I used to do a song that I learned from a Lead Belly record. Black Girl. Also known as In the Pines. Never had a problem with it until a good ten years after I first started singing it. With increasing frequency, some people (white) came up to me after I'd sung it and told me that I, a white man, should not be singing that song—especially with "those words," i.e., "black girl." Black people would find it racist and offensive. They found it racist and offensive!

I asked two people I knew what they thought; whether or not they found my singing the song offensive. Lynn Brooks and Rosetta Powell. Both black. Lynn was a singer. Rosetta was a co-worker at Ma Bell. "Ridiculous!!" and "That's just plain silly!!" were their responses. When the question was put to a large, black man I know who plays outrageous harmonica and is very into African drumming, he said, "The idea of someone wanting to put 'Whites Only' and 'Blacks Only' labels on songs? Now, THAT is offensive!"

And the idea of "bowdlerizing" the song by changing it to "Little girl, little girl, don't lie to me. . . ."   That, I find offensive!

Don Firth