Oh wtf. All these SJW douche bags should desecrate the tombstones of their great grandparents and burn all their photos because they may not have had the same idiotic views on race and sex.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/0...phia-flyers.amp.html

April 19, 2019
For the Yankees, Kate Smith’s version of “God Bless America” was a staple of the seventh-inning stretch since 2001.

For the Philadelphia Flyers, the connection was even tighter, with Smith serving as a mascot of sorts for the team’s 1970s Stanley Cup winners, and performing live at games.

Now both teams have announced they will stop playing Smith’s version of “God Bless America” after discovering that she sang songs with racist lyrics in the 1930s. The Flyers will also cover a statue of Smith that has been in front of their arena since 1987.

Smith, who died in 1986, is most closely identified with “God Bless America,” but recorded numerous other songs over her long career. Among them were “Pickaninny Heaven” and “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” which contain disturbing lyrics that demean black people

The Yankees have been made aware of a recording that had been previously unknown to us and decided to immediately and carefully review this new information,” a team spokesman told The Daily News, which first reported the story. “The Yankees take social, racial and cultural insensitivities very seriously. And while no final conclusions have been made, we are erring on the side of sensitivity.”

The Flyers said in a statement: “We have recently become aware that several songs performed by Kate Smith contain offensive lyrics that do not reflect our values as an organization. As we continue to look into this serious matter, we are removing Kate Smith’s recording of ‘God Bless America’ from our library and covering up the statue that stands outside of our arena.”

The Flyers have a tradition of playing Smith’s version of “God Bless America” as a replacement for the national anthem at particularly big games. The song has been said to bring the team good luck. Smith performed it live before Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup final, the game in which the Flyers won their first Cup.

Like many white singers of her era, Smith sang some songs that at best are dated and insensitive and at worst are downright racist.

In “Pickaninny Heaven,” Smith sings of a place where “great big watermelons roll around and get in your way.” “Pickaninny” is a demeaning term for a black child. In the 1933 film “Hello Everybody,” Smith sings the song to a group of black orphans listening on the radio.

“That’s Why Darkies Were Born” begins: “Someone had to pick the cotton,/ Someone had to pick the corn,/ Someone had to slave and be able to sing,/ That’s why darkies were born.”

The lyrics also include: “Sing, sing, sing when you’re weary and sing when you’re blue/ Sing, sing, that’s what you taught all the white folks to do.”

The song was also recorded by the black singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson, although “one has to think that Robeson’s take on the lyrics was decidedly ironic,” wrote Steven Carl Tracy in “Hot Music, Ragmentation and the Bluing of American Literature.”

Both songs were recorded more than 80 years ago and are easily found on YouTube. It is not immediately clear how the teams became aware of their existence.

This is starting to get out of hand.

What's coming? Tearing down the Washington Monument and defacing dollar bills? Renaming Washington DC?

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:


The Flyers said in a statement: “We have recently become aware that several songs performed by Kate Smith contain offensive lyrics that do not reflect our values as an organization. As we continue to look into this serious matter, we are removing Kate Smith’s recording of ‘God Bless America’ from our library and covering up the statue that stands outside of our arena.”

The Flyers have a tradition of playing Smith’s version of “God Bless America” as a replacement for the national anthem at particularly big games. The song has been said to bring the team good luck. Smith performed it live before Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup final, the game in which the Flyers won their first Cup.

This is going to backfire SPECTACULARLY for the Flyers, you watch.

I give it 2, maybe 3 days max.

Seriously, how many actual fans actually give two shits. Philly is a blue collar town. We’re too busy punching police horses in the mouth to care about this non sense.

quote:

Seriously, how many actual fans actually give two shits. Philly is a blue collar town. We’re too busy punching police horses in the mouth to care about this non sense.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Very true. Larry the Cable Guy would be a suitable replacement.

What a bunch of bullshit. Who's next for these idiots?

What's next? Ban "White Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby because he wore black face in movie Holiday Inn?

