Long before Black Lives Matter came along there were enormous steps made towards racial reconciliation in America. But it wasn’t led by the politicians. it was led by artists.

From Jelly Roll Morton to Count Basie, black musicians came into white homes long before  racial integration. In fact, musical integration in touring bands happened a decade before Jackie Robinson put on a Dodgers uniform.

Benny Goodman, the first band leader to tour with a multi-racial band, would refuse to play anyplace that would not let the whole band play. And people loved the music, so they set aside their institution’s racism for the evening to enjoy the music, or they didn’t and went without.

It was the same with the blues and rock’n’roll. Black musicians were popular all over the world, and teenagers were overcome with the best music to dance to.

Then came R&B, funk, disco, and hip hop. Black artists and white artists were integrating and collaborating. It wasn’t without  difficulty, but great art is usually created out of conflict. And great art has universal appeal. Music has done more to tear down social boundaries than every politician in the history of the world.

Add to this the effect that Black comedy has had on racial integration, Richard Pryor, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, In Living Color, Fresh Prince. Anyone born after 1975 was raised with racially integrated comedy. And not because people were pushing for social justice, but because the black comics were better. They were putting in the work. They were cutting their teeth at the hardest clubs with the highest standards.

There was conflict along the way. The infamous Damon Wayans “Mr. Monopoly” sketch that got him fired (but eventually he came back to host the show!)… the whole last season of In Living Color.  And most recently, the attempted homicide of Dave Chappelle’s career.

But the artists plowed on and planted the conscience of a culture against racial segregation.    

But then BLM came along. They used a slogan which is no rational, moral person would argue against, but the history of this group, who argues that white supremacists are systematically murdering blacks, has proven that a group which benefits from racial animosity will cause greater hate rather than alleviate it. If the goal is racial harmony, then the artists were accomplishing that by exposing the ugly truth of racism through great music, comedy, and stories. Such great art showed the beauty of a world without racism.

BLM is undoing the multigenerational efforts of Black artists because they can make more money from upper class white women if there is less harmony. They need racists for their fundraising campaign, so if they can’t find any, they must create them.

Government’s only power is coercion. It can’t improve society. It only has force. And groups held together by force are not communities or true societies.

Christians and conservatives need to learn this history well. We often complain that we are no longer influential in the culture, that we are being marginalized, that we are being shoved out of the center.

That means we need to start supporting our artists. We need to give them what they need to reintroduce our sub-culture to the society through music, comedy, and storytelling.

This is why we need Loor.tv. Loor.tv will make it possible to support our Eddie Murphy, our Arsenio Hall, our In Living Color. We can’t depend on the left to fund it or to distribute it. We need to build pipelines for our artists to get out into the world and make a difference.