Mrs. Poop and I encountered our first philosophical debate about parenting.
I don't think Chase should be exposed to slave songs at such an early age but she insists on singing "Jimmy Crack Corn" to him.
The song's origins are in the minstrel show era of the 1840s and it's about a slave whose master dies when his horse is bitten by a blue-tailed fly. The slave was supposed to shoo this fly away, but despite being derelict in his duties the jury ruled that the blue-tailed fly was responsible for the death.
The other disputed song "Baa Baa Black Sheep" evidently is not a slave song, even though it contains lyrics about a master and a dame, words I previously had only associated with plantation living in the antebellum south.
So let's focus our attention only on "Jimmy Crack Corn," is it ok to sing slave songs to children?
I sang the two lines of the stupid song to him once. Let it go already!!
ReplyDeleteI'll clearly be buying Chase a cd enititles "Kid's Favorite Slave Songs" for his 1st birthday.
ReplyDeleteDude, it's got diluted references. Normal adult people wouldn't even realize that stuff unless they stopped and thought about it. I'm pretty sure that Chase will let it slide by, and not absorb any recial biased thoughts from the song.
ReplyDeleteJust because he wouldnt understand it doesnt make it a positive song. He wouldn't understand Dennis Leary's "I'm an asshole" either, but I wouldnt go around the house singing it.
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