Racist Folk Song??

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nbcrusader

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Mich. School Drops Folk Song

BERKLEY, Mich. - A song about people picking cotton was pulled from a middle school concert in suburban Detroit after a black parent complained that it glorifies slavery.

Superintendent Tresa Zumsteg decided Monday to remove the song "Pick a Bale of Cotton" from the program, said Gwen Ahearn, spokeswoman for the Berkley School District.

Ahearn said that when the song was picked for Wednesday's folk songs concert at Anderson Middle School, there was no intent to offend anyone.
 
Perky?

I can understand that man being sensitive to a song like that, certainly there were plenty of other songs to choose from. They may not have intended to offend anyone, but that wasn't the best choice of song. It's not the 50's now.
 
There are so many songs like that from my childhood (I grew up in the south) and I think a lot of the time they've just been handed down for so long that people don't even think about them or what they mean. I say that knowing full well that racism is alive and well where I grew up. But blacks weren't the only cotton pickers. There were cotton pickers in my white family.
 
I almost choked on my coffee when I first saw this story this morning, because the version of this song I remember hearing growing up in Mississipi (NOT in school!) included a line about "that ****** over there, he can pick a bale a day." After reading a few more stories about it, I gather that this school was using a version popularized by Leadbelly, which (unsurprisingly) doesn't include this line.

I don't doubt that including this song was a wholly innocent gesture on the school's part, but I can certainly see why the descendants of slaves and sharecroppers would be uncomfortable seeing their kids smiling and clapping their way through it, especially if they're remembering the same version I am. I'm sure not all the black parents felt this way, but neither do I see why it's a big deal to just drop the song and replace it with something else.
 
Dismantled said:
I think its time for people to stop being offended at any and everything.

Cool, glad to hear it. I guess now you won't get offended at any more 'Bush-bashing' threads. :up:
 
financeguy said:


Cool, glad to hear it. I guess now you won't get offended at any more 'Bush-bashing' threads. :up:


I'm not offended by those....I can still think your all ridiculous..but I won't be offended:wink:
 
I have a friend that is Chinese.


When her children were in preschool they learned to sing.

"I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away"


she was not happy about it.
 
yolland said:
I almost choked on my coffee when I first saw this story this morning, because the version of this song I remember hearing growing up in Mississipi (NOT in school!) included a line about "that ****** over there, he can pick a bale a day." After reading a few more stories about it, I gather that this school was using a version popularized by Leadbelly, which (unsurprisingly) doesn't include this line.

I don't doubt that including this song was a wholly innocent gesture on the school's part, but I can certainly see why the descendants of slaves and sharecroppers would be uncomfortable seeing their kids smiling and clapping their way through it, especially if they're remembering the same version I am. I'm sure not all the black parents felt this way, but neither do I see why it's a big deal to just drop the song and replace it with something else.

Geez, I don't remember that version. With that new dimension, I agree with you.
 
deep said:
I have a friend that is Chinese.


When her children were in preschool they learned to sing.

"I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away"


she was not happy about it.

We sang that one in elementary school, too, but I didn't meet any Asians until I went to college!
 
Muggsy said:


I don't understand... what does that song has to do with asian people?


many of the people who built the railroads in the US during the 19th century were Chinese immigrants. it was dangerous work.
 
deep said:
I have a friend that is Chinese.


When her children were in preschool they learned to sing.

"I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away"


she was not happy about it.

Nothing like getting upset over song that almost no child would know the meaning of today.
 
Where does this end?

Will free speech and free expression
be eventually banned?

I was never told I live in world where I will never be offended.

*just a Liberatrian who sees all this stuff as kind of scary* :ohmy:
 
I think a lot of people forget that white people used to amuse themselves with tons of racist songs, products, etc. I don't know if white people 100+ years ago were pathological or just plain stupid, but that's what they did to amuse themselves. Most interestingly, this part of history has pretty much been erased from any mention at all, which is often why I think we have these little conflicts once in a while: the minorities still remember, but the white people are clueless. But that's really why two of the most momentous moments in film history--"Birth of a Nation" (first full length film) and "The Jazz Singer" (first film with live sound)--are both blatantly racist.

And Jesus Christ...all "Little Black Sambo" needs is a watermelon and he fits every early 20th century racist stereotype.

http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/sambo.htm

Just imagine if a "beloved children's character" was some stupid white trash from Alabama who beat his wife and got drunk on the front porch while singing self-deprecating songs celebrating his laziness? That's the equivalent of a lot of this stuff.

But, considering the lack of empathy in this world, I really wish something like that existed. Maybe then white people wouldn't be so quick to defend cultural antiquities that offend other races and cultures.

Melon
 
A_Wanderer said:
What next, go after beloved childrens characters like Golliwog and Little Black Sambo?

Oh and here's the history of "Golliwog." Not so "beloved" at all, really.

http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/golliwog/

It's a product of that racist merchandising era of the late 19th and early 20th century that I was referring to. The political climate, all around, was downright racist and offensive. I'm very glad I wasn't a black person in those days.

