With regard to my 25 May 08 - 10:47 AM post to this thread, I've collected some examples of that "Down Down Baby" rhyme that use the term "colored boy" instead of "black boy". The source for one of these examples described hereself as a Puerto Rican woman, Yasmin Hernandez. Yasmin indicated that she knew this rhyme when she lived in a mixed neighborhood in New York City that consisted of Black families and Puerto Rican families.

Here's that example:

Down, down baby
Down, down the roller coaster
Sweet, sweet baby
I'll never let you go
Chimey chimey cocoa pop
Chimey, chimey pow
Chimey, chimey cocoa pop
Chimey, chimey pop
I like coffee, I like tea
I like a colored boy and he likes me
So lets here the rhythm of the hands, (clap, clap) 2x
Let hear the rhythm of the feet (stomp, stomp) 2x
Let's hear the rhythm of the head (ding dong) 2x
Let's hear the rhythm of the hot dog
Let's hear the rhythm of the hot dog
Put em all together and what do you get
(Clap clap, stomp stomp), ding dong, hot Dog!
-Yasmin Hernandez, East Brooklyn, New York, November, 2004 {from her memories of the 1980s}


-snip-

A Mudcat guest posted a similar version of "I Like Coffee I Like Tea" that contain these lines:

"I like coffee I like tea
I like a colored boy and he likes me
so step back white boy
you don't cause a cool colored boy gonna bet* your behind

* probably a typo for beat, as the next lines continue the theme of beating.

thread.cfm?threadid=81350#1493555

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When collecting children's rhymes, I believe that when you can it's important to collect demographical information-including race/ethnicity. I believe that demographics may make a difference in the recognition of slang terms or references to current celebrities. For instance, there's one foot stomping cheer that was [is still?] widely known among Pittsburgh, PA African American girls in my neighborhood in which they say that they are "kickin it with Genuwine". Not only do you have to know that one definition of "kickin it" means "relaxing, spending tome with [hangin out with]. But you also have to know that Genuwine was [is?] the name of a popular young African American R&B singer.

Another reason why I believe that it's important to as much as possible collect demographical information along with the examples of children's rhymes is that these rhymes provide a glimpse into the life, worldview, concerns, and aspirations of specificgroups of children who recite them. Just as the types of rhymes, and the performance of the same rhyme or similar rhymes may differ among different groups of children, the psycho-social meanings of these rhymes may differ among various populations of children.

I'm wondering if the use of that word "colored" in American English children's rhymes could be a way of dating the rhyme and/or if you know that the rhyme was currently recited, the inclusion of that word could be a way of determining that the children saying it are non-Black [because since the late 1960s, "colored" isn't a group referent that African American children would be familiar with or use.