I think that people are far more likely to end up depraved and corrupted by the tripe that they hear/sing in religious hymns and brainlessly-chanted prayers. But we tend to give all that a bye.

Sorry, that is "tu quoque" or "whataboutism," and isn't what is discussed here.

I like the folk process and I enjoy different takes on songs. But I don't regard sanitisation of words that someone thinks might offend me as part of that process. Number one, I'm a grown up, number two, I don't like being patronised, and number three, I have no right to not be offended. I want to hear what the song was intended to be, otherwise I just might not want to hear it at all. I'm not going to turn into a rabid racist because I hear the wonderful Paul Robeson singing "coon" in a song.

Paul Robeson was a black-listed Black man. His experience and his choice to sing that song is perhaps a teachable moment for others, but for white performers to try to do the same thing is a toxic move. These songs are simply no longer performable in any "normal" performance way.

You have three choices: don't sing the song; sing the original, unexpurgated version; change the offending words into something more anodyne.

No, you really only have one choice. Don't sing the song. The song contains the words and changing the words doesn't mean everyone doesn't know what the song is actually about. Just. Don't. Do. It.

The last choice often yields ludicrous results, especially for those who know the original. Paul Robeson sang "coon" whereas many who sang the song later sang "food" instead, which is what you'll find if you look for the lyrics, which I find risible. Paul was a great humanitarian who fought for equal rights and who suffered for his fight. Maybe he was "of his time" and "should have known better".

He was of his time and is of this time. He knew what he was doing, he didn't need to "know better." The code-switching going on when African American or other Black performers sing these songs are like ultrasonic ringtones; European Americans aren't going to hear the meaning intended and understand.

I struggle, we all struggle, to understand how to support others at a time like this with all of the protesting. Shutting up and offering support and not trying to continue to sing racist songs and get away with it would be a great start. Rebecca Solnit coined the term "mansplaining" a couple of decades ago; I've seen that altered in recent days to "whitesplaining." This is not a compliment, yet here I am doing it myself. Singers may be purists and want to go with the oldest or Ur version of a song, but it is time to understand that those songs are off limits, or at best, in quarantine. They don't need to see the light of day right now.

Think of it this way: are you more worried about preserving the words to the song or about triggering events with offensive words? Are you more concerned about the property damage or the death of protesters?

Sorry to pick on Steve's remarks, but his are most current in this old thread.