You are a nice person, Azziza, but I think you have missed something very important--you say:


It should be noted that Black dialect English was not how all African Americans of that time -in the South-and elsewhere talked. Yet it became the standard form of talk to designate Black people {see the history of minstrelsy}. I believe this occurred for the reasons that I indicated above.

(And here is what was above)

I also believe that this dialect was the preferred form for White authors/song composers/minstrels etc writing about Black people and for Black people [then]who wrote about themselves because it reinforced {and in my opinion,continues to reinforce} the view that Black people were not [and are not in that view point] as intelligent as White people.



The fact of the matter is, this was all entertainment--written and performed to entertain, to get laughs, etc--it was created without any sense of what any deeper implications might be, and certainly without any sense that it was hurtful, in any way--

It is important to understand this, because it is really important to understand that, unbelievable as it seems, the majority of whites in these times had no idea about the suffering of slavery, or the horrible legacy of racism--

In later years, nearly all of the minstrel performers and many of the songwriters were black. So songs like "All Coons Look Alike To Me" were actually written by Blacks--It was all just show biz --there was a larger feeling though, that this undercut all the efforts to bring about social justice, and there was a belief that it undercut the work of serious black writers--

The point is that this stuff wasn't intended as any sort of tool for racial oppression, and it can even be argued that, in a certain way, it created awareness and sympathy--It was intended to entertain, which, as some of us know from experience, people will get a laugh whereever and however they can--