I think that the list of don'ts serves to keep the prejudice going to some extent.

Don't sing 'jump down, turn around'. It's a personal prejudice which you're attempting to have Mudcatters believe is group prejudice. I can see many African Americans objecting to the song. I can see many African Americans objecting to images of Black banjo players. Everybody knows banjos are played by toothless, drooling white guys who live up in the mountains and sodomize outsiders. The problem is, if you keep beating the stereotypes into people's heads, you just make sure they're perpetuated.

Regarding, 'slave' talk, I was called by an African American telemarketer the other day, and it was very hard to understand him. I wanted to tell him his Black dialect was getting in the way of communication, but you can't just tell somebody that when you don't know him, plus it's a cultural heritage. I don't think of it as 'slave' talk, it's just a modern dialect that people learn because of where they grow up not what color they are - or are we talking about something else? Jive? Ghetto? People who grow up in the same neighborhoods tend to sound similar. And what's the difference between rural southern Black and White, and how do you know Bobert's a 'blue eyed soul brother' but Joe Blow isn't? How do you know he wasn't talkin' good ol' boy?

When I try to figure out why I dislike the premise of this thread, the answer I seems to be that it assumes the audience is a bunch of ignorant white Americans who might accidentally call somebody an N-word ("Oops, that bothers you? Really!? Sorry, it just slipped out."), and who have never been off the mountain, or out of the trailer park. So I have a problem with being assumed to be an idiot. "But I'm more concerned in this thread with the fact that White people may honestly not have a clue that some of the things they say and do might be culturally incompetent [which is another way of saying "politically incorrect"] with regards to race." Now, I've done some stupid things, but I think I know how to be polite to people and show respect. I shall try to remember that the blind leading the blind might actually get somewhere if they communicate to one another. There are some things that piss off white people too, but I'll save that for later. Here's my answer to all of this:

I'm going to behave in a way I think is right. If I get mad, my argument is going to be about something they've done or said and not that person's individual charachteristics. If I say something that appears prejudiced, think about why I REALLY said it, and then ask me. I refuse to be nervous about referring to African American songs or African American banjo players. I do NOT have any intention of stereotyping, and if you see a stereotype, it's yours, not mine.

This is a site about folk music, complete with it history, whether good or bad. We need to remember the good and take joy in it. We need to remember the bad and talk about it. We need to examine our own reactions, and ask "why?" When you think a dialect is 'owned' by a race, think. If anyone actually believed I could tell a guy I'd never met was Black because of how he talked on the phone, think. When you see an image of an African American banjo player, and think "we {perhaps more than White Americans} consider this instrument to be part of the caricature of the watermelon eating, pop eyed Southern widely grining slave who was happy in his servitude.", ask yourself who sold you that stereotype, why you bought it, and why you want to pass that stereotype on. Ask yourself when it's going to be OK for an African American to play banjo. My guess is the answer would be "when enough African Americans think "stuff your stereotype - I can do what I want." When they decide to break a 'don't' rule or two.

While I think discussion is good, I don't care for the level of this one. Azizi and the rest of you mostly clueless white people (now that would make a great band name, eh? Azizi and the Clueles White People. There was 'NWA', now there's 'CWP'. I'm trying to be funny here) can carry it on. Sometimes people don't behave the way society think they should because they're anti-social or merely socially incompetent. Sometimes, it's because they've thought about whatever the rule is and made their own decision for their own reason. Assuming you know what those reasons must be or just assuming people are stupider than you aren't good things.

I try to ignore stereotypes. You can tell me about the ones you'd like me to know of and honor all you want, I'm ignoring them. You go ahead and play a banjo no matter what race you are, you eat watermelon at picnics, you play blues, you wear green on St Pat's, you celebrate African American Heritage Month, you move to my neighborhood, you listen to rap, you listen to country music, you do what you love, what inspires you. If I give you any indication I'm judging you against a stereotype, call me on it because THAT is something I can learn from. I'll try to stick to my racial yes-yes, indeed my human yes-yes's: respect people, be nice, be willing to either compromise or acknowledge the other person's dissatisfaction and get past it. I try to envision what a decent person might be like in the best of all possible future worlds, and be as much like her as I can manage.

I've gone on for a LONG time here, but someone trying to teach me manners just bugs me. Also, it's been a while since I've been on the proverbial 'high horse' (I swear he didn't inhale) and I wanted to enjoy the ride. If anyone continues on from anything I've said, I hope it will be to discuss this: What's the difference between teaching people to respect other people's feelings about stereotypes and teaching people to respect the stereotypes?