Posted on 04/26/2019 7:14:44 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The long arm of the PC police has reached back to the 30s and arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced the late singer Kate Smith. Smith, who popularized Irving Berlins song God Bless America and was a female pioneer in early television, recorded songs that today in hindsight are viewed as racist.
An old friend, Harry Covert, writes to recall the early days of black-and-white TV when he (and I) watched Smiths television program. Covert remembers one show interrupted by a news bulletin announcing the attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman by militant Puerto Rican activists. He notes that todays Puerto Ricans are not smeared by that incident, so why is Smith being figuratively tarred and feathered?
In 1940, Berlin, the Russian-born composer, established the God Bless America Fund for the benefit of the youth of America, donating the proceeds from the songs royalties to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America. Yankees baseball great Joe DiMaggio was a trustee on the GBA Fund.
Smith, along with many other celebrities, donated her time to entertain troops during World War II. The PC crowd gives her no credit for that. The New York Yankees, an organization that should be proud of such history and DiMaggios association with it, stopped playing God Bless America at its games. The Philadelphia Flyers, which at one time asked Smith to sing the song live at its hockey games because when she did the team usually won, has also banned her voice.
As in so many cases with political correctness, the standard is unequally applied. What about Southern Democrats who approved of slavery and Jim Crow laws, poll literacy tests, and opposed civil rights legislation? One of them, Sen. Richard Russell, D-Ga., has a Senate office building named for him.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
In a hundred years, if you were white and American, you will be deemed just as racist as Robert Lee and Kate Smith as the goalposts are moved right along the racial politics scale.
Thug rap stars get away with this and nothing is said. Kate smith is white she is a target like the rest of us.
bump...
Kate Smith shouldn’t need defending any more
than Amos & Andy or the Little Rascals.
Juan Williams on The Five almost popped a vein smearing Robert E. Lee as a traitor. Had the South prevailed, Sherman be a war criminal and Lincoln the bad guy.
..has anyone determined who or what started this thing about Kate Smith?
Personally I believe it’s about the song,not the singer....the title is enough to throw some into fits of s*its
All of this is just plain INSANE! Wish people would get a life!
Have they dug up her remains yet?
Did she WRITE the stupid “offensive” song?
I can’t say for sure, but I’d bet not.
Groucho Marx made a pun out of the song in one of their films...
Shall we now burn all prints of anything Marx brothers?
It would only be logical after this Kate Smith nonsense.
How about all CURRENT, living actors who had parts in the 50’s-70’s, where they said the “N” word???
Why, most of them are probably huge donors to the leftist party. Shall we run THEM out of business? ..Out of the country??
Hmmmmmmmmmm???
New York Yankees, one of the last teams to integrate. 8 years after J. Robinson. The hypocrisy is deep.
It’s not about God Bless America. She had previous songs that would be impossibly racist today.
It is the song God Bless America not Why there are Darkies.
Ever notice that no one ever talks about the filth and racism of rap and banning that crap. They even play it at the games. The “darkies” song excuse is to cover up how much more they hate God and want him gone!
The PC police are ignorant savages.
She was from a very different era. She was born 3 years after the end of the Victorian age. Leave her alone and enjoy her wonderful voice.
The statue of Kate Smith must be covered to protect the wounded virtue of a faction finding moral certitude from exchanging a multitude of social media posts; all detached from any legitimate philosophy or spiritual faith. The instigators trade adulthood and dignity for prestige without accomplishment. The subservient parties receive effortless addictive compassion as the drug of choice.
The true objective here is America. Here is an example of using someones human imperfection to disparage the country. They didnt go after 1930s singers Evelyn Laye, Helen Morgan or Kat Thompson for committing similar offenses, because they didnt sing God Bless America. The monument does not venerate the person but testifies to the extraordinary achievements in producing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution which define the identity of America.
These documents stand in the path of those embracing a fiction proclaiming infallible direction of human activity. These politicians become patricians stand ready to offer responsive administrative laws and rules. Such creations supposedly provide supportive emotional security for all, but actually compel a subservience of citizens never intended by our Constitution.
True compassion and leadership would come from understanding how very few individuals cannot receive the freedom to create, encourage, explore, repair, analyze, develop, build, cooperate, serve and/or teach and become heroic as they exercise their intangible natural liberties as guaranteed by our Constitution.
You might want to watch this video to discover her attitude to race. Her statement is about four fifths of the way down the page.
Don’t Touch That Dial: Wartime Radio And Racial Stereotyping,
Richard Byrd of West VA, a high ranking kkk member, democrat, has tons of things in that state named after him.
She travelled a half million miles to entertain our troops. She richly deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was awarded to her by President Reagan in 1982.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.