11 Popular Songs You Didn’t Realize Are Actually Racist

Reader's Digest ^ | 6/21/23 | Jeremy Helligar

[DallasBiff]

You may have been singing along to them for years, but have you ever really thought about their lyrics? If not, it's definitely time.

“Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones

Some things don’t deserve to be sung about, like slavery—especially when the song uses whipping imagery as it attempts to demonstrate the sexual prowess of Black women. But yet that’s precisely what Mick Jagger did in The Rolling Stones’ 1971 smash “Brown Sugar.” The title was offensive enough, but in the first verse, Jagger travels back to the plantation to peek in on the slave owners who used to make it hurt so good as he sings, “Hear him whip the women just around midnight.”

[x]

Randy Newman’s “Sail Away” is another “anti-racist” song that is also “racist.”

[fella]

When your a racist all you see and hear is racism.

[Eccl 10:2]

Or “Black Betty”?

[fella]

Every Hip Hop and Rap song with the N-word . . .

[Lisbon1940]

>> At times she had a little Italian in her.

Then they got divorced.

[Songcraft]

And "Short People".   (Might not be racist, but it's sizest.)

[CarmichaelPatriot]

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

[NetAddicted]

I never knew those lyrics were in ‘Brown Sugar.’ I can’t hear lots of song lyrics. But, now I know what

[gundog]

Another fag from “People” magazine...

[BerryDingle]

Or “Black Betty”?

Black Betty is a British marching cadence song from sometime in the 1800's. They were singing about their dutiful rifles that are as reliable as a wonderful woman. "Oh Black Betty, Bam A Lam"!

[sunny bonobo]

Not to argue, but you said significant Cherokee ancestry. Her mother CLAIMS, wink, wink. So according to wiki, what’s that make her? Another Elizabeth Warren Indian? At the most she would be around 1/16 Cherokee.

[A_perfect_lady]

That song is about the fall of the Berlin Wall. No surprise this commie sob hates it.

You both nailed it. I should have made the connection, because it was a very random addition to this list.

[Dr. Sivana]

Her mother CLAIMS, wink, wink. So according to wiki, what’s that make her? Another Elizabeth Warren Indian? At the most she would be around 1/16 Cherokee.

Yes, on rereading your point is valid. But damn, Cher really DOES have high cheekbones! I am not going to argue about Cher with someone named Sunny Bonobo, just as people shouldn't argue with me about the original Captain Marvel.

[Dr. Sivana]

“Island Girl” by [Bernie Taupin and] Elton John? Yeah, that is pretty racist. “Jamaica Jerk-Off” probably is, too.

Now that you mention it, half of the Rock of the Westies album (debuted #1 on release) had issues. "Te;; Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly" (the mixed race women on Bourbon Street in New Orleans), "Grow Some Funk of Your Own" (We No Like to with the Gringo Fight, but there might be a death in Mexico tonight).

[Pilsner]

My parents subscribed to Reader's Digest when I was a kid, and I read every issue from cover to cover. I haven't picked one up in, probably 30 years. Apparently I have not missed out on anything worth reading,

[dfwgator]

[AndyTheBear]

Outrage porn for wokesters.

[Pilsner]

Hard to believe Frank Burns was reading it.

But when you eliminate the 3rd, 5th and 6th letters, you get Red's Digest.

Perhaps Col. Flagg was a prophet, not a paranoid. Or, at least, a prophet and a paranoid.

[SauronOfMordor]

The author: black AND queer.

[sunny bonobo]

Yes pre fish lips plastic surgery she was one attractive woman.