God Bless America?

I hesitate going here. I almost wrote a blog on the history of St. George, the patron saint of England....and several other nations.....

But no, I decided to get into trouble and write about Kate Smith.

You've got to be my age to actually know who she was.

Kate Smith was a 6'2" 300lb contralto. That means she sang in a very low alto range.

She was famous in the 1930s and 1940s. She had a TV show in the 1950s.

And was best known for singing " God Bless America" it was the song people started playing, with her singing after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

My late grandfather said " Kate Smith paid for World War II." She raised $600 million in war bonds to fight the Germans/Japanese.( That was when $600million was real money, the 1940s)

So, an article was written on Kate Smith singing 2 songs in the early 1930s.

One was for a movie and the song was called " Pickaninny Heaven" and the other is a satirical song called, " That's Why Darkies are Born."

Paul Robeson, the civil rights leader and singer sang and recorded "That's Why Darkies are Born."  ( You need to listen to Robeson sing, one of the all time greats)

Robeson even knew knew the song was satire.

I don't think people understand satire anymore......

Folks I don't know......It was a different time......And to be honest, from 2 songs, could you find her racist?

I still have family members in their 80s who refer to my daughter-in-law as an "Oriental." And I have to correct them, and even then, they do not understand. For years, it was a correct term for people from East Asia.

Oriental is strange term and can mean anything from Chinese to Indian to Saudi, to Turkish, to Indonesian.  Still, they do not understand.

So, because the controversy, the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Flyers have removed statues of Kate Smith outside their stadiums, and will stop playing her version of "God Bless America" at their games.

I wonder how long before Disney get into trouble because of " Song of the South?" " Or their portray of Asians? 

How long before something I have said in class, or have written  is offensive, I mean really actually offensive, not make people mad because sometimes the truth hurts?

Or perhaps, the truth isn't wanted.....Ever?

I don't know, you can't erase history.