Well, Damn!
Posted on 11/14/2005 6:16:46 PM PST by Cagey
BERKLEY, Mich., Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A suburban Detroit public school Monday pulled a folk song about cotton picking from a school program after complaints it glorified slavery.
The predominantly-white choir at Anderson Middle School in Berkley, Mich., was going to sing "Pick a Bale of Cotton" during its Wednesday choir program, but after an African-American father removed his daughter from the concert, the song was pulled, the Detroit News reported.
Greg Montgomery, whose daughter China sings in the choir, asked that the song be removed from the program last week. After his request was rejected, said his daughter would not participate in the school function.
In announcing the reversal of the decision Monday a district spokeswoman said: "We never wanted to cause this much distress for a child or her family."
The song's lyrics include "Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. Gotta jump down, turn around, Oh Lordie, pick a bale a day."
I wonder if they'll be doing some hip hop or rap "songs" about killing whitey or some cops?
Would that be acceptable to Mr. Montgomery and his lovely daughter China?
I don't know why blacks do this. The old slave songs depict what they had to go through. It's a rememberence of the injustice of slavery. It certainly does NOT glorify it. They should be thankful that white kids cared enough to raise the issue through song. Sheesh! You can't win for losing these days.
He just provided a little musicology lesson to alot of ignorant people.
Now, should the school set a song like this in it's proper historical context, then perhaps dad may have been OK about it's performance.
Well, Damn!
Related thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1521720/posts
Gee, I sang this song in the 3rd grade, and that was 40 years ago. They're still singing it??
Gonna jump down
Spin around
Pick a bale of cotton
Gonna jump down
Spin around
Pick a bale a day
Gonna jump down
Spin around
Pick a bale of cotton
Gonna jump down
Spin around
Pick a bale a day
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale of cotton
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale a day
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale of cotton
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale a day
I said
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale of cotton
Now
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale a day
I said
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale of cotton
Now
Me and my buddy gonna pick a bale a day
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale of cotton
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale a day
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale of cotton
Oh, lordy
Pick a bale a day
Good Grief.
Was it a stage presentation of "The Jerk?" Taking that song off of the end changes the whole meaning of the story.
Dat ol man river....
Wonder why she doesn’t think a daughter name China is disrespectful of the Chinese workers who built the first trans continental railroad through hard labor to which as an American she is a beneficiary . What a hypocrite!
Will Mr. Montgomery be changing his surname as well as his daughter's? Why not have the courage of your convictions and go all the way and reject the slave name your family has been carrying all these years?
Surely, his ancestors from Africa weren't named Montgomery. Or did they emmigrate from Scotland?
Swing low, sweet chariot...come for to carry me home...
No one had problems with it when Steve Martin and his family sang it at the end of "The Jerk."
What the heck does hip-hop have to do with a racially insensitive choir song choice?
In other news, Aussies expressed outrage at "Waltzing Matilda", as did people with the last name "Tucker".
Guy thinks AAs were the only folks to ever pick cotton in America.
What is wrong with that song? I picked cotton as a kid as did both of my parents when they were younger.
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