I think Elvis’s view of race, to the public, has become misconstrued over the years. From all the readings, I personally don’t feel like Elvis had an issue with race. I feel like the rumors had a large impression on how people see Elvis’s view on race.
One of the stories about Elvis’s rise to fame is that he stole African American musical forms from the South and repackaged them as his own music for “white” audiences. Even with Walker’s story, I don’t get the feeling that Elvis stole the songs. In the story, Traynor, Elvis’s counterpart, and his manager pays for all of Gracie Mae’s records and promises to pay her loyalties. After he makes money off the songs, he still sends Gracie Mae presents and he writes to her often while he is in the military. Traynor takes Gracie Mae on the Johnny Carson show and has her sing the song that he bought from her and made money off of. And when the crowd does not respond like they normally do when Traynor performs the song, he gets very upset.
In the other articles, they mention Elvis and his love for the black culture that he adopted some of his ways from. Rosenbaum quotes Professor Spencer on his thoughts about Elvis’s sexuality. Spencer expresses that the Leg Wiggle theory that is seen in Forest Gump is actually from rhythms that underlie African American music. Professor Spencer said that “what Elvis loved in white gospel was the rhythms of black gospel” (Rosenbaum 54). He believed that Elvis succeeded in seducing white America into blackness. He felt that it was “the Sexual Healing of White America” (Rosenbaum 54).
Also in Bertrand’s article, he shows both sides of how African Americans felt about Elvis’s music. When the Chicago Defender stated Elvis as the “King of Rock”, one man stated “Naw he ain’t! My friend Chuck Berry is the King of Rock. Presley was merely a prince who profited from the royal talent of sovereign ruler vested with tremendous creativity” (Bertrand 63). After the rumor about Elvis’s derogatory comment about African Americans, some blacks compared talking to Presley like “talking to Adolf Hitler about the Jews” (Bertrand 66). He was also seen in a negative light by some singers like Mary J. Blige and Public Enemy. But some African Americans saw him in a more positive light. Langston Hughes claimed that Presley was from the “same sea” but “some water has chlorine in and some does not” (Bertrand 76). Presley also would admit that many of the singers that he got his inspiration from were African American singers, like B.B. King. He would also go to rhythm and blues performances when he had the chance and watch them perform from behind the curtain.
I don’t believe that Elvis was a racist. From what it seems, Elvis had an appreciation for African American rhythms and seeked to emulate them in his music.