The Paul Robeson of Games

Austin was preparing Langston Hughes for class tomorrow. I couldn't find my CD of him reading "A Negro Speaks of Rivers" so I played him some Paul Robeson. Austin hadn't heard of this bold man, or his amazing life; I was happy to share. As his rich rendition of "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" resounded from my computer, I realized that this song - Paul Robeson singing Joe Hill, reflects much of what I miss in video games. A politically conscious person with a passion for current events and human justice, an informed view of struggle and history, sings with profound passion - a voice filled with quivering depth.

Today I was reading an advance review of Rockstar's upcoming Manhunt on GameSpot. Like the film Kill Bill, Manhunt appears to be the art of violence - reflecting media back upon itself in a bloody mirror. Months ago I was curious and eager to see it. Now I'm tired. I'm tired of seeing the language of violence used to express little more than irony and detachment. I want to see someone make a video game to express something they're passionate about, something that matters to people with more tangible problems than boredom.

Comments

[Carter]

THANK YOU!

May this blog post reach the ears of a thousand designers the world over!

Any time someone poors their heart and soul into something they truly believe in, it will register on some level with other human beings. There are very few games that ever did this (usually it's the ego that's poored into the development of such games), and I can't even think of one at the moment, but it's such a neccessary step for this artform that I applaude your mention of it.

[Stieg]

I have snuck some commentary into the stories I have created for games, but I think you are talking about working stuff into the actual gameplay.

Ever play the early-nineties Japanese game Gadget? I always use this as an example of a game with a statement. It is an adventure game, wherein, as in all adventure games, you are asked to do many odd tasks, and have to go places, find items, and talk to people to do them. The plot centers on seven scientists brought together to create a mind-control device and the twelve patients they (unsuccessfully, as you find out when talking to them--they jabber crazily) experimented on. When you finish the game, they say, "hm, excellent, our experiment did work on this one: patient thirteen".

The gameplay is sometimes spotty, but the imagery is fantastic (there was an art book made of it that still resides on my shelf), and the feeling of disjointedness that most games try to gloss over was brought center stage. When I played this I thought it was a great commentary on how we as gamers unquestioningly perform the tasks we are set to, and how in general we submit to authority.

[andrew stern]

Here here! A lot of us tired of irony.

It's an interesting question these days, the idea of making games that express a strong personal vision or passion. But perhaps the idea of the uber-game-designer is becoming more and more obsolete today's biggest, most complex games are usually (and perhaps necessarily) co-designed by teams of people, with huge budgets. (I don't read all the gaming mags and sites, but I rarely if ever hear the individual people's names behind "Rockstar". In fact I think game development studios have an interest in not promoting individuals as lead designers, but to credit the team as a whole.)

In fact, that's the trend, isn't? To make game worlds, where there is no one idea or passion expressed, where players can ideally find their own reason for playing?

That's not to say we can't have worlds that are more irony-free; Miyamoto games, for instance, yes? (there's a case where a single person's name is promoted as lead designer, but probably in reality, and I think in interviews he's quick to say, there are teams of designers.)

[ClockworkGrue]

Stieg notes that s/he has "snuck commentary into games." I think there's more of that going on than people realize (a result of it being snuck in, I surmise). I know that a friend of mine who was doing mission design for the MMOG Earth & Beyond was a fan of "sneaking in commentary."

To a certain extent these days, I think we have to be looking for issue-driven game design. Of course, this runs us smack into the deconstructionalist "problem" of forcing everything to be relative to the given audience member. In other words, if I see commentary in a game, and you don't, both of us are correct. Using standard lit-crit methods on videogames is of limited usefulness, as an article from the recent DIGRA conference, Level Up, entitled "On the Border: Pleasures of Exploration and Colonial Mastery in Civilization III Play the World" by Sybille Lammes reminded me.

Here's the part where I digress into talking about The Sims. Yes, it's a sandbox game, and you get out of it largely what you put into it, but don't forget: it was a design decision not to prevent homosexual relationships, but to prevent incestual relationships. Maxis was put in the awkward position of defining absolute moral rules for what is really just a situation comedy version of real life. My cube was next to one of the people responsible for implementing the Sims 2 moral code in computer code, and I can tell you, it is not a simple matter. The fact that Sims aren't all snogging their siblings (including step-siblings) is because somebody worked hard to make sure they can't.

