Racism, Kate Smith & School Brawls - Which is More Detrimental to Urban Youth?

[JBG]

This past week featured two unrelated event, both relating to issues concerning urban youth, and perceived racial slights.

[VIDEO]

Kate Smith's racist lyrics cause her removal from baseball games

Excerpt:

Kate Smith, a famous singer who was best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's G-d Bless America,” had her statue removed by the Philadelphia Flyers after racist lyrics were found in some of her songs.***************

Some Americans are angry with the decision to remove her completely because they feel it is disrespectful to not only veterans, but all Americans. Anyone who sacrifices their life to keep this country safe should not be disrespected by anything that takes a strike at tradition and patriotism

One wonders, what are the real problems plaguing urban youth: 1) the fact that a famous singer sang other songs that would not be played today; or 2) wild brawls that detract from any semblance of education? The problem with "G-d Bless America" is that Kate Smith also sang "That's Why Darkies Were Born."

Now, keep in mind, Kate Smith did not write either one. Israel Beilin a/k/a Irving Berlin wrote "G-d Bless America." Paul Robeson, a black singer who immortalized, among other songs "Old Man River" and who fled the U.S. because of McCarthyism sang "That's Why Darkies Were Born." Maybe we need to ban all songs that Paul Robeson ever sang. That takes down "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and Nobody Knows the Troubles I've Seen." And while we're at it, Aretha Franklin, Miriam Anderson and Mahalia Jackson would also have their songs stricken because those singers sang the now-offensive spirituals.

It goes on.

 

[JBG]

This past week featured two unrelated event, both relating to issues concerning urban youth, and perceived racial slights.

[VIDEO]

Kate Smith's racist lyrics cause her removal from baseball games

Excerpt:

Kate Smith, a famous singer who was best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's G-d Bless America,” had her statue removed by the Philadelphia Flyers after racist lyrics were found in some of her songs.***************

Some Americans are angry with the decision to remove her completely because they feel it is disrespectful to not only veterans, but all Americans. Anyone who sacrifices their life to keep this country safe should not be disrespected by anything that takes a strike at tradition and patriotism

One wonders, what are the real problems plaguing urban youth: 1) the fact that a famous singer sang other songs that would not be played today; or 2) wild brawls that detract from any semblance of education? The problem with "G-d Bless America" is that Kate Smith also sang "That's Why Darkies Were Born."

Now, keep in mind, Kate Smith did not write either one. Israel Beilin a/k/a Irving Berlin wrote "G-d Bless America." Paul Robeson, a black singer who immortalized, among other songs "Old Man River" and who fled the U.S. because of McCarthyism sang "That's Why Darkies Were Born." Maybe we need to ban all songs that Paul Robeson ever sang. That takes down "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and Nobody Knows the Troubles I've Seen." And while we're at it, Aretha Franklin, Miriam Anderson and Mahalia Jackson would also have their songs stricken because those singers sang the now-offensive spirituals.

It goes on.

 

[ABikerSailor]

This past week featured two unrelated event, both relating to issues concerning urban youth, and perceived racial slights.

[VIDEO]

Kate Smith's racist lyrics cause her removal from baseball games

Excerpt:

Kate Smith, a famous singer who was best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's G-d Bless America,” had her statue removed by the Philadelphia Flyers after racist lyrics were found in some of her songs.***************

Some Americans are angry with the decision to remove her completely because they feel it is disrespectful to not only veterans, but all Americans. Anyone who sacrifices their life to keep this country safe should not be disrespected by anything that takes a strike at tradition and patriotism

One wonders, what are the real problems plaguing urban youth: 1) the fact that a famous singer sang other songs that would not be played today; or 2) wild brawls that detract from any semblance of education? The problem with "G-d Bless America" is that Kate Smith also sang "That's Why Darkies Were Born."

Now, keep in mind, Kate Smith did not write either one. Israel Beilin a/k/a Irving Berlin wrote "G-d Bless America." Paul Robeson, a black singer who immortalized, among other songs "Old Man River" and who fled the U.S. because of McCarthyism sang "That's Why Darkies Were Born." Maybe we need to ban all songs that Paul Robeson ever sang. That takes down "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and Nobody Knows the Troubles I've Seen." And while we're at it, Aretha Franklin, Miriam Anderson and Mahalia Jackson would also have their songs stricken because those singers sang the now-offensive spirituals.

It goes on.

Well....................what ya gonna do? Me personally? I don't really think that they should have gone after her statue like they did. Why? Because things were different back then. Now, I'm not saying that the songs she sang were okay, they weren't, but attitudes were different back then.

