BURIED TRUTHS
MD: When it comes to racism, are Christian music artists more progressive? Are they less racist?
DM: No.
AM: No.
MD: Why do you say, “No”? What do you mean?
AM: Donnie’s been in it longer ... but if I were to give you my take on it...you have the “CCM”[Contemporary Christian Music] and you have the “gospel.” And never the two shall meet! Some people cross over – like CeCe [Winans]. But you can’t really go in and out. [Gospel artists] can’t go on a CCM show.
MD: Why is that?
DM: Racism.
MD: What does that mean?
DM: Racism is simply this: We haven’t yet come to grasp with the fact that we’ve compartmentalized ourselves, and institutionalized racism in the Christian world. There are CCM radio stations that will never play anything that is “urban gospel.” They call us “urban gospel” – which is an insult!
MD: Why is that an insult?
DM: Just because we’re black, that means we’re all urban?
MD: Hmmmm. Interesting.
DM: So, they’ve relegated every black [music] ministry to “urbana” – while they ’re “suburb.” That’s insulting. On [CCM] award shows, they have only one segment for urban gospel. We don’t sing with any of the white artists. Our music is not played on the white stations. We’ll outsell them by far, but we can’t get any of our music played on [CCM] stations?!? We’re not involved in their festivals ...
AM [interrupting]: Yeah. When they did GMA [Gospel Music Awards], you were hard pressed to find any gospel artists that weekend.
DM: There are two or three black artists that are...
AM: Yeah, the “CeCe Winanses” and the “Kirk Franklins.”
DM: But that’s it! And we [blacks] did reverse discrimination. The GMA’s and the Dove Awards had very few black people, so Don Jackson started the Stellar Awards – because we didn’t have an award for ourselves. And whites weren’t honoring us, but we wound up doing the very same thing: The Stellar Awards is an exclusively black award show.
MD: And do you have a problem with that, too?
DM: I have a problem with all of it, because I’m friends with the CCM artists. I’m friends with the “Toby Macs,” and the “Mac Powells.” I’m friends with them, but we can’t sing together.
MD: Have you every discussed this among yourselves?
DM: Yes. We’ve been promising each other for decades, “We’re going to work together! We’re going to work together!”
MD: Well, why hasn’t it happened?
DM: Because we know what will happen if we do.
MD: What will happen?
DM: There won’t be any air-play [on the radio].
MD: You think?
DM: We know.
MD: But isn’t that what happens in the pop world – country singers and rap artists come together, and make a hit? Why does it work there, but it doesn’t work in Christian music?
DM: We’ve tried. Toby and Kirk did something together, but it didn’t get much air-play.
