So, of course, did Al Jolson and hundreds of others. To them, the sorrowful melody and lyrics expressed sympathy for the plight of slaves in the South, and the dignity they still held. The author, Stephen Foster, inspired generations of songwriters, and no doubt, such classics as "Old Man River," which likewise had lines about life's miseries. "Tired of livin' and scared of dyin'" is a universal sentiment that many feel, whether they're in the cotton fields or on the subway.
But...FUCK Stephen Foster. Tearing down statues is white people is kind of a purge, isn't it? It's FUN. It's also an easy target. Who is going to stand up and say "This is ludicrous?" A few white people who'll risk being called RACIST?
RAYYYYYYYY CYST! RAYYYYYYYY CYST! YOU A RACIST! YOUUUUUU A RAYYYYYYYY CYST!
When in doubt, shout RACIST. I would not be surprised if there's a fire in a movie theater and somebody shouts "RACIST!!"
But don't shout HOLOCAUST, because that never happened. Don't bring up Armenian genocide, because Turkey is our ally. Don't talk about all the different people who have been persecuted for their skin color or their religion, or just because some other bunch of assholes wanted their land.
You know, don't you, that most every country has been guilty of invading some other country, and that most any "hero" of any war, could easily be considered a BUTCHER.
Here's a familiar sight: workmen once again pulling down a statue of a white guy. Yes, while neo-Nazi idiots marched last weekend in the South, and NOBODY was upset about their "right to free speech" and NOBODY demanded they take down their swastika banners, a bunch of wimps and cowards pulled down the statue of one of America's greatest composers.
Hell, they wouldn't do that to Richard Wagner would they?
The news reports waffle quite a bit on Stephen Foster's lyrics and what they mean or don't mean. Even the statue, which shows a black man with Foster, has several interpretations. But, hell ya, "black man at the feet of the white man" is good enough. Take that SHIT down, and put up...oh....a statue of a BLACK WOMAN instead. That's PC, isn't it? Let's have a double order of Maya Angelou. EVERYBODY agrees that Maya Angelou was the greatest. (Fuck Shakespeare, too. Take another look at "Othello" you bastards.)
The complaint is about ONE song, which nobody even remembers? Ned something? Would it have been too LOGICAL to ask that the black banjo player be sliced off the statue, and let Foster remain? A compromise?
Would it have shown too much respect for the talents of Foster to acknowledge that he wrote some of the most popular music of his day, and that his melodies are still treasured? Or should the Kentucky Derby now NEVER NEVER NEVER play that racist bastard's "My Old Kentucky Home" song? What was Kentucky's role in the Civil War? How many slaves were toiling away on farms in Kentucky?
Stephen Foster was a man of his time, and mostly he seemed to have a great deal of sympathy for slaves. There were certainly thousands, millions who had LESS sympathy and were willing to fight for the "right" to keep blacks in chains. A lot of people who were not racists thought that blackface was a celebration, and that "Amos and Andy" on radio were just funny ethnics, no different from the stereotypical Greeks, Jews and Italians also common on radio back then. We're enlightened now? Ted Danson in blackface at a Friars Roast? The Wayans Brothers in white face as "White Girls?" Aren't there gray areas in this black and white world?
NOBODY thought to simply remove the black guy on the statue? Nobody thought that it's possible black people have strummed a banjo to Foster's music? Obviously nobody thought that a solo statue of Foster could go up in place of this one. No. Gotta be a BLACK WOMAN. A Native American or a Jew...are you KIDDING?? Somebody chosen on MERIT and not on RACE or GENDER? Oh, that's TOO RADICAL!!!!!
Cowardly whites and bullying blacks have come together for their revisionist views on Stephen Foster. Meanwhile, let's ignore Roger Waters, for example, the man who flies pigs, wears neo-Swastika outfits, and declares that Israel should be destroyed and all the Jews there starved to death with sanctions. ONLY Jews. ONLY Israel. He's not said a word about, oh, Kim Jong-Un and the slavery of North Koreans, who have even been marched into Russia to toil for Putin. Nah. North Korea is fine.
Feeling good about yourself, having a sense of power, pretending your interpretation of history actually IS history...I'm sure the people behind the Stephen Foster ass-kicking are just as happy as Letitia James, the "Public Advocate" who declared, in all her grand ignorance and arrogance, that Dr. Simms, known around the world for his caring and devotion, including setting up the first hospital in NYC for WOMEN...was one scumbag of a honky and his name never uttered again.
Let's end this by suggesting that whoever is in power...is going to corrupt the truth, distort the facts, and lack tolerance. But hey, the Pig Male-ions like Simms and Foster are going to crumble to dust, and with them, all failings of human nature, sensitivity and morality. The white people...they have ALWAYS been evil, and they are evil to this very day. Boko Haram, a group that rapes and enslaves black women and kills their men...it's a lie that they are black and they live in Africa. Let's put an end to THAT inconvenient truth.
Gary Brooker of Procol Harum had better not sing "Old Black Joe" ever again. But let's shrug and ignore Boko Haram's black army that goes after black girls and puts them into slavery.
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