The "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico" Rhyme WASN'T Originally A Children's Chant During United States Slavery That Had The Words "I Don't Want To Go To Master's Door"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents information and comments about the recently promulgated  concept that the children's rhyme "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico" was originally a "corn ditty" that began with the words "I don't want to go to master's door". The Black women who are sharing those statements also indicate that that particular children's rhyme and its accompanying movements was/is a protective spell against sexual assault.

My position is that all of this is fakelore, meaning it is definitely not true. 

This pancocojams post repeats information that I published in a 2017 pancocojams post entitled "The REAL Origin Of "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico" Rhymes (also known as "Shame" & "Shame Shame Shame") " https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-real-origin-of-i-dont-to-go-to.html

This post also includes selected comments from two Tik Tok posts and from one lipstickalley.com discussion thread about this form of the children's rhyme that is most widely known as "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico". 

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The content of the this post is presented for folkloric, and socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. 

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THE REAL ORIGIN OF THE CHILDREN'S RHYME " I DON'T WANT TO GO TO MEXICO" 
From http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/11/nyregion/fyi-323470.html?mcubz=0 "F.Y.I" by DANIEL B. SCHNEIDER, MARCH 11, 2001
..." Q. Children in New York used to chant a clapping song, almost like a nursery rhyme, about not wanting to go to Macy's. How did it go?

 A. Like this:

Oh, I won't go to Macy's any more, more, more
There's a big fat policeman at the door, door, door
He'll pull you by the collar
And make you pay a dollar
Oh, I won't go to Macy's any more, more, more.

The authorship is obscure, but the rhyme was popular by the turn of the 20th century, and might have been associated with an incident that occurred when the modern department store was still in its infancy.

On Dec. 24, 1870, Elizabeth B. Phelps, a suffragist and woman of no small renown, was accused of petty thievery while shopping at Macy's, then at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue. At issue was a box of bonbons that Mrs. Phelps dropped on the floor that day. Margaret Grotty, a salesgirl, asserted that Mrs. Phelps was trying to steal it, while she insisted that it had fallen as she was trying to extract payment from her coin purse while juggling her packages. The store detective was summoned.

Mrs. Phelps's arrest was exhaustively covered by the popular press, and it turned out that several other well-to-do women had been detained at Macy's the same day, for other and seemingly innocent lapses in protocol. A judge threw Mrs. Phelps's case out of court, and Macy's was left to struggle with the perception that, whether due to class animosity or confusion over department store etiquette, innocent shoppers were routinely harassed. Though picket lines and boycotts were planned, they never materialized. The rhyme, whatever its origins, survived well into the 1950's."
-snip-
This article indicates that the "I Won't Go To Macy's" rhyme was popular by the turn of the 20th century. However, the first published example of this rhyme wasn't until 1938. Here's one citation for that information:
From http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/i_wont_go_to_macys_any_more_more_more_jump_rope_jingle_1938 “I Won’t Go To Macy’s Any More, More More” (Jump-rope jingle, 1938) by Barry Popik, from January 27, 2005
"This New York "jump rope jingle" involves Macy's. It's also in the book Rimbles: A book of children's classic games, rhymes, songs, and sayings (1955, 1956, 1960, 1961) by Patricia Evans, pg. 30.

10 May 1938, New Masses, section two, pg. 109:
I won't go to Macy's any more, more, more!
I won't go to Macy's any more, more, more!
There's a big fat policeman at the door, door, door!
He will squeeze me like a lemon.
A chalachke zol em nehmen.*
I won't go to Macy's any more, more, more!"
-snip-
* I don't know what those non-English words mean.
-snip-
“Macy’s” is the name of a chain of department stores. The most famous Macy's store is located in New York City.

My theory is that these children substituted "Mexico" for "Macys" since they weren't familiar with the "Macy's" store or the word “Macy’s”. This is an example of “folk etymology” (folk processing). "Folk etymology" occurs when people change foreign words or unfamiliar words into familiar words or sounds that are similar to the word they don’t know.

I'm not sure whether "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico" originated with African Americans. (The earliest published examples in the 2017 REAL Origins Of "I Don't Want To Got To Mexico" pancocojams post, including the 1938 example with its non-English [Yiddish?] words aren't from African Americans). However, examples of "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico" rhyme appear to have been widely known among African American girls since at least the 1990s by the title "Shame Shame Shame".That title comes from the introductory words "Shame Shame Shame" that are said before the rhyme's hand clapping pattern and the words for that rhyme actually began. The word "Shame!" is also usually said at the end of many examples of "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico". In the context of these rhymes, "Shame" means "Aren't you ashamed?" or "You should be ashamed". 

