THE BLIND CHESS MASTER
"When you are weak, never fight for honor’s sake; instead choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you-surrender first. By turning the other cheek, you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power."-48 Laws of Power
He and Stevie Wonder have been the butt of every blind joke as long as I can remember. You've heard the jokes. The even "Ray Charles" can see it blind jokes. They have been so prevalent in black culture that it has gone from a full blown insult to a term of endearment indicating one's inability to be deceived by trickery or con games (i'm Ray Charles to da bullshit!). But the more than humble beginnings of Ray Charles Robinson is lacking the humor found in the generation jokes bearing his nom de guerre.
Born in the grueling southern culture of sharecropping in Northern Florida, Ray Charles, though blind by the age of 7, had witnessed enough cruelty to last him more than the entire 73 years he spent on this earth. Sharecropping was a culture shaped in the morays and practices of chattel slavery. It's economic web of usurious lending combined with the total arbitrary control over wages of its' workers, all but ensured a future of crippling poverty and backwardness; as the threat of physical violence practically guaranteed black obedience. In this world, black capitulation was not simply a survival tactic, it was a way of life. This was the world of Ray Charles Robinson.
Afflicted with glaucoma at the age of 4, Charles was totally blind by age 7. His mother, who instilled in him his fierce sense of independence, insisted that Charles not use his disease as a source of pity. A bulwark of resiliency and self-sufficiency, she insisted that he not become a charity case depending on the paralyzing kindness of strangers. As a result, Charles developed his hearing to extra-ordinary proportions. Using it as his second set of eyes, he could hear better than most people could see.
But it was not his evolved sense of hearing that made Ray Charles the phenomenon he became. Nor was it his supernatural musical genius. His true gift was his uncanny cunning and mastery of human psychology. Charles used the treachery of evil men plotting on his weaknesses to his advantage. He surrendered to all of their wild notions of his infirmity. And in so doing, he was able to take the most insidiously wicked transactions and transform them into the most fantastic successes.
If his 2004 biopic is any indication of his immense strategical gamesmanship, Charles' understanding of human motivation is second to no one, not even Niccolo Machiavelli. Though the film contains some creative licensing, all the consultants agree that when it comes to the depictions of his shrewd business dealings, the scenes are masterfully accurate.
The film opens with a debut of his enormous ability to improvise and spit game in the blink of an eyelash. He confronts a racist bus driver as he begins his epic journey to stardom. The driver is refusing to allow him entry on the bus because he does not want to be responsible for some "blind negra."
When Charles explains this his purchase of a ticket entitles him to a seat on the bus, the driver aggressively asserts his objection to Charles' right to public accommodation. Then in a split second, Charles' game kicks in. His predatory calculations manifests in mere milliseconds. He deduces that the bus driver's paternalistic devotion to blind patriotism is stronger than his bigotry. And he's right! Not only does the driver agree to let him ride on the bus, he agrees to personally look after Charles himself.
Ray Charles skillfully transformed the scenario of the burdensome negra cripple into a heroic tale of a World War II veteran blinded in the name of God and Country. Intuitively, he understood the ethno-centric psychology behind white racism and the romanticized, narrow notions of nationalism advanced in war. Thus, when he combined the two, the driver could do nothing else but surrender to his will. Charles demonstrated this skill over and over again throughout the movie.
At his greatest triumph, Charles is seen negotiating with the head of a powerful record label. Since he is the hottest commodity on the market, the record label is using every enticement to get him into their clutches. Once again, he uses surrender to subdue his opponent. The executive believed that he was susceptible to a perceived bump in advances and front end revenue. He didn't have the slightest idea of who he was dealing with. Ray Charles was thoroughly schooled in the record business when he was an artist at Atlantic Records. His past allowed him to expect every trick in the book.
As a result, he knew that true wealth in the business was not only based on the sale of records. While it may make one temporarily rich, the real money, as always, is in ownership. In music, the money is in ownership of your master recordings. It is the source of monies generated for a future return known as royalties. In the movie, ABC Records President Sam Clark offered Charles 75 cents on the dollar of every record sold. Seeing as though Atlantic had offered him a similar deal, he pushed the envelope and asked for ownership of his masters. The room fell silent. When Clark replied that such a deal was unheard of, Charles countered that that was a requirement for him to leave Atlantic Records. Clark folded.
This deal made Ray Charles one of the wealthiest black artists in the history of American music. Thus, when the time came for the music industry to change and his music became antiquated to a new generation, Charles was making more money off of his royalties than any platinum selling artist in the industry. He was so prevalent in popular culture that when WWE Emperor Vince McMahon first launched what would become his yearly wrestling extravaganza Wrestlemania, he called Ray Charles to sing his remake of the National Anthem.
Ray Charles continued to tour into the 21st century. He made more money touring than most artists made with a hit record. Though he admittedly had his demons, some he defeated, some he did not. He nevertheless went down in history as a national treasure. Ray Charles Robinson inherited a dark world filled with predators of all shapes and sizes. An avid chess player, his strategic use of surrender turned his predators into unwitting pawns ready and willing to do his bidding.
His greatest contribution, more than his music, was the lesson of the true nature of generosity. Ray Charles' life is testament to black Americans that oftimes, it is not solely the empirically verifiable racism manifested as slurs and epithets that is the source of black subjugation. It is the structural system of dependency created by the skillful facade of benevolence and generosity that is often the true culprit of our woes.
TONY MACEO is the Chief Blogger at Power and Strategy and a Senior Blogger at the Negromanosphere. Like and Share the article. Subscribe to the website. Become a Patron on Patreon @powerofstrategies or support by paypal@wayofstrategy44@gmail.com
