My Old Kentucky Home

[Bonzi]

... do you consider this song racist?

What about the movie Song of the South?

Just curious what thoughts are...

 

[Asclepias]

Never heard of either song but the titles suggest both are steeped in racism if not outright virulently racist..

 

[Bonzi]

Never heard of either song but the titles suggest both are steeped in racism if not outright virulently racist..

My Old Kentucky Home is the theme song of Kentucky. Here is the part of the lyrics that "cry racism" (according to some....)

The irony is that it's classified as an "anti-slavery" song written by Stephen Foster.

"The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home.
'Tis summer, the darkies [→people] are gay,
The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom....."

Song of the South is actually a Disney movie. I'm sure taken off the market for some time.... maybe not however, I honestly don't know to be truthful....

 

[Asclepias]

Just looked up the lyrics to Old kentucky home and yes its racist.

"They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!"

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'

 

[TNHarley]

Just looked up the lyrics to Old kentucky home and yes its racist.

"They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!"

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'

Want Abe Lincoln known for singing that song?

 

[Auld Phart]

Never heard of either song but the titles suggest both are steeped in racism if not outright virulently racist..

My Old Kentucky Home is the theme song of Kentucky. Here is the part of the lyrics that "cry racism" (according to some....)

The irony is that it's classified as an "anti-slavery" song written by Stephen Foster.

"The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home.
'Tis summer, the darkies [→people] are gay,
The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom....."

Song of the South is actually a Disney movie. I'm sure taken off the market for some time.... maybe not however, I honestly don't know to be truthful....

 

[Asclepias]

Song of the south is definitely racist.

This was a Disney movie?

 

[Asclepias]

Just looked up the lyrics to Old kentucky home and yes its racist.

"They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!"

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'

Want Abe Lincoln known for singing that song?

Probably. He only freed the slaves in the south to take away the souths economic power.

 

[toxicmedia]

... do you consider this song racist?

What about the movie Song of the South?

Just curious what thoughts are...

I'm not sure where the misunderstanding lies.

The Song of the South hasn't been aired by Disney since I was a kid in the 70's.

It comes from a pre ERA era when certain racial references were not as socially unacceptable.

Is it racist?...perhaps not if you consider the time in which it was written.

By today's standards?...I think the question today should include whether or not the song and the movie promote the idea that one race might be superior, or inferior, to another race.

Because that's what racism is...the belief that one race is superior or inferior to another, if they are measured from the same starting point

 

[TNHarley]

Just looked up the lyrics to Old kentucky home and yes its racist.

"They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!"

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'

Want Abe Lincoln known for singing that song?

Probably. He only freed the slaves in the south to take away the souths economic power.

No, that was a military based decision. Economy is why he blocked the southern ports.

 

[Bonzi]

Song of the south is definitely racist.

This was a Disney movie?

Um no... that is not Disney!!!

 

[Bonzi]

Here's a excerpt from the Disney Movie (Song of the South):

 

[guno]

Never heard of either song but the titles suggest both are steeped in racism if not outright virulently racist..

My Old Kentucky Home


Original 1853 lyrics

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home.
'Tis summer, the darkies [→people] are gay,
The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright.
By 'n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night.

 

[toxicmedia]

Just looked up the lyrics to Old kentucky home and yes its racist.

"They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!"

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'

Want Abe Lincoln known for singing that song?

Probably. He only freed the slaves in the south to take away the souths economic power.

No, that was a military based decision. Economy is why he blocked the southern ports.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a military decision that had multiple destabilizing effects on the south.

In Abe Lincoln's time, there were very few people anywhere in the US that thought blacks were equal to whites in any way whatsoever. At the very least malignant, the opinions whites had towards blacks included pity.

You cannot hold people from that era to today's standards about socially acceptable speech on race.

 

[Rotagilla]

I want the american flag banned because it's "racist"....it flew over a slave nation for over 80 years...

I want every historical statue, plaque, portrait, or representation of a white person taken down. They were probably "racists".

I want every school, county, town or state named after a white person to be changed so minorities aren't "offended".

A day of reckoning approaches.

 

[Ernie S.]

Just looked up the lyrics to Old kentucky home and yes its racist.

"They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!"

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'

Want Abe Lincoln known for singing that song?

Probably. He only freed the slaves in the south to take away the souths economic power.

No, that was a military based decision. Economy is why he blocked the southern ports.

Southern ports were taking in 75% of tariffs. Lincoln was going broke.

 

[Pogo]

Just looked up the lyrics to Old kentucky home and yes its racist.

"They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!"

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'

Sorry, that ain't racism. Actual racism requires a value judgment that "race X is superior to race Y". Without that value judgment it doesn't qualify as racism. Using common vernacular terms of the time doesn't either.

I mean get a grip here. "Darkie"? Really? What does that say in terms of a value judgment?

You cannot hold people from that era to today's standards about socially acceptable speech on race.

Precisely. Everyone lives within their own era, not in ours. And Stephen Foster lived in the first half of the 19th century.

 

[Pogo]

Here's a excerpt from the Disney Movie (Song of the South):

I endured that whole video and I'm at a loss to even guess where the "racism" might be. But while I know the song I'm not familiar with the film.

Wiki sez:

The film's depiction of black former slaves, and of race relations in Reconstruction-Era Georgia, has been controversial since its original release, with a number of critics — at the time of its release and in later decades — describing it as racist.[4] Consequently it has never been released in its entirety on home video in the United States.[5]
​

Apparently one would have to sit through an entire Disney film --- the cinematic equivalent of root canal -- to make a judgment on the plot. So absent that background, I have no idea.

 

[Asclepias]

Just looked up the lyrics to Old kentucky home and yes its racist.

"They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!"

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'

Sorry, that ain't racism. Actual racism requires a value judgment that "race X is superior to race Y". Without that value judgment it doesn't qualify as racism. Using common vernacular terms of the time doesn't either.

I mean get a grip here. "Darkie"? Really? What does that say in terms of a value judgment?

You cannot hold people from that era to today's standards about socially acceptable speech on race.

Precisely. Everyone lives within their own era, not in ours. And Stephen Foster lived in the first half of the 19th century.

"Darkie" certainly was not meant to be a consideration of equality. It's use was inherent unconscious racism.

 

[Asclepias]

Here's a excerpt from the Disney Movie (Song of the South):

That one doesnt seem to be racist but I would need to see it in the context of the movie.