IMHO, the black community might do well to look at this problem from a slightly different angle.

The song, like many others, was not sung by whites to denigrate black people. It was an example of the way in which blacks, despite the vicissitudes of slavery, were able to keep their spirit alive, and the fact that it has survived to be sung today should be seen as a compliment to the fortitude of those unfortunates who, torn from their homelands, were still able to produce this kind of material.

Don T.