Unlike some other recreational rhymes, there are LOTS of different versions of "Shame Shame Shame"/""I Don't Want To Go To Mexico". Some of those versions are known by the titles "I Don't Want To Go To College" and "I Don't Want To Go To Hollywood". Those rhymes may also begin with the "Shame Shame Shame" introductory words (and may also end with the word "Shame!". Some examples of this large family of rhymes substitute the reference to "policeman". Instead of "a big fat policeman at the door", some rhymes refer to "a big fat Michal Jackson at the door" and instead of the policeman standing by the door, he pees on the floor. 

It's not surprising that a new theory about this rhyme has occurred given that few people are unfamiliar with the earliest examples of this rhyme that include the word "Macy's", given the problematic nature of the word "Mexico" in this rhyme, and given the extensive folk processing in this rhyme since its beginning.

However, I believe that this new interpretation of this children's rhyme is concerning because of that interpretation's historical and present day racial implications. 

Read the sections below to learn more about this recently promulgated, sometimes convoluted statements about the "I Don't Want To Go To Master's Door" form of what is most widely known as "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico" rhymes.

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"i DON'T WANT TO GO TO MASTER'S DOOR" RHYME THEORY  - EXCERPT #1
From https://www.tiktok.com/@13versionsof1me2.0/video/7221143818098298158?_r=1&_t=8bYgeb9CKkd [This Tik Tok channel showcases a young Black woman chanting "I Don't Want To Go To Master's Door"with same tune, the same tempo, and most of the same words as "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico".]

[These comments were posted April 2023]

Transcript:

ReneeonTikTok

00:00

What is. I don't want to go to Mexico no more.

00:04

Somebody for.

00:05

So I did this because I got in trouble.

00:07

But my great grandma was hanging this one. Listen,

00:11

I don't want to go to Masters door no more, more, more.

00:13

There's a big bad brutic door, door, door here grab [There’s a big bad bully by the door door, door

00:16

you gotta call it, make you scream and holla. [He grab you by the collar, make you scream and holler]

00:17

I don't want to go to Masters door no more, more, more.

00:23

Is a. A spell of Protection against SA"
-snip-
I believe that 00:13 is incorrectly transcribed and that the correct transcription is "There’s a big bad bully by the door door, door." or  "There's a big bad brutie" at the door" (the word "brute" with an "ie" or "y" sounding ending).

I believe that 00:16 is incorrectly transcribed and that the correct transcription is "[He grab you by the collar, make you scream and holler".
-snip-
"Master" in this rhyme means the man who owns the enslaved people.

"Master's door" probably means his bedroom door.
-snip-
Renee was asked several times what "SA" means. She wrote "sexual assault".

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I'm sorry. I don't know how to embed that Tik Tok video. Here are some comments from that TikTok video's discussion thread with numbers added for referencing purposes only. 

1. Moon FromCharlotte
"Masters Door???!😳"

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2. Reply
GHOSTGIRL 🥀
"yeah i never heard of “masters door” we always said mexico"

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3. CappinKimSparrow
"I did research on these and the hand games we played are called Corn Diddies. Slave children played these games for fun/tell a message"
-snip-
"Ditties" mean "short simple songs". "Corn ditties" is a referent for songs that enslaved Black people sang during corn husking and by extension, during other work and non-religious times. . One example of these songs is "Around The Corn, Sally" http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/06/three-examples-of-childrens-song-go.html 

I agree with that commenter that some corn ditties were played by enslaved children for fun (and perhaps also to tell a message, i.e. that those games sometimes had coded messages. However, there's no documentation that this particular rhyme was chanted during United States slavery.

Furthermore, in spite of the information that is found on several other internet sites, it's misleading to consider corn ditties to be precursors of African American Spirituals. 

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4. Pa-laya
@loc_king read comments .. at this point we gonna have to create our own songs, games, and bedtime stories-not we spreading slave song remix’s 😭
-snip-
The inference in this comment is that these songs games, and bedtime stories which are "slave song remixes" were created by White people who didn't and still don't have the best interest of Black people. at heart. That conclusion is the opposite of the statement that (if I understood it correctly) was made by some the original commenter that that rhyme was composed by Black enslaved people to protect them from sexual assault.

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5. DC
"Not my whole childhood being a spell book!"