And, of course, we have the Ultima series (especially the early ones). These are great examples, because decision points aren't the typical "light side vs. dark side" problems that we've found lately. Ultima, with its 7(?) virtues repeatedly asks you to pick which of two (or more) virtues is more important (Compassion or Faith? Which do you like better?). Ultima, in my opinion, really makes use of the whole "interactive" part of games, since it's not feeding you answers, it's just asking difficult questions. Of course if your goal is to make a point, this system doesn't work. If your goal is simply to create discussion, this system works beautifully.

People seem to have little trouble coming up with interpretations of games that accentuate the negative, but it is often not too difficult to come up with positive interpretations as well. Perhaps what Justin is asking for is a game that dispenses with irony ("See me kill this guy with a plastic bag? YOU made me do that just so you could watch a short cutscene. And you loved it, you sick bastard.") and just beats us over the head with a socially responsible message ("Oh my god, what have I done?"). Forgive me for putting words in anyone's mouth, but to use a different musical reference, we're looking for some sort of a videogame equivalent of Gil Scott-Heron performing "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" or "Whitey's On the Moon." Sounds interesting.

Maybe it's the irony-saturdated Gen-X workforce making the games. Maybe it's that we're currently awash in a sea of digital anti-heroes. Maybe it's that it's hard to get a publisher to pay for a product that takes a hard, serious stance on something. I don't know for sure.

Am I tired of irony? Not really. I still like anti-heroes who are so detached from reality that they spit pithy one-liners in the face death as if they were on very expensive drugs.

But would I like to see a game that was passionate about something? God, yes.

[Brain From Arous]

A politically conscious person with a passion for current events and human justice, an informed view of struggle and history, sings with profound passion - a voice filled with quivering depth.

Is this some kind of a joke?

Here is the text of a tribute from Paul Robeson to Joseph Stalin - that's right, STALIN - on the occasion of Stalin's death in 1953. It was published in NEW WORLD REVIEW that year.

(begin)

To You Beloved Comrade - by Paul Robeson

There is no richer store of human experience than the folk tales, folk poems and songs of a people. In many, the heroes are always fully recognizable humans - only larger and more embracing in dimension. So it is with the Russian, Chinese. and the African folk-lore.

In 1937, a highly expectant audience of Moscow citizens - workers, artists, youth, farmers from surrounding towns - crowded the Bolshoy Theater. They awaited a performance by the Uzbek National Theater, headed by the highly gifted Tamara Khanum. The orchestra was a large one with instruments ancient and modern. How exciting would be the blending of the music of the rich culture of Moussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khrennikov, Gliere - with that of the beautiful music of the Uzbeks, stemming from an old and proud civilization.

Suddenly everyone stood - began to applaud - to cheer - and to smile. The children waved.

In a box to the right - smiling and applauding the audience - as well as the artists on the stage - stood the great Stalin.

I remember the tears began to quietly flow. and I too smiled and waved Here was clearly a man who seemed to embrace all. So kindly - I can never forget that warm feeling of kindliness and also a feeling of sureness. Here was one who was wise and good - the world and especially the socialist world was fortunate indeed to have his daily guidance. I lifted high my son Pauli to wave to this world leader, and his leader. For Paul, Jr. had entered school in Moscow, in the land of the Soviets.

The wonderful performance began, unfolding new delights at every turn - ensemble and individual, vocal and orchestral, classic and folk-dancing of amazing originality. Could it be possible that a few years before in 1900 - in 1915 - these people had been semi-serfs - their cultural expression forbidden, their rich heritage almost lost under tsarist oppression's heel?

So here one witnessed in the field of the arts - a culture national in form, socialist in content. Here was a people quite comparable to some of the tribal folk of Asia - quite comparable to the proud Yoruba or Basuto of West and East Africa, but now their lives flowering anew within the socialist way of life twenty years matured under the guidance of Lenin and Stalin. And in this whole area of development of national minorities - of their relation to the Great Russians - Stalin had played and was playing a most decisive role.

I was later to travel - to see with my own eyes what could happen to so-called backward peoples. In the West (in England, in Belgium, France, Portugal, Holland) - the Africans, the Indians (East and West), many of the Asian peoples were considered so backward that centuries, perhaps, would have to pass before these so-called "colonials" could become a part of modern society.

