What was that famous bigot's name who wrote an entire opera depicting the lives of humble negroes in a Southern slum town, right down to their ragged clothing and stereotypical speech? Oh, yes. George Gershwin. Porgy and Bess. Personally, I think " Bess, you is my woman now" and " It ain't necessarily so" are not significantly improved by changing the lines to "Bess, You are my woman now" and "It's not necessarily so". Was Gershwin interested in holding the African-American up to public ridicule, or was his primary interest to create transcendent music in the context of a morality play about nothing less than the nature of love, addiction, and the Good/Evil duality of man's nature?

My belief is that he was creating a musical morality play, in many ways similar to the ones depicted in the minstrel melodramas of an earlier time. The songs of the mid 1800's must be viewed in the context of the time. The basic themes of love, despair, suffering and exaltation were lacking in most of the world of proper white theatre. Opera was quite popular, and it's music is still familiar to us today. But name one song that survives from the popular stage of that era, that did not come from the Minstrel Shows. The attraction to the Minstrel show, I believe, was not based on ridicule and derision, although there were elements of that present. The attraction was due to the fact that issues were presented on a basic human level, and that the music was a hell of a lot more fun than the "white bread" being offered on the acceptable Victorian stages of the era.

The oppression of the Black man in that era, or in this one, is inexcusable. But whether or not you think "gwine to run all night" is a cruel and belittling perversion of black speech, it's still a pretty damn good tune.