http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/op...=1&oref=slogin
"...[I]t was what his music had stood for from the start: the breakdown of barriers, both musical and racial. This is not, unfortunately, how it is always perceived 30 years after his death, the anniversary of which is on Thursday. When the singer Mary J. Blige expressed her reservations about performing one of his signature songs, she only gave voice to a view common in the African-American community. ?I prayed about it,? she said, ?because I know Elvis was a racist.?