Shameful

Looks like they put her in a Burka

Someone should inform the Yankees that "Yankee" is the ONLY major sport name that is actually based on a racial insult.

Sometime after approximately 1650, When the New England whaling vessels first encountered Chinese vessels in the Pacific Ocean, most Chinese had never seen White people before. So they called the White sailors "Yang Gui Zi". In Chinese, that means "Foreign Ghost (or demon)".

The New Englanders heard this as "Yankee" and whimsically adopted it as their name.
https://www.howtopronounce.com/yang-guizi/

Chinese still call White people "Yang Gui Zi". You can see this in the Richard Gere movie: "Red Corner". As he is running through the streets of BeiJing, the old woman are shouting "Yang Gui Zi" at him. Since I speak a very little Mandarin I notice that sort of stuff.

White people are also called "Gui Lou" (Mandarin) or "Gweilo" (Cantonese), which means "Ghost man".

AFAIC, "God Bless America" IS Kate Smith. No one sang it as she did, and no one since has done it, either! One could tell that she meant every word of it when she sang it.

Irving Berlin had written that song some years before she premiered it, and Kate Smith asked him to write a patriotic song for her to do, to raise morale during the war. He remembered the song and actually gave it to her, lock, stock, and barrel. She ultimately gave it to the Boy Scouts of America.

Eighty years ago the culture in the US was very different from today. (I remember attending Minstrel Shows and enjoying the Blackface antics as a child. That does not make me a racist today.) It is not fair, nor accurate, to judge actions from so long ago by the morés of today. People and attitudes change.

I hope those sports teams feel the disgust by seeing reduced attendance at their games. They are being petty and pandering to the few crazies who are concerned by proceedings of so long ago.

Bah! Humbug! A pox on all their houses!

flashguy

An historic Episcopal parish where George Washington frequently worshiped has decided to remove a memorial plaque honoring the nation’s first president, saying the decision was out of a desire to provide a “welcoming” worship space for all visitors. The church will also remove a similar memorial plague honoring Robert E. Lee, the commander of Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Read more at the link if you like, but I don't recommend it.

Just another reason not to like the NY Yankees

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
An historic Episcopal parish where George Washington frequently worshiped has decided to remove a memorial plaque honoring the nation’s first president, saying the decision was out of a desire to provide a “welcoming” worship space for all visitors. The church will also remove a similar memorial plague honoring Robert E. Lee, the commander of Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Read more at the link if you like, but I don't recommend it.

Were I a parishioner there, I would be changing churches, and taking my sizable tithe plus with me!

flashguy

Check out Nancy Wilson "In a Long White Room." Or just about any rapper. They seem not to need any sort of condemnation or nullification. We are rapidly becoming a society where there is no past to vector a moral compass. State-sanctioned genocide, imprisonment for newly-defined crimes against the people or practicing a particular faith, or public attacks for wearing the wrong clothes, could be OK, because, well, it's today.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
This is starting to get out of hand.

"Starting"? Hell this PC and SJW crap has been full tilt crazy for a l-o-n-g time!

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
This is starting to get out of hand.

"Starting"? Hell this PC and SJW crap has been full tilt crazy for a l-o-n-g time!

Yeah, but, it's been going into overdrive since Nov 9th, 2016.

In the past professional baseball wouldn't allow black players. Must boycott!

How has Stephen Foster survived this long?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster

quote:

The Flyers have a tradition of playing Smith’s version of “God Bless America” as a replacement for the national anthem at particularly big games. The song has been said to bring the team good luck.

Yeah, its brought them a lot of luck in the past 40 years. Try zero luck. 1975 is their last cup win so yeah, that song hasn't given them any luck in the last 40 years.

quote:

Originally posted by recoatlift:
How has Stephen Foster survived this long?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster

We’ve had “political correctness” in “My Old Kentucky Home” some time ago. “Darkies” was replaced by “folks”, but we kept the “gay” in it all.

There was overt racism in the '30s? Who knew?