telephone: Did you call leRoi Jones?