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In Defense of Kate Smith
The Daily Signal ^ | April 26, 2019 | Cal Thomas

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 Berlin’s 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 Smith’s 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 today’s 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 song’s 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 DiMaggio’s 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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: New Jersey; US: New York; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: bloggers; censorship; democrats; erasinghistory; flyers; godblessamerica; godblessmaerica; history; irvingberlin; jimcrow; joedimaggio; katesmith; kkk; leftists; mlb; newjersey; newyork; pennsylvania; philadelphia; philadelphiaflyers; racebaiting; racism; richardcohen; robertbyrd; ronaldreagan; skankees; slavery; unearnedpower; wildwood; yankees
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1 posted on 04/26/2019 7:14:44 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

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.


2 posted on 04/26/2019 7:18:56 PM PDT by GOP Congress
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Thug rap stars get away with this and nothing is said. Kate smith is white she is a target like the rest of us.


3 posted on 04/26/2019 7:22:51 PM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

bump...


4 posted on 04/26/2019 7:28:18 PM PDT by harpu ( "...it's better to be hated for who you are than loved for someone you're not!")
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Kate Smith shouldn’t need defending any more
than Amos & Andy or the Little Rascals.


5 posted on 04/26/2019 7:28:37 PM PDT by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: GOP Congress

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.


6 posted on 04/26/2019 7:32:36 PM PDT by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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..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


7 posted on 04/26/2019 7:36:41 PM PDT by Doogle (( USAF.68-73....8th TFW Ubon Thailand....never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: GOP Congress

All of this is just plain INSANE! Wish people would get a life!


8 posted on 04/26/2019 7:36:43 PM PDT by LoveMyFreedom
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Have they dug up her remains yet?


9 posted on 04/26/2019 7:39:53 PM PDT by rhinohunter (Dear Mr. Trump: I'm still not tired of winning)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

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???


10 posted on 04/26/2019 7:46:06 PM PDT by joethedrummer
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

New York Yankees, one of the last teams to integrate. 8 years after J. Robinson. The hypocrisy is deep.


11 posted on 04/26/2019 7:51:49 PM PDT by scope721
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To: Doogle

It’s not about God Bless America. She had previous songs that would be impossibly racist today.


12 posted on 04/26/2019 7:51:52 PM PDT by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

It is the song God Bless America not Why there are Darkies.


13 posted on 04/26/2019 7:54:05 PM PDT by bray (Pray for President Trump)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

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!


14 posted on 04/26/2019 8:00:39 PM PDT by Bommer (Help 2ndDivisionVet - https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=category&term=married-recent-amputecan')
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The PC police are ignorant savages.


15 posted on 04/26/2019 8:01:36 PM PDT by clearcarbon
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

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.


16 posted on 04/26/2019 8:18:07 PM PDT by buffaloguy (MSM: Wind up dolls of the DNC.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; Bommer; ronnie raygun; harpu; sparklite2; LoveMyCountry

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 someone’s human imperfection to disparage the country. They didn’t go after 1930’s singers Evelyn Laye, Helen Morgan or Kat Thompson for committing similar offenses, because they didn’t 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,


17 posted on 04/26/2019 8:24:28 PM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; Bommer; ronnie raygun; harpu; sparklite2; LoveMyCountry

Sorry. Here is the link.

Don’t Touch That Dial
http://jfredmacdonald.com/stereotyping.htm


18 posted on 04/26/2019 8:29:58 PM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Richard Byrd of West VA, a high ranking kkk member, democrat, has tons of things in that state named after him.


19 posted on 04/26/2019 8:30:52 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

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.


20 posted on 04/26/2019 8:31:02 PM PDT by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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