Why is 'Dixie' considered racist?

Subject: RE: Why is 'Dixie' considered racist?
From: DADGBE
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 03:29 PM

Thanks for the kind words Amos. My 'honest misestimation' cost me two black eyes.

Subject: RE: Why is 'Dixie' considered racist?
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 03:46 PM

DADGBE:

Holy moly!! You were up against some real A-holes, no matter what color they claimed to be. I assume you are recovered by now. WOdda nugly experience!




A

Subject: RE: Why is 'Dixie' considered racist?
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 03:53 PM

Sorry my friends,
It always gets me that because someone is potentially "offended" we should give up on something that means a great deal to ourselves and is from a totally different view point.

I wish I was in the land of cotton
(The South, the Blueridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley, The Chesapeake Bay, The Great Smoky Mountains, Kentucky and Tennessee and other very beautiful places)
Good times there are not forgotten
(This may have been changed from Old times) but still how many of you have had to sit and listen to your father reminice(sp?) and still they will tell you how they had to walk to school, 8 miles, in the snow, uphill, both ways (LOL).

Sure, slavery is an ugly sin, but we can't change the past.
Are we to get rid of everything in history that may offend?

Subject: Look away, look away...
From: Håvard
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 04:59 PM

Thanks to everybody responding seriously to my Dixie question. Sorry I didn't manage to respond before the thread deteriorated into a flame war and finally was closed down.

The situation was as I suspected, there is nothing in the lyrics that is unequivocally racist or celebrates slavery in any form. Thus, the question remains: should good songs be abandoned by good people if they are hi-jacked by nasty performers for foul political ends? (I understand that "Amazing Graze" is frequently used by the KKK...)

My feelings is that songs that are not inherently racist/bigoted can be sung, and should be sung even at the possible offence of some people. I'm sure a couple of sentences will suffice to explain that the performance is anti-racist, seeking to reclaim the songs to the realm of political decency.