Folk Songs Anger Parents & NAACP - Jamaica Talk

kikikalonji · #1 (**permalink**) 11-14-2005, 08:33 PM

What do you think about this?

BERKLEY, Mich. - A black parent and the NAACP are criticizing a middle school's decision to perform a song that they say glorifies slavery.

The song, "Pick a Bale of Cotton," is on the folk music choir program Wednesday at predominantly white Anderson Middle School in the Berkley School District.

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."

Greg Montgomery told The Detroit News that he complained to school officials, and when he was dissatisfied with their response, decided to pull his 11-year-old daughter, China, from singing.

"It's mind-boggling that people don't understand sensitive issues," he said.

China said: "They were bringing back the memories of how African-Americans picked cotton, and it wasn't a good memory. It was disrespectful to African-Americans."

Berkley schools spokeswoman Gwen Ahern said district
officials would consider the song's origin and decide whether to leave it in the concert program. She also defended the choice.

"We used to sing that song when I was in school during the '50s," she said. "It's like a Southern type of folk song. I remember it being perky. It was more of a song that people just sang for fun."

Mair · #2 (**permalink**) 11-16-2005, 12:14 PM

The original article can be seen http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,175505,00.html
and they decided to drop the song...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10044207/
and in the poll... 71% of the people who voted (3093 responses) said that the song shouldn't have been dropped.

Quote:

China said: "They were bringing back the memories of how African-Americans picked cotton, and it wasn't a good memory.

Who's memories? Certainly not China's, and unless her parents are really old, not them either! -shrug- Yep, probably not such a good choice of songs, but I think that pulling your kid out of chorus because of it is going to cause the kid more "harm" than singing the song. Like it or not, these little ditties are part of our history.

(devils advocate) Alrighty then... so they wanna sing this song... what "version" of this song are they singing? Cuz after some carfull googlin', I've come to discover there are a few variations of this little ditty.

http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/d...tPICKBALE.html
Lets hope its not THIS one!

http://ingeb.org/songs/jumpdown.html
http://www.frmusique.ru/texts/d/dass...leofcotton.htm

Peeps have been telling nursury rhymes for ages, about not so savory things yet we continue to teach our children "ring around the rosey" which derives from back in the "bubonic plague" days of london in which killed a whooole bunch of people. The symptoms were little "rosey" marks on the skin, and depending on who ya ask... the pocket full of poseys was A: thought to keep the disease away cuz peeps thought it was carried by "smell", or B: people with the plague stunk from the disease, and the poseys made them smell better. The "ashes ashes all fall down" I've read, is supposed to depict the dead people being cremated!

-shrug-
No real answer... just more questions =)

xexon · #3 (**permalink**) 11-29-2005, 03:35 PM

I think people need to loosen up.

x

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