posted on Jan, 13 2011 @ 07:19 PM
On December 26, 2010 a fabulous starchild left our plane of existence, never to be heard no more. On the contrary, I will leave one of her beautiful
messages in this post for all of you to experience. During these dark days, we need a little inspiration. Inspiration that moves the often selfish
concrete heart of today.
When she first came on the scene, her mentor said this of her: "...but one day singer and producer Rick James, one of the label's biggest stars,
happened to hear her singing and playing the piano in a rehearsal studio. "I expected to see a writer-producer," James told People. "And instead I
found this short, tiny white body sitting at the piano, singing like the gods had come into her spirit."
Pretty powerful huh?
Mary Christine Brockert, aka Teena Marie stepped onto the world stage with songs for The Father in her heart. God Has Created was one of her songs
always performed at her concerts. She was full of joy and eventhough the music industry dumped on her time and time again, she fought back and won
victories not just for herself, and she was one of many back in the day struggling for recognition from the black audiences, but all like her and then
later all artists as well.
Many seemed at first to embrace Teena until they found out she was white. Then came the ridicule. I heard someone once say she couldn't sing and I
asked why she would say that, and I got, because white people can't sing the blues. I never could stand prejudice of any kind so back then I would
have been a poor student of philosophical discussion (mainly because the girl landed on her butt) but Teena weathered these and more hateful comments
with a smile and a knowing. She knew she was being tested. She was determined to win high marks each time too. (For those not of a religious fate,
belief or the like, we believe we are tested and we pass or fail that test depending on whether we follow the rules or not - so those who think it
cool to gay bash, kill minorities or hate others in God's name fail the test.) What she said was most eloquent: Radio programmers assumed that Teena
Marie was black, an impression the singer neither encouraged nor dispelled. "It should make no difference; I don't see color," she told People. from
Answers.com
But she never faltered. Even in her battle with Motown Records, she held her head high. The outcome: "The lawsuit resulted in "The Brockert
Initiative", which made it illegal for a record company to keep an artist under contract without releasing new material for that artist. In such
instances, artists are able to sign and release with another label instead of being held back by an unsupportive one."