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6.FeyButterBabe
"I only heard the mexico version & I thought it was about deportation 💀💀💀"

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7.dapperdani

that’s crazy i used to play hand clapping all the time and sang this .. damn i wish i knew the real verse back then could’ve saved us all

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Reply
8. myamia89
"We weren’t supposed to but it feels disrespectful that we didn’t know the truth.."

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9. I can only be who I am meant2B
"We used to sing this it’s crazy how we find out what it actually means if we not told"

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10. lindseymcl
"Omg I wish I knew this when I was younger!! Where are you from?"

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11. Renee · Creator
"Birmingham"

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12. Mz. ReeRee
"Heeeyyy fellow city hot ham gyrl 😁 👋🏿👋🏿 Also ring around the rosie... had no clue🤦🏿🤣"

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13. stephaniecoburn54
"Whoa I did not know that! So we just dubbed the lyrics 🤯"

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14. Forever_Destiny
"I had no clue what I was singing as a child 😩"

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15. angeleyez
"I never understood or liked this song..... Could this be the reason?"

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16.Renee · Creator
"most likely"

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17. Tik Toker
"My whole life I said Mexico… even now as an adult, lol now I realize that Mexico ain’t made no sense 😂😂😂"

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18. VerniceMechel
"Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We said that so much as a child"

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19. Still.Jess
"Girl….you just made it make sense. I was wondering where it came from.

 I can only be who I am meant2B

We used to sing this it’s crazy how we find out what it actually means if we not told"

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20. southernaudacity
"💔 I recall my aunts (3 and 5 years older than me) playing jump rope and saying this chant when I was young."

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21. Anna-Maria Davis
"I got in trouble at my grandmama house for playing that at my granny house too"

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22. Gardelienia
"😳😳😳😳😳 this was all i played in school tho"

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23. 🧜🏽‍♀️🫶🏽💋
"I believe that! We use to play this and it always gave me a weird feeling and made me think about the words alot afterwards"

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24. Tyler
"we used to say ‘big fat policeman’ and ‘make you pay a dollar’ LORD i never thought about what we were saying!"

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25. Omojolade:)>
"Damn I got in trouble for this to but never knew why"

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26. Miya BADD👄
"I remember this song from when I was small #1991Baby"

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26. cheyyyondra
"Ours was "there's a big fat policeman at the door, he'll grab you by the collar, make you pay a dollar" - I guess that was the censored version."

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27. Asha Mochahontas
"& it must work too. Cause I been really lucky in life when it come to SA"

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28, Oseye
"We ain't say Master Door!!!!!!! Nooooooooo What is Master"

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29. Sammi_Chula
"So it’s not Mexico 😳"

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30. Kaycie Harmon
"I feel sick. Used to sing this as a little girl"

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31. kaybaby
"is it mexico? or masters store?"

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32.foenixfeather
"We did I don't wanna go to Hollywood no more, there's a skinny Michael Jackson at the door"

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33. zay
"WHY AM I JUST NOW FINDIN THIS OUT"

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34. Ki 🦋
"Why did we all play these games!!!!!! Didn’t even know what is was"

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35. itskiyyaaNator
"Tell me why this popped up in my head as a memory the other day during a conversation and sung it and I started to think what does this actually mean"

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36. nicolewilliams1661
"😳😳🥺🥺🥺well damn. Never knew this was the original version"

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37. Radiance Lee
"wild how there are so many versions of this 😂

"if he catch you by the collar girllll you betta holla" "

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38. StarFox
"IT ISNT MEXICO???? Omg omg omg my whole body got chills cause it suddenly made so much sense"

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39. Taejah_TWH
"wowwwwwww....now this makes more sense"

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40. Bigg General 👑
"It’s masters door no more no more !!!! Lord Jesus ! Watch me never said it again"

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41. Keesha
"I don't want to go to Mexico no morex3... we got in trouble but it was for protection to not get SA"

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42. Ess_
"I used to do these at summer camp with the other little girls. We’d be in a square really. Each of of use clapping/ slapping hands up & down. Wow."

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45. Angelic._.cake
"This is not the shame Ik The shame Ik goes like I don’t wanna go to Mexico in the more more more there is the mean of policeman at the door"

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46. Didi Pessu
"😳 Did you say Master’s door?? Omg I really thought it was Mexico 😳😳😳"

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47. 🥀Flame Daddy✨
"So you mean to tell me my childhood hand game was a protection spell against SA?!"