But in the Soviet Union, Yakuts, Nenetses, Kirgiz, Tadzhiks - had respect and were helped to advance with unbelievable rapidity in this socialist land. No empty promises, such as colored folk continuously hear in the United States, but deeds. For example, the transforming of the desert in Uzbekistan into blooming acres of cotton. And an old friend of mine, Mr. Golden, trained under Carver at Tuskegee, played a prominent role in cotton production. In 1949, I saw his daughter, now grown and in the university - a proud Soviet citizen.

Today in Korea - in Southeast Asia - in Latin America and the West Indies, in the Middle East - in Africa, one sees tens of millions of long oppressed colonial peoples surging toward freedom. What courage - what sacrifice - what determination never to rest until victory!

And arrayed against them, the combined powers of the so-called Free West, headed by the greedy, profit-hungry, war-minded industrialists and financial barons of our America. The illusion of an "American Century" blinds them for the immediate present to the clear fact that civilization has passed them by - that we now live in a people's century - that the star shines brightly in the East of Europe and of the world. Colonial peoples today look to the Soviet Socialist Republics. They see how under the great Stalin millions like themselves have found a new life. They see that aided and guided by the example of the Soviet Union, led by their Mao Tse-tung, a new China adds its mighty power to the true and expanding socialist way of life. They see formerly semi-colonial Eastern European nations building new People's Democracies, based upon the people's power with the people shaping their own destinies. So much of this progress stems from the magnificent leadership, theoretical and practical, given by their friend Joseph Stalin.

They have sung - sing now and will sing his praise - in song and story. Slava - slava - slava - Stalin, Glory to Stalin. Forever will his name be honored and beloved in all lands.

In all spheres of modern life the influence of Stalin reaches wide and deep. From his last simply written but vastly discerning and comprehensive document, back through the years, his contributions to the science of our world society remain invaluable. One reverently speaks of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin - the shapers of humanity's richest present and future.

Yes, through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage. Most importantly - he has charted the direction of our present and future struggles. He has pointed the way to peace - to friendly co-existence - to the exchange of mutual scientific and cultural contributions - to the end of war and destruction. How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom. He leaves tens of millions all over the earth bowed in heart-aching grief.

But, as he well knew, the struggle continues. So, inspired by his noble example, let us lift our heads slowly but proudly high and march forward in the fight for peace - for a rich and rewarding life for all.

In the inspired words of Lewis Allan, our progressive lyricist -

"To you Beloved Comrade, we make this solemn vow
The fight will go on - the fight will still go on.
Sleep well, Beloved Comrade, our work will just begin.
The fight will go on - till we win - until we win."

(end)

Paul Robeson spent his adult life as an avowed, unapologetic admirer of one of the most bloodsoaked monsters ever to blight the human race, and supported a tyrannical regime rivalled only by Nazi Germany in the infliction of human suffering.

In holding up this "bold man" and his "amazing life," GGAdvance has officially hit rock bottom. Can I look forward to a future article on the journalistic accomplishments of Julius Streicher?

Sickening.

[James]

The sentiment is a worthwhile, but one could do much, much, much better than Robeson as a good role model. His commitment to civil rights was indeed laudable, but then there's that little problem of willfully becoming an apologist to a brutal dictatorship that slaughtered/starved/ enslaved to death 20 million people of its own people, then allied itself with another dictatorship in a way that made possible the slaughter of millions more:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/980420/appreciation.ol_man_char25.html

He believed that Hollywood moguls would give a black actor (any actor) final cut, and that Stalinism was not slavery but liberation. Through three decades of Soviet tyranny (including the murder of one of his Russian-Jewish friends), he remained faithful to the U.S.S.R. And here his charm failed him. He could sell sand to Saharans, but he couldn't peddle Stalin to America...

[mfb]

I have to stand up with Brain and James on this one. But given my respect for Justin, I have to ask why he holds Paul Robeson in high esteem given his views on Stalin and Communism. There might be something else and there is no reason condemn hastily.

Some background first: I grew in Poland during the tail end of the Soviet regime, and for me there is no redeeming quality in Stalinist philosophy. Its implementation was a deliberate brutal starvation (in all aspects) of the population so they have less will to think for themselves. It may be difficult to imagine what this implies unless you have viscerally experienced it.

From the linked bio, Robeson had "sympathies expressed towards the people of the Soviet Union (which largely stemmed from his belief that the African-American slaves shared a common bond with the pre-revolutionary serfs of Russia)". More accurately, he should have felt the sympathy those living under Soviet opression. It is conceivable he was not aware of the actual living conditions within the Soviet empire; the issue was polarized by McCarthyites and various adherents of Socialism. I've traveled to Italy during the martial law in Poland. The socialist activists there hailed my family as celebrities for our nationality. I would have given anything that we trade places.

