Racist Song?

[Vela]

LOL Baked Alaska... but it has to be authentic, none of this knockoff stuff!

[Corinna]

Thanks Richard that was also one of my favorites too and now I have to be careful when I play it. Geessssh !!! I never claim to be PC either in fact I have a button that says" I'm not PC deal with it."

[DrKym]

applauds corrina! boy good thing I own our school with as little PC as I have...........................I don't think tenure would save me LOL

[RICHARD]

Richard are we sure the dancer was a virgin?

My love was deep for this Mexican maiden;


How many maidens do you know?

[jesse_3]

Well, I guess I am going to speak up a little bit here. I don't know if some of you really understand. No, personally, that would not effect me, but think of some of the things that are said about Native Americans.
Yes, there is a lot of racism, and one term used in there "red" would be very offensive. I can sort of understand why that would be a problem.

I went through a long journey this year learning about Native Americans, Jewish, and African Americans, and well, I now understand things a little better. I don't want to get in an argument, but give Native Americans a little slack. Their elders have been to Hell and back..Besides, you don't know what could be said to a certain person. Maybe the song triggered a memory. I have a Native American friend who could back me up with that statement too. So please, don't be so harsh. If a Native American were to come on and read this, what would they think?

Stephanie

[RICHARD]

Who remembers Little Black Sambo?

Is he back in vogue now?


A wonderful kid's story about a young black kid that melts some tigers into butter for his pancakes.


I think that it's still Un PC.....PETA will argue about killing Tigers for a short stack.

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I find that most stereotypes are based in some truth.


Look at Senor Speedy Gonzalez..
His hat, clothes and and huaraches are the style of long ago.

(Hey, wasn't it the Beach Boys that used the term huaraches in a surfing song? what does rhyme with huaraches?)

Being an American Mexican I have eated beans, rice and tortillas...

Beaner? Darn Right! Taco Bender? Yep!

I can't play the 'sorrow' game today. What ever injustices that happened long ago do not hurt me now. That was a cross for the people who came before me to bear.

I have to make the most of their pain and sacrifices to make my own history.

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Authentic Alaskans are nothing more than Russians who crossed the Bering when it was frozen over. Check it out!

[IRescue452]

Its not the song that really gets to me. Its the classic "indian" figure. The fact that they are made to be mascots and figures selling cigars with a big hat of feathers and an axe. It gives people the idea that they aren't real humans, like they are novelties. It also bothers me that indians and eskimos are the only human beings used in childrens' alphabet books, while the rest of the items are objects and animals. I probably wouldn't make her stop singing it, I'd probably have gone back to my desk an sat there all depressed thinking about it.

[Lady's Human]

So I should be upset with the NFL (Minnesota Vikings), Capitol One (using vikings as adverts), Hagar the Horrible, ad infinitum?

Damn, I've got a lot of talking to do with a lawyer.

[K9soul]

I really feel just about every race and nationality has been through times of oppression and persecution at some point in history. I just personally can't see getting upset about the lyrics of a song written over 30 to 40 years ago, or sitting and being depressed over things that people did over 100 years ago. At one time women were considered a a man's property and fully within his rights to beat her or treat her however he wanted to. I would not get all offended and upset over a song written in another era about a woman being a good wife to her man etc. People have oppressed each other and done unspeakable things to each other since the beginning of time.

I could go on and on I guess, the "PC movement" really aggravates me on all levels. Did you know there has even been a movement to change the spelling of "women" to "womyn" so that it doesn't have the word "men" in it? I have more important things to worry about in life. I'd be more concerned about the intent and deeds of true racists (of ANY nationality) than the words being sung by someone to a song.

[Vela]

Well said Jessica, I also agree with Richard.

I'm be a whole lot more concernd about what harm true racists and haters are doing compared to old songs and books. Every race have gone through persecutions and trials since the beginning of whatever, so I have a hard time feeling sorry for one race more than any other, at least nowdays. There is just as much "reverse racism" going on as anything else. I just think people ought to be judged on their deeds alone, not on color or religion and getting up in arms over old songs and books and things from a diffrent time period. There is just enough really bad crap going on in the world now without needing to try to find things from the past to get upset about.

