Racism, bigotry, - call it what you like - is in the minds of racists and bigots, not in a piece of music. Unfortunately songs get hi-jacked by certain elements and tagged as being pro-this or anti-that when, often, they were not meant by the composer to be that way, nor are they viewed in that way by the performer. Who knows, maybe the last thought in Dan Emmett's mind when he wrote 'Dixie' was that it would become a battle-cry for one side in the Civil War?

Time changes things - like when I was at school the teacher wrote on a 'Blackboard', but we can't call it that now because it might offend non-white pupils! In the same vein, it was considered polite in 50's Britain to refer to a person of African origin as a 'Negro', but that's now seen as an insult (might well be, I'm not passing a judgment, just an observation).

I'm with Giok and McGrath. What's done is done, can't be undone no matter how much sackcloth and ashes we wear. Surely the important thing is let's make sure it doesn't happen in the future.