By the way, I'm also against all the times that the word ****** was removed from the works of Mark Twain. Sorry, but back then, that is just the way they talked and the terminology they used. While it was neither right nor good, it was just the way it was back then, and changing the book that was written back in the 1800's to make it conform to today's standards is a disservice to both. Not only are they trying to white wash the past, but if you change the book, you can't point to how far we have come.

I mean, sure, she was a racist, and sang racist songs, but leaving her statue up with a side note of her past would do more to point to how far we have come. If we take it down, we are whitewashing the past and saying it never happened.

That being said, I don't think that Confederate monuments should be allowed to stay. Why? You don't usually celebrate the side that LOST.

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

School brawls are the most detrimental, obviously.
I had to LOL @ the funny avatar the OP has.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Well....................what ya gonna do? Me personally? I don't really think that they should have gone after her statue like they did. Why? Because things were different back then. Now, I'm not saying that the songs she sang were okay, they weren't, but attitudes were different back then.

By the way, I'm also against all the times that the word n*gg*r was removed from the works of Mark Twain. Sorry, but back then, that is just the way they talked and the terminology they used. While it was neither right nor good, it was just the way it was back then, and changing the book that was written back in the 1800's to make it conform to today's standards is a disservice to both. Not only are they trying to white wash the past, but if you change the book, you can't point to how far we have come.

I mean, sure, she was a racist, and sang racist songs, but leaving her statue up with a side note of her past would do more to point to how far we have come. If we take it down, we are whitewashing the past and saying it never happened.

That being said, I don't think that Confederate monuments should be allowed to stay. Why? You don't usually celebrate the side that LOST.

 

[depotoo]

Other than her singing songs that were sadly popular in the ‘30’s, I’ve only seen evidence to the contrary, of her accused racism-
Kate Smith called for racial tolerance in this forgotten 1945 radio address
In this particular speech, she first told the story of a Christian family in Belgium that hid three Jews from the Nazis. And then this, as recounted in the May 1945 issue of the popular radio magazine Tune In:

It seems to me that faith in the decency of human beings is what we must have more of, if there is to be a future for all of us in this world. We read in the papers every day about conferences on the best way to keep the peace. Well, I’m not an expert on foreign affairs — and I don’t pretend to know all the complex things that will have to be done for a lasting peace. But I am a human being — and I do know something about people. I know that our statesmen — our armies of occupation — our military strategists — may all fail if the peoples of the world don’t learn to understand and tolerate each other.
Race hatreds — social prejudices — religious bigotry — they are the diseases that eat away the fibers of peace. Unless they are exterminated it’s inevitable that we will have another war. And where are they going to be exterminated? At a conference table in Geneva? Not by a long shot. In your own city — your church — your children’s school — perhaps in your own home.
You and I must do it – every father and mother in the world, every teacher, everyone who can rightfully call himself a human being. Yes, it seems to me that the one thing the peoples of the world have got to learn if we are ever to have a lasting peace, is — tolerance. Of what use will it be if the lights go on again all over the world — if they don’t go on … in our hearts.
Kate Smith, "The Value of Tolerance," quoted in Tune In, May 1945.
People heard it, all right. The sponsors of We, the People said they received more than 20,000 requests for reprints. Newspapers across the land reprinted passages.

Smith spoke as the Battle of the Bulge was raging; the anti-Nazi message is loud and clear. So is the fear that social division might weaken the nation in time of war. But the speech reaches further, to include “race hatreds” and “social prejudices.” The change she seeks is not by treaty but by a sincere change of hearts and minds.

Pc madness without checking facts first, at its worst.

Well....................what ya gonna do? Me personally? I don't really think that they should have gone after her statue like they did. Why? Because things were different back then. Now, I'm not saying that the songs she sang were okay, they weren't, but attitudes were different back then.

By the way, I'm also against all the times that the word n*gg*r was removed from the works of Mark Twain. Sorry, but back then, that is just the way they talked and the terminology they used. While it was neither right nor good, it was just the way it was back then, and changing the book that was written back in the 1800's to make it conform to today's standards is a disservice to both. Not only are they trying to white wash the past, but if you change the book, you can't point to how far we have come.

I mean, sure, she was a racist, and sang racist songs, but leaving her statue up with a side note of her past would do more to point to how far we have come. If we take it down, we are whitewashing the past and saying it never happened.

That being said, I don't think that Confederate monuments should be allowed to stay. Why? You don't usually celebrate the side that LOST.

 

[Marion Morrison]

What is this thread? You think you know something about school brawls in the UK, boy?



They played Smear the queer everyday by the bike rack after lunch when I was a kid..

We had riots n shit, stfu!

You ever see somebody get bodyslammed on their neck?