The title of this post makes you think this will be a recurring series that brings to the forefront different social and/or theological ideas that seem to get ignored, but really it's just something I realized and was wondering if anyone else ever thought about it. While reflecting on Back to the Future the other day, it dawned on me that Marvin Berry and the Starlighters would probably not have been invited to be the house band for Hill Valley High School's Enchantment Under the Sea Dance.
With segregation laws the way they were in 1955, blacks and whites didn't mingle together much. Such racist laws and conventions are even eluded to in the film when the town's future black mayor of 1985, Goldie Wilson, states in 1955 that he is going to become mayor. His white boss at the time responds, "A colored mayor! That'll be the day!"
Blacks weren't allowed to attend white schools, so why would they be asked to play music for one? I get that it is a movie, and one that deals with time travel at that, but it still is something I had never contemplated. Well, I for one am glad that director Robert Zemeckis didn't go to extreme lengths for realism with Back to the Future because if he had we would not have been graced with the comedic gold that is Marvin Berry giving his cousin Chuck the idea for "Johnny B. Goode."
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