Decades have past, and the truth has come out and there is no excuse for ignorance. Solzhenitsyn and others have shown how evil Stalin's implementation of Socialism had become. I sometimes wish I could throw The Gulag Archipelago at the next hipster wearing a red CCCP shirt with a print of Stalin.

mfb

[Brain From Arous]

I would add one thing, MFB:

The awful truth about the Soviet Union and Stalin (and even that of the Bolsheviks and Lenin) was no secret during the early '30s and '40s - well before McCarthyism or even the Cold War. That many so-called "progressives" in the West chose to look the other way is another issue, but the cat was quite out of the bag.

And the truth-tellers weren't just some Right Wing chorus of pissed-off capitalists, monarchists and "White Russian" counter-revolutionaries

George Orwell, among others, sounded the alarm loudly and continually. Orwell was a sincere and committed socialist who had visited Russia personally and reported back what he found.

Additionally, many of Stalin's harshest and most blunt-spoken critics were Russian emigres who themselves had fought in the 1917 Revolution and earnestly desired social and economic reform.

I have to say that if Mr. Robeson honestly had no idea what Uncle Joe was really up to, then he was one of the most gullible men to ever walk the earth. I mean, we're talking about a level of cluelessness that borders on psychosis...

[William]

The truth is that the Communist Party was the first and loudest political voice in the US that advocated racial justice, and whatever Stalin's crimes in Russia, outside of Russia that went a long way. Also, at the time so much false and questionable propaganda attacking the left was being circulated, that many reasonable people doubted the veracity of the accusations against Stalin. In hindsight, it's easy to describe them as gullible.

Also, remember that even now many Americans subscribe to questionable myths about their own past, including swallowing the by-now discredited claims about the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, and the horrific Phillipine campaigns. Teddy Roosevelt, in actuality perhaps the most militaristic and expansionist of US Presidents, is still lauded as a hero.

Orwell's politics are somewhat complicated, BTW, and to describe him as a sincere and committed socialist is to oversimplify things somewhat.

[Brain From Arous]

How sincere could the CPUSA have been in its advocacy of "racial justice" if its masters in the USSR didn't even want civil rights for their own Caucasian people?

That dog won't hunt. (It also smacks of the "Well, Hitler built the Autobahn" line of argument).

I must repeat again: the truth about Lenin, Stalin and the Bolsheviks was well known around the world. It was not some arcane, Indiana Jones-type of thing that needed unearthing.

Furthermore, note that Paul "Quivering Depth" Robeson wrote that love note to Stalin on the occasion of his death in 1953. In other words, at a time when the cat was totally and completely out of the bag.

It's one thing to have been a starry-eyed, hopeful Bolshevik sympathizer (Land, Peace, Bread!) right after the October Revolution.

It's quite something else to be one in 1953, long after Lenin, Stalin and others had erected a totalitarian dictatorship that made Tsar Nicholas II look like the Dalai Lama, launched worldwide espionage and subversion campaigns against foreign governments that WERE democratic, butchered millions of Russians and Ukrainians in deliberate terror and starvation campaigns, struck a deal with Hitler that emboldened him to launch WW2 - siezing half of Poland in the bargain - only to pay for that folly when Hitler turned 'round and attacked Russia, enslaved half of postwar Europe, assisted another mass-murdering tyrant to gain control in China, etc., etc.

No... blowing kisses to Stalin in 1953 cannot be explained away by "Well, those were confusing times." There is was no confusion save that created by people who blew smoke over the whole thing - Walter Duranty of the NYT comes to mind - in service of their deranged ideologies.

You can hold Robeson held up as an avatar of the struggle for "racial justice" if you want to, but he occupies the same moral level as those Holocaust-denying White supremacist imbeciles bunkered down in the Midwest.

[William]

How sincere could the CPUSA have been in its advocacy of "racial justice" if its masters in the USSR didn't even want civil rights for their own Caucasian people?Sincere enough to get jailed, shot and killed for it. That's pretty damned sincere to me.

[Brain From Arous]

I mean the leadership, William. I'm sure there were many of the rank and file who, in the beginning, thought they were bringing about a better world. More's the pity.

And the point still stands: the CPUSA supported the idea of a government modelled on the USSR, under which nobody of any color would have "justice."