Melon
 
My sister and I, my black sister, we used to put on mum's Harry Belafonte records and sing this song. We'd alternate bobbing up and down like something that bobs up and down. We'd also sing about sailing off into a Jamaican sunset. She's not entirely Jamaican, more Trinidad & Tobago, but who cares when you're 8? Or 28?

:rolleyes:
 
To you all that don't see the reason why someone is offended, let me ask you this;

Years from now, you go to an elementary school play of your grandchild's, and you hear them singing a misogynist song from today, or a gay bashing song from today, or a song about the Christian taliban will you just sit there?
 
Oh lordddd pick a bale of cotton
Oh lordddd pick a bale a day

The White Stripes snippet that song :happy:
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:
To you all that don't see the reason why someone is offended, let me ask you this;

Years from now, you go to an elementary school play of your grandchild's, and you hear them singing a misogynist song from today, or a gay bashing song from today, or a song about the Christian taliban will you just sit there?
I get offended by Christian rock anyway.
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:
To you all that don't see the reason why someone is offended, let me ask you this;

Years from now, you go to an elementary school play of your grandchild's, and you hear them singing a misogynist song from today, or a gay bashing song from today, or a song about the Christian taliban will you just sit there?

You are so right.
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:
To you all that don't see the reason why someone is offended, let me ask you this;

Years from now, you go to an elementary school play of your grandchild's, and you hear them singing a misogynist song from today, or a gay bashing song from today, or a song about the Christian taliban will you just sit there?

And there may be some who are offended. That is not the issue. The article address the response to the taken offense.

I suspected that we would get back to one of our three favorite topics in FYM. As for the example of offending Christians: it happens today, Christians object to the offending material, and FYM ridicules the Christians as overly sensative or dismiss the item as "non-offensive".

So, with the question of "what is the appropriate response?" - should we let one family change what a school presents?
 
What are all the lyrics to the song? Is it truly racist? As I said, members of my own family were cotton pickers, and this was within the last 100 years as well. Does it really glorify slavery?
 
nbcrusader said:


I suspected that we would get back to one of our three favorite topics in FYM.

Well sometimes it's the only way to have some in here empathize at all with the circumstance. It's a sad fact.

And I'm not suggesting you, just an overall observation I've noticed about FYM.

nbcrusader said:

So, with the question of "what is the appropriate response?" - should we let one family change what a school presents?

It depends on the merit of the issue.

Rosa Parks, was just one person. Now I'm not saying it's the same thing.

But the point is when does tradition need to be analyzed? Out of all the folk songs, why are we still singing one rooted in racism? I think that's the question we should be asking rather than, was the response appropriate.

I think it's far too easy for the majority to say this is how it's been, "no one's got hurt", which I hear in here ALL the time. Rather than analyze the real issue.
 
U2democrat said:
What are all the lyrics to the song? Is it truly racist? As I said, members of my own family were cotton pickers, and this was within the last 100 years as well. Does it really glorify slavery?


[performed lyrics]

oh lord, pick a bail of cotton
oh lord, pick a bail a day
oh lord, pick a bail of cotton
oh lord, pick a bail a day
jump down shake around pick a bail of cotton
jump down shake around pick a bail a day
jump down shake around pick a bail of cotton
jump down shake around pick a bail a day
me and my buddy pick a bail of cotton
me and my buddy pick a bail a day
me and my buddy pick a bail of cotton
me and my buddy pick a bail a day

[official lyrics]

Jump down, turn around to pick a bale of cotton
Jump down, turn around to pick a bale a day.
cho: Oh Lordy, pick a bale of cotton,
Oh Lordy, pick a bale a day.
That ****** from Shiloh can pick a bale of cotton
That ****** from Shiloh can pick a day.
Me and my gal can pick etc.
Me and my wife etc.
Me and my buddy etc.
Me and my poppa etc.
Takes a might big man to etc.
 
Does anyone know of the source of the song? Was it sung by slave masters as they observed the cotton picking? Was it sung by slaves? There may be something positive we can learn from the song and its origins.
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:



[performed lyrics]

oh lord, pick a bail of cotton
oh lord, pick a bail a day
oh lord, pick a bail of cotton
oh lord, pick a bail a day
jump down shake around pick a bail of cotton
jump down shake around pick a bail a day
jump down shake around pick a bail of cotton
jump down shake around pick a bail a day
me and my buddy pick a bail of cotton
me and my buddy pick a bail a day
me and my buddy pick a bail of cotton
me and my buddy pick a bail a day

[official lyrics]

Jump down, turn around to pick a bale of cotton
Jump down, turn around to pick a bale a day.
cho: Oh Lordy, pick a bale of cotton,
Oh Lordy, pick a bale a day.
That ****** from Shiloh can pick a bale of cotton
That ****** from Shiloh can pick a day.
Me and my gal can pick etc.
Me and my wife etc.
Me and my buddy etc.
Me and my poppa etc.
Takes a might big man to etc.


ahhhhhh i see thanks :up:
interesting. :eyebrow:


It was probably sung by the slaves, as they often sang to pass time, and many of their songs had code to diss the master or pass along news about escapes and such.
 
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