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48. ahlia Black
"Well, that makes more sense than Mexico 😹😹😹"

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49. Taneia
"Masters door sounds much better than mexico I didnt sing the song as a child bc something felt off about it & now I see why"

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50. Confidence Lingerie Boutique
"😳🥺🥺 so much of what we do is rooted into slavery and we don’t even know it 🥺"

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51. Beautee
"90’s baby and from what I remember we said Kiss Kiss Kiss .. over the years they have tweaked it for us to make it sound good. Smh. We still learning."

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52. 144
"Omg nooo I used to play these hand games all the time when I was younger, the one in this video, we called “shame, shame , shame” we didn’t sing it-

Like this, ours was different, but I can definitely see if it was that beforehand and they changed."

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53. Jhy2️⃣Fly 🦅
"What’s SA"

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54. SAKEENA TBHHH⭐️
"sexual assault"

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I DON'T WANT TO GO TO MASTER'S DOOR" RHYME THEORY - EXCERPT #2
From https://www.tiktok.com/@arinasimone/video/7222056870209539370 [This Tik Tok channel showcases another young Black woman chanting "I Don't Want To Go To Master's Door"with same tune, the same tempo, and most of the same words as "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico".]

1. Cherry Llo
"I learned SI si si I don't wanna go to Mexico no more with the hand game 🥰🥰🥰"

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2. Arina Simone · Creator
"Same"

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3. Lorelei.Pi
"ain't nobody said no masters door 😂 that's all cap"
-snip-
"Cap" is an African American Vernacular English word that means "lies".

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4. Brandi. A. Jones
"What I learned Mexico"

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5. Arina Simone · Creator
"what's crazy is there a whole plot to the song. it was a whole spell and we was out here jus singing it."

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6. Trina Haynes565
"😳😳😳 Didn't know that"

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7. Arina Simone · Creator
"okay so they had us saying anything 😔😳"

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8. High Vibrations
"Hell nah It's Mexico"

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9. Dyamondgyrl13
"Yup. Growing upwe said Mexico"

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10. Mariah_LaShay333
"yea a lot of the songs, games were SLAVERY & racist songs 😫😭🙆🏽‍♀️"

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11. Arina Simone · Creator
"Are you kidding me 😳😭😭"

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12. Tam
"Si si si ion wanna go to Mexico no more more more there's a big fat policeman at the door he grabbed me by the collar and made me pay a dollar"

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I DON'T WANT TO GO TO MASTER'S DOOR" RHYME THEORY - EXCERPT #3
From https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/hand-games-played-as-little-girls.5232725/ Hand games played as little girls
1. BaldheadedStepchild, Apr 16, 2023
"If ur a ADOS BW, when you were younger did you ever play those hand games. Such as Miss Mary Mack, etc.

I just realized we were doing protection spells. Think abt it:

• Holding hands

• Spinning in circles 3 or 6 times

• clapping (transfer of energy)

Plus a lot of those games were from the slavery days.

For example, remember " I don't wanna go to Mexico no more more more, there's a big fat police man at the door door door"

Ok the real one was " i don't wanna go to MASSA'S house no more more more"

Miss Mary mack, with SILVER BUTTONS all down her back

Ring Around the Rosie

The words have just been switched over the years. Before they were known as nursery rhymes they were called CORN DIDDLES played by enslaved ADOS children

Anyone else realize this?

Renee on TikTokRenee on TikTok  
 https://www.tiktok.com/@13versionsof1me2.0/video/7221143818098298158?_r=1&_t=8bYgeb9CKkd
-snip-
ADOS = American Descendant Of Slavery
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Descendants_of_Slavery
"American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) is a term referring to descendants of enslaved Africans in the area that would become the United States (from its colonial period onward), and to the political movement of the same name. Both the concept and the movement grew out of the hashtag #ADOS created by Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore.[1]

The ADOS movement focuses mainly on demanding reparations for the system of slavery in the United States.[2] They want colleges, employers and the federal government to prioritize ADOS and argue that affirmative action policies originally designed to help ADOS have been used largely to benefit other groups.[2]

[…]

A distinguishing feature of the ADOS movement is its explicit emphasis on black Americans who descended from slavery and its disagreements with black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean.[2] The group demands "a new designation on the Census with ADOS and another for Black immigrants" to the United States.[4] …
-snip-
BW= Black Woman

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2. BaldheadedStepchild Apr 16, 2023
sophiasofi said:
"This is fake news. Ya'll need to stop it. lol"
-end of quote-
"Ok"

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