[Brain From Arous]

I mean the leadership, William. I'm sure there were many of the rank and file who, in the beginning, thought they were bringing about a better world. More's the pity.

And the point still stands: the CPUSA supported the idea of a government modelled on the USSR, under which nobody of any color would have "justice."

[Brain From Arous]

Whoops. Double-post. Sorry.

Anyway, enough of this. The points that need to be made, have been made.

As for Justin - I think one of two things is going on here:

(1) Justin is some kind of Red Diaper Baby brainwashed by Noam Chomsky-type parents into thinking Robeson's dislike of America (understandable thought that was) and work for "racial justice" somehow outweigh him kissing Joseph Stalin's ass.

(2) Justin has no idea about Robeson's life and politics, but sees him only as the Oppressed, Soulful Black Man Who Speaks (Sings, in this case) The Truth.

There is a third possibility - namely, that Justin is fully aware of Robeson's cultish devotion to Stalin but either doesn't care or actually approves of it himself. I hope this is not the case.

[justin]

Thank you for this lesson about Stalin and Robeson, Brain from Arous and Wagner James. I have had a raw admiration for Robeson for years, borne from many hours spent listening to his voice and reading simplified biographies. But I didn't do much analysis of his admiration for Stalin. I knew Robeson as a man with determined principlies, I didn't linger to wonder if they may have been misguided and misinformed.

Brian I think you go a bit far in equating Robeson with holocaust deniers, though I suppose that's where he stands after your analysis. I don't have much research on my side; more is warranted. Perhaps he was so blinded by some of the sadnesses and injustices he encountered in his youth, he was not prepared to understand the dark side of his dreams. He wanted to believe there was a utopian alternative to the United States, so badly he became a celebrant of a mass-murderer.

I look for heroes, people in media with principles. Most of those folks are complicated - people who take deliberate stands can end up on the side of strange justice, twisting the very principles I imagine they stand for. That's what it looks like in this case. Paul Robeson is obviously quite complicated, more than I considered, someone I have mostly thinly held up as a underserved media icon. Perhaps he has been largely buried in the popular imagination on purpose.

Or perhaps he has another purpose to serve, for people with a shallower understanding of history. Either way, I think video games could benefit from some uncomfortable complexity. The events of recent years have torn media-literate Western people up, over justice and the best means for pacifying humanity. Witness September 12 and Greg Costikyan's reply. No one can speak as a Bin Laden or Hussein sympathizer from the United States, but perhaps if there were more people making videogames who irrationally identified with oppressed people, even to the point of blindness and idiocy, that might serve to balance the waves of games serving the imagination of plenty.

[Brain From Arous]

Justin, thanks for the reply.

I apologize for my ad hominem remarks in some of the above posts. (I'd edit them out if I could.) If you honestly didn't know about the Robeson-Stalin lovefest, that changes everything.

PS - The really weird thing is, if Robeson's ideals were sincere, than he should have hated Stalin more than anyone, for Stalin and his NKVD
murdered at least as many genuine progressives as Hitler did...

PPS - As far as Holocaust denial goes, Robeson went on record as declaring Stalin's forced starvation of the Ukrainians in the early 1930s are being a myth. This campaign killed literally millions of people, and was a deliberate act of mass-murder aimed at a specific ethnic and cultural group. Hence the comparison with those revisionist clowns who think Auschwitz was some kind of summer camp.

[JackBird]

Back on the original topic, the Infocom text adventures from the 80's immediately spring to mind for me.

The designers don't harangue you with their political/social views (except maybe in A Mind Forever Voyaging, but the game is really engaging nonetheless), but instead use the game's behavioral constraints to push you into taking a certain world view to overcome game obstacles.

A good example of this is in Wishbringer, where early in the game you get a stone that grants you wishes. While figuring out when and how to use the wishes is the basis of a bunch of puzzles, a parallell, more difficult set of puzzles allows you to overcome the same obstacles without wishing for more points.

Another is the theif in Zork. You do need to kill him eventually, but if you do so after he has actually harmed you (stolen the mechanical egg), rather than just going vigilante on his ass first thing, the game rewards you with an extra treasure. In other words, it's a very particular take on the justification of violence that is fairly subtly worked into the fabric of the game.

There's also Trinity. If you haven't played it, it's a text adventure set inside a sort of dreamlike reverie about nuclear war. Not nuclear war like mutants-walk-the-earth-grab-your-shotgun, but nuclear war as myth, history, and perhaps tomorrow's nightmare.

