You rang?

Here's one of Mudcat's small population of people of color checkin it.

And here's my take on this discussion:
I think that it is offensive to assume that any referent to skin color is offensive. It is one thing to desire and work for a society where one's skin color has no positive or negative valuation, and it's another thing to pretend that differences in skin color don't exist and don't have postive and negative impact.

Specifically with regard to Lead Belly's "Black Betty song":
I definitely don't have a problem with the adjective "Black" being used to describe Betty. {And btw there's little doubt in my mind that the song is about an African American woman}.

Why are some people assuming that Betty should be ashamed that she is a Black woman? {meaning {either or both}
1. an African American
2. a dark skinned African American

I can hear Betty chanting along with me "Black is beautiful". I can also hear her singing along with me "Say it loud. I'm Black and I'm proud."

That said, though I find the song's tune and hook quite catchy, I do have some problems with these lyrics from the song:

"Black Betty had a child (Bam-ba-Lam)
The damn thing gone wild (Bam-ba-Lam)
She said, "I'm worryin' outta mind" (Bam-ba-Lam)
The damn thing gone blind (Bam-ba-Lam)"

-snip-

I don't have a problem with the use of profanity. After all, it's just "damn" . But I don't like calling a child a "thing" and I'm concerned that the lyrics seem to minimize Betty's worry about the child's blindness...

Okay..maybe I take things too literally. But I do work in the child welfare field. So.....

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And, while I'm here, I would like to point out that references to "Yellow" Gal in these types of songs mean a Black female who is light skinned..."Pinky" is another such reference. So is redbone...

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btw2 , since the call was made for the opinions of Mudcat's members and guests who are people of color, I'd love to know if there are any other African American Mudcatters. And if not why not...but that's a whole nuther subject.

nuff said for now.


Azizi