The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #140761   Message #4106258
Posted By: GUEST,Guestibus
16-May-21 - 02:46 PM
Thread Name: Are racist, but traditional, songs OK?
Subject: RE: Are racist, but traditional, songs OK?
[rant] Would anyone sing 'Little Sir Hugh' at, for the sake of argument, a Holocaust memorial event using folksingers? Of course not. It was a deliberately offensive, racist slander in the 14th century and always will be.

Historically it's significant, yes, and aesthetically it's superior to many other broadsides of the kind. But you wouldn't sing an overtly racist more modern song unless you had a specific purpose in mind - which might be scholarship, dramatic recreation, or actually to condone racism, let alone to make money.

I saw Eric Clapton at a private do a few years back, and was a bit taken aback to hear him do 'Old Black Joe'; which isn't overtly racist, but certainly carries Jim Crow overtones that the ignorant might think legitimise that attitude, especially when performed by someone from Surrey. He's obviously learned nothing; how many among millions of other songs might he have chosen? [/rant]