Floating away from Hiroshima on that poor doomed girl's paper crane is simultaneously one of the most emotionally engaging moments I've experienced in a game, and one of the most ideologically charged.

[JackBird]

Back on the original topic, the Infocom text adventures from the 80's immediately spring to mind for me.

The designers don't harangue you with their political/social views (except maybe in A Mind Forever Voyaging, but the game is really engaging nonetheless), but instead use the game's behavioral constraints to push you into taking a certain world view to overcome game obstacles.

A good example of this is in Wishbringer, where early in the game you get a stone that grants you wishes. While figuring out when and how to use the wishes is the basis of a bunch of puzzles, a parallell, more difficult set of puzzles allows you to overcome the same obstacles without wishing for more points.

Another is the theif in Zork. You do need to kill him eventually, but if you do so after he has actually harmed you (stolen the mechanical egg), rather than just going vigilante on his ass first thing, the game rewards you with an extra treasure. In other words, it's a very particular take on the justification of violence that is fairly subtly worked into the fabric of the game.

There's also Trinity. If you haven't played it, it's a text adventure set inside a sort of dreamlike reverie about nuclear war. Not nuclear war like mutants-walk-the-earth-grab-your-shotgun, but nuclear war as myth, history, and perhaps tomorrow's nightmare.

Floating away from Hiroshima on that poor doomed girl's paper crane is simultaneously one of the most emotionally engaging moments I've experienced in a game, and one of the most ideologically charged.

[Pedro]

I feel it necessary to correct some misconceptions of Paul Robeson. I found this thread by doing a search for the lyrics to "To You Beloved Comrade". Oddly enough this is the only site on google that had the lyrics.

First of all, one of you misguided intellectuals said the "cat was out of the bag by 1953 because it Stalin had died." Then you are seriously wrong. Khruschev's exaggerated accounts of Stalin weren't made public until 1956 at, if memory serves, the 20th Congress of the Supreme Soviet. 3 years after Stalin's death.

As for Robeson's admiration of Stalin. Well obviously he didn't believe everything the "White American Media" wrote about communits. Since the White American Media wrote an awful lot of things about black people. He questioned his sources (something a lot of you should do too.) So this could clearly be one of the reasons for this.

People like, Solzhenitsyn or Robert Conquest made exaggerations and lies to get there points across (I am not saying that Stalin wasn't a dictator who killed people, he just didn't kill nearly 20 million.) Stalin very likely only killed between 1-5 million people. (Yes that is a lot of people, just not 20 million, which would've been quite impossible.) And one should remember that a lot of them were guilty of serious crimes (not all of them, but a lot of them.)

This is a good site: http://www.thewalls.ru/truth/repress.htm
The graphs show the numbers and dates of Stalin's purges. (1938 being the worst of them, where no other year compares.) However, during most of Stalin's reign, the number of prisoners was actually higher in the United States. etc. etc. etc.

And the CPUSA was the first party to fight for Negro Nationalism. A concept I recommend all of you to research. (You must remember this was before the existence of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence.) Communists were fighting for a worker's state, the idea was to bring more justice to the people. It would be worker's judging workers. Unlike what they had in the 50's with the Commission for Unamerican Activities robbing people of their passports etc etc

Anyways to bring this "book" to a finish. Don't judge Paul Robeson for his admiration of Stalin. There is no proof that he admired Stalin. (Read Paul Robeson Jr's works), he merely did not take the opportunistic path of denouncing the USSR. A path to easy to take. He stood in solidarity with a group of people he thought were trying to create communism (and mistakes were going to be made but as I stated before, he would not trust the word of the American media). And in doing so, he also was one of the pre-cursors for black liberation (a cause still needed today). Well he was an alternative to the NOI (Nation of Islam). He was a magnificient voice for Black human rights and he was not a man to be shutup. He was a well educated juror and student of folk culture. He was versed in 20 different languages (I can barely speak 5 and I stumble over all of them). And he did make personal protests when he thought Stalin was out of step (like singing songs in Yiddish).

PS. Don't own a gamegirladvanced, I always thought video games went down after 1984 (the year when the original Mario was released, truly a spectacular game.) Although I'm a fan of the FF and Zelda and several other games, mostly "old school" ones though.

And yes I am a communist, and no I do not uphold Stalin. Also, be wary of using the word Stalinism, if you use that around a person who is well versed in Marxism you will make yourself look like a fool.

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