Dear friends:
To begin with, Malinda, if you are still about, don't be so quick to leave, for several reasons. First, being woken up to a situation wherein your actions may cause discomfort is not a personal attack. You are quite comfortable, I assume, as a member the majority community, and may not be used to the hostile environment of discrimination. We who have seen discrimination and have to deal with it develope a certain resiliance against such controversies and are not so quick to leave. Stick around and share a bit of wisdom with us, and we will all be the richer for it.
DougR, old friend, You are right, as a lawyer I am against censorship. However, most Americans forget that censorship is only wrong in the US when carried out by the government. We have a right and an obligation to be polite to each other and not create a hostile environment for minorities. In fact, though censorship per se is not allowable in the US, in a work place - if racist talk is NOT censored, the government takes action to censor that talk as a defense agaist a hostile environment. Now, here, this is not a work place, and I do not mean to give the impression that I believe we should not post racist songs. However, if we are doing so for scholarship and to understand folk culture, we should be careful how we praise those songs. For example, the song I am a good old rebel. I would say it has a great tune, but the words are distateful. I would be somewhat careful, as a matter of good taste to praise the words very highly (not much chnace of that). Good taste excersed by the people is not the censorship our government is not to wield - excuse the clumsy sentence.
Camisu, what can I say? Great song and I apreciate your comments... and MAG, magnificent comment.
Your pal as ever,
Larry