When you hear an ice cream truck play Turkey in the Straw, think about the racist lyrics written for the tune 100 years ago, writes Theodore R. Johnson III on NPR’s blog...And liberals say it's conservatives who perpetually live in the 50's.
Demands for a “national conversation” on race will not transform the lives of black Americans, writes McWhorter. “Shouldn’t we focus on race as it exists in the only real world we will ever know—where there has never been a way to settle old scores perfectly, but in the end, what matters is getting over? Change happens, if slowly. As blacks in America move on, we can admit that sometimes, an ice cream jingle is just an ice cream jingle.”
Sunday, July 20, 2014
If This Is All You've Got, Then The War Is Over. There's No More Racism. Go Home.
When ice cream truck music is racist, when that's all you have to complain about it, then it's over:
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As if anybody other than racists (and the odd folk music scholar) knew about those old lyrics from the 1830s...
When will the grown-ups take charge again?
This same topic appeared in Joanne Jacobs blog. She had a video posted of a real cornpone group singing "Turkey in the Straw." I listened to it a couple times but could not hear anything that might be considered racist. If any group should be offended it was white "hillbillies."
It was only after checking Wikipedia that I learned this ditty goes back to pre Civil War days. About 1830 a version with different lyrics called "Zip Coon" was published. By today's standards it was definitely offensive.
The important thing here is that I had to expend significant time and effort to find this out. And never would have if I hadn't already been told the song was "racist." Anyone that goes to that effort just to find a reason to be offended... well, something about the number of fries in a Happy Meal.
This is similar to a hoohah incident where Hallmark (I believe) had a humorous birthday card where the outside cover was space and the interior was a black hole. OMG, you would have thought they used the n-word. What is more, I think many of them had no idea what the scientific term meant. This led to a local discussion by our local race baiter John Wiley Price who stated publicly that Devil's Food Cake was racist as well. Sometimes I think they have to reach just to get publicity.
(In related news that same JWP mentioned above was arrested by the FBI on corruption. 107 page indictment on how he would insist on a cut of the action for approving development in south Dallas county. As a result, that area has lagged behind for years. And yet this guy has and will continue to use the Race Card with abandon. Go figure.)
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