[Corinna]

Oh Richard do I now have to give up my signed oringanl copy of Little Black Sambo too?
I get so tired of changing history to suit some group. Hey as said before we all have had some kind of crap hapen to us , I'm scottish/prussian , my ansestors finaly found a place in the New world that became America. We had to leave England or be killed ( long family history story) .
I say live your life not the past of your family or culture.
Sorry but this stuff really pisses me off.
By the way are we now going to wreck the song John Henry for me too?

[finn's mom]

I am not PC at all...I can see how some people would be offended by some things, but, some things...like this...I just don't see the point in getting that sad. I don't get bent out of shape when I see a big white chef sculpture outside of a cafe, holding a sign with a daily special. I think people perpetuate a lot of the problems they experience in life. All colors experience racism, and, there are many that make it worse for themselves. Not to say that there aren't true racists, because there most certainly are. I know a few. That song is so pathetically not important.

As other examples, in Disney movies...they won't even sell one of my favorites The Song of the South, because Uncle Remus is black and they make a little decoy out of tar and put eyes and a hat on it and refer to it as a tar baby. It's a little kid made out of tar. Tar's black. And, I grew up in places where white was minority, and, I don't remember that term being used even then, it's not something that even gets used much anymore to refer to black people. And, Dumbo. A lot of people want that film taken off the market because the circus workers are all black. And, taking classic books out of circulation, like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.

Good and bad, it's all part of history. Part of knowing mistakes people have made in the past is learning from them and hopefully not repeating them. People need to know that racism like that existed...that it still does. In twenty years or less, they're going to ban films like American History X.

Anyway, my brain is all over the place. Sorry if I'm rambling.

[DrKym]

And the price of all those bans and all of this will be forced ignorance on childrens part, once again starting the cycle of hatred fear and awfulness, Man is doomed to repeat the past until he learns from it,only then will things change. As posted earlier my husband is Indian and if he and his family feel it is a minor issue then I refuse to allow it to be an issue for our kids or our grands. He has more of an issue with actual stereotypes that are harmful, i.e. that all irishmen are drunks, that all blacks are criminalistic, that all indians are theives, that all whites are bad. those thought processes hurt people and their lives. A song or a wooden indian isnt, and shouldnt be used as a weapon they are both art forms and in truth nobody likes all forms of art all the time. Somedays I wonder if we don't have too much time on our hands to worry over petty things and forget to worry about the big things just an opinion

[sparks19]

I find it humourous. I mean it seems the very people that are screaming out for equality are in fact the ones pointing out that they are "different". They say we shouldn't notice colour, religion, sex etc etc. Yet they are forcing others to see them that way by demanding they be called by a certain name. For example, I am Caucasion (sp? lol) You can call me white, you can call me pale, heck you can call me cracker if you really want to. I DON"T CARE. I don't force people to look at what my colour or creed is. I don't force people to tip toe around me because God forbid they say something that might be misconstrued as racism. No one calls me an English American or what have you. Why must people label themselves as native american, Authentic Alaskan (whatever the h*ll that is), African American. If you think about it, aren't those terms Un-PC. Just because someone is black (yes I said it) does not mean they are from Africa etc, etc.

If we are forced to acknowledge them by such names how are we supposed to see past their colour. they are forcing us to recognize it.


A little humour though .... While at our cottage up in Northern Canada, we frequently pass a restaurant called.... The Wop and Frog restaurant. LOL It's owned by an Italian and a French guy LOL I thought it was kinda cute. And the little logo guy is a frog with a big black mustache and a chefs hat lol

[Sus]

I agree on all the above! I think it is rather far-fetched to name the lyrics racist, and I'm sure that it was never intended that way by the authors/songwriters! I conceive it is as a love story - along the lines of the story by H.C. Andersen: "The Shepherdess and the Chimney-Sweep"/"The Steadfast Tin Soldier".

I think it is more offensive that the ... hm... "lady" in question would flaunt her bible during staffmeetings!

Lots of love,
Sus and Bella