Klarinet Archive - Posting 000140.txt from 2005/05
From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Possible racist views in music titles [and: Re: Al Jolson vs. Ludacris]
Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 21:27:51 -0400
Wes Kilpatrick wrote,
>Also on the point of being embarrassed by history.
>Are we to either erase history or ignore it just
>because we do not agree with it now?
I don't like the idea of hiding bigotted music and pretending it doesn't
exist--but it's an equally bad idea to perform that music while pretending
the bigotry doesn't exist. Instead, we can acknowledge and discuss the old
context while bringing the music into the modern context. For instance,
the 1927 movie musical, "The Jazz Singer," is a landmark film, an important
film, because it's the first all-talkie. Banning that movie, because of
what we understand today as the racism in Al Jolson's performance of
"Mammy," would violate history, not sanitize it. But showing "The Jazz
Singer" and *discussing* the context, while a good thing, still wouldn't
make it okay with me for white kids to perform "Mammy" in blackface at a
modern high school pep rally. That's a *different* context.
Warren Rosenberg wrote,
>>Oops, sorry, was in a big hurry and forgot to copy the
>>lyrics to Mammy and Ludacris' big hit, "What's Your
>>Fantasy?"
(Aside to Mark Charette after reading the lingo in Ludacris.... Are you
sure it was potential spam that caught the electronic eye of AOL's censor?)
Okay, Warren, I think we all get the point that "What's Your Fantasy?" is
more gross than "Mammy." Of course, it's also true that a lot of other
songs (both old and new) make both of those two sound like Girl Scout
anthems. (Although, come to think of it, we used to sing a few ditties in
Girl Scout Camp that-- well, never mind.) The point is that two or six
wrongs don't make a right. Just because there are much worse songs than
"Mammy" *still* wouldn't make it okay for kids to perform minstrel shows in
blackface at the local school.
Wes Kilpatrick wrote,
>The whole point of learning history in the first
>place is to learn >from the mistakes of the past.
>It happened! Learn from it, don't live in it.
We don't learn much from the mistakes of the past if we keep on repeating
them.
One of the things we learn from history is that we *do* live in it, whether
we like it or not. Interesting that this thread coincides with VE Day
tomorrow, when we remember the Allied victory over the Nazis, who murdered
more than six million people because they were born Jewish, Rom, mentally
retarded or gay. This thread also coincides with the plan, reported
yesterday, to exhume and autopsy the body of Emmett Till, and re-open that
case. Emmett Till was a black teenager, brutally murdered by racists in
Mississippi in 1955, because he whistled at a white woman. Bigotry begins
with portraying fellow human beings as subhumans, to excuse stripping them
of human rights. One of the first steps toward dehumanizing people is
turning them into crude jokes, caricatures--and bullying all who object.
("Offended? Oh, hey, we're just having a little bit of fun. We don't mean
anything by it. Golly, you're hyper-sensitive.") Watch that Jolson
performance sometime and see if it really looks like an honestly
warm-hearted tribute to Mother. I hope nobody on the Klarinet list gets
something like that for Mother's Day this Sunday.
Lelia Loban
Are you watching Big Brother?
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