Too many white lindy hoppers today care more about long dead black musicians and dancers than they do about the real, living black people in their own neighbourhoods. They care more about the idea of these black people – a myth of black jazz – than they do about actual real people.
‘Hapless stewardship is one of many heritage dilemmas. Tangible mementos and documentary traces threaten to swamp creative life. Worship of a bloated heritage invites passive reliance on received authority, imperils rational inquiry, replaces past realities with feel-good history, and saps creative innovation…’ (David Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade, 1998, p13)