I never suggested anyone deny or distort the past. I just suggested we leave things like certain racist minstrel songs, which are SO offensive and disturbing to most African Americans (black old men who survived the Jim Crow era known personally to several Mudcat members notwithstanding) IN THE PAST.

Just leave them there. We don't bring every song ever written throughout history with us into the present, so why this insistence on continuing to perform this body of work which so offends and hurts one specific segment of our society our ancestors hurt so badly to begin with? Where is the humanity in that? That is what you are trying to balance here at the end of the day, isn't it? Whether the historic value of performing these songs should supercede the humanitarian value of not performing them?

I think, if people are wondering about whether it is appropriate to sing these songs, and if so, when it is appropriate to sing them, and to what audiences, ask yourselves this--as a white performer, are you willing to go to Howard University and sing them to an all black audience of educated blacks as a music historian?

No? I thought not.