In the article about Tracy Chapman by Richard Stengel, he discusses her career and how she had to deal with racism from her own people due to her musical style. I think that Tracy Chapman is a beautiful artist inside and out and I love that she uses her music to try and connect to her own people and make them aware of their struggle. When I was reading the first couple of paragraphs, I noticed that Stengel stated that, "There is a solidity about her, muscular spirituality". I felt the same way from when I first seen her perform fast car live, because she just has this look about her that doesn't necessarily say she's a hippie, but that she is comfortable who she is and how she looks. Most artist now days feel like they have to dress up in these revealing tight outfits for people to notice them along with their voice but with Tracy I didn't matter what she wore because she would still appeal to people. 

            As I continued to read the article, Stengel also mentioned that her voice was a "A sweet, sad, wise voice stop hunted almost all who is so soothing that it is like a lullaby to make people fall into a peaceful sleep, make her someone up when they're sad. Her voice reminds of the RnB artist Maxwell, even though he has a higher pitch than her, the style that they sing makes you feel at peace and is very soft. Her voice not only makes her appealing, but her messages to the black community do as well. When you hear her voice, you would have thought she would talk about things like flowers, or the peace sign, but it’s actually more political than anything. In the article Stengel indicated that, “Chapman is one of a handful of black recording artists whose music directly addresses blacks' concerns.” It makes me, as a black individual respect her more because she genuinely wants the best for her people, no matter what type of music style she sings. At the same time, the hard part of that is getting them to listen due to it not being very popular in the mainstream media.

            I think that it’s cool that Chapman’s music is more in the indie genre of music instead of rap, hip-hop, or pop like most black artist. It is very rare to find people like her who don’t necessarily conform to what society portrays black artist as, and that in a way it makes her more noticeable. From what I read, I know that Chapman struggled with racism, especially when it came to putting her music on black radios because some black people wouldn’t consider her a legit black person. What makes it worse it that black people won’t listen to her music, but white people will, which is something I found really interesting. Henry Luis Gates, who is a professor at Cornell University Said that, ''It hurts you when your own people don't appreciate what you're doing… I think that's the most painful feeling for a black artist.” I thought this was probably the most powerful quote I’ve read in this article because it is absolutely true. I can tell that it must’ve hurt Chapman’s feelings due to her not having a mostly black audience, especially when her music is dedicated to them, and it can really a person feel like they’re doing something wrong. This reminds me of how black people make fun or tease each other for having wild, coarse hair, but, when it comes to white people, they love, appreciate, and admire it.

            In general, Tracy Chapman is a special artist who deserves to get more attention, particularly by black people because she only wants to inform. It shouldn’t matter that she isn’t a hip-hop or pop artist, but that her messages are clear, and focuses on real issues.