Posted on 04/19/2019 7:19:31 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
The Yankees have decided to no longer run Kate Smith’s version of “God Bless America” during their seventh-inning stretch because of Smith’s affiliation with songs that carried racist lyrics. Most famously, Smith sang a 1931 song, “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” which opened: “Someone had to pick the cotton, Someone had to pick the corn, Someone had to slave and be able to sing, That’s why darkies were born.” The song, which has been called a satirical take on racism, was a big hit for Smith, and also was recorded by Paul Robeson. When the Yankees last month became aware of Smith’s history, they switched to a keyboard version of “God Bless America.” The Yankees have played the song in the middle of every game since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the insistence of late owner George Steinbrenner. In 2009, the Yankees cut ties with singer Ronan Tynan, who had made numerous appearances at the Stadium to sing “God Bless America,” after he was alleged to have made anti-Semitic comments.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Facts didn’t matter to hitler and the gang either.
“Progressives” are totally incapable of analytical thought. They believe what they are told.
I ain’t noways tahrd of that song!
My father spent his life working with the Navy to keep our nation safe from Stalinist/Maoist communism. We are now living in the nation he gave his life to ensure we would never become.
To misquote Henry II, who will rid us of these meddlesome priests of PC?
Because some people sang some songs.
If Paul Robeson recorded it, it was definitely satirical. He wasn't going to be recording racist stuff, no way.
Though I live in Michigan, I guess I must be more Southern at heart.
My dad went to the ETO in 1944 and his abiding memory was of Kate Smith singing God Bless America from a tugboat as their troop transport left the harbor. He passed away in 2015 at age 90, and I’m sorry he did not see the rise of President Trump because he was afraid that we’d never overturn the damage done by Obama. I’m not glad he did not have to witness this ridiculous assault on Kate Smith.
You put is exactly right: we are living in the kind of country men like our fathers would have gladly given their lives to prevent the US from becoming.
People like to say “never forget” but it is very sad to realize that we HAVE forgotten.
This PC nonsense has to give.
And I do mean the whole notion of “discrimination” has to along with it. It’s become absolutely absurd, and once again, the commies of this country are destroying our culture. They can blow.
Both Kate Smith and Paul Robeson were known for their patriotic songs, but their patriotic loyalties diverged. Kate Smith sang of her love for America while Robeson, a Stalinist slavishly devoted to the Soviet Union, performed such Stalinist anthems as Native Land and From Border to Border, both from 1942.
Education, true education, is non existent. Rabid leftist control it.
If the Communist Party Line had shifted so as to support segregation, Robeson would have raced to the studio to record songs praising Jim Crow.
Anyway regarding the song, I'l put it this way: I went to Rutgers and Rutgers is ridiculously proud of their affiliation with Paul Robeson. There is 0% chance that anyone there will view him as a racist because he sang this song. Period. He was an activist, which is why they are proud of him. If it wasn't racist when he sang it, it isn't racist when Kate Smith covered it.
It was God Bless America they had to stop.
I listened to both versions of this song for the first time today. Ms. Smith’s version was more accessible (I really am not a fan of Mr Robeson’s singing. Yes, he had an operatic voice, but the sound of his register is just too low for my liking.) Anyhow, let those few of us who have a little historical knowledge point out what SHOULD be OBVIOUS: This song is not only NOT “racist” (which I would read to mean intended to poke fun at or ridicule or willify someone based on their race), but it is the very opposite of that. It is a song that LAMENTS what was then indeed a life of real discrimination and segregation for millions of working class African Americans. And it also expresses pride in their achievements and their faith, and in the VALUE of what they have done with their thankless, back-breaking labor. THINK about this people - would Paul ROBESON have sung this song if he thought it was demeaning? Paul R-O-B-E-S-O-N? You know, the man who didn’t exactly mince words about America’s treatment of African Americans? The man who didn’t exactly “go along to get along” in his life (to put it mildly!). That fact should end the debate (but for the epidemic of historical ignorance sweeping our culture.).
That could very well be true, and racism is just the excuse they used. 👎
Howard Fast, the narrator, would later turn against Stalinism (but not leftism) in his book The Naked God (New York: Praeger, 1957)
Our Song Will Go On--The Weavers, Paul Robeson, et al (1950)
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