Edited by Azizi Powell
[This is a complete reprint of an updated version of a 2021 pancocojams post with the same title. That 2021 post remains on this pancocojams blog and has no comments as of the date of this 2026 publication.
Visitor comments are welcome for both of these posts.
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This pancocojams post presents the reasons why I believe that it is important to document and cite racial/ethnic* demographics when collecting and/or sharing examples of children's recreational rhymes, cheers, singing games, etc.
The Addendum to this pancocojams post presents hyperlinks to pancocojams posts that provide examples of contemporary children's rhymes & cheers which include a racial/ethnic* referent or racial/ethnic referents.
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
-snip-
* "Ethnic" in this post refers to Latino/a (Hispanic) as it is used in the United States. People who are Latino/a (Hispanic) can be of any race.
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MY OVERARCHING REASON FOR INCLUDING RACIAL DEMOGRAPHICS
A person collecting and/or sharing children's rhymes and cheers should document as much demographics as possible just as she/he would do when collecting other folkloric material. Demographic information includes the race/ethnicity of the person or people who are chanting/performing the example, the gender, geograhic location, and the date the example was collected as well as information about when and how the person first learned that example. The collector should also document any accompanying performance activity that was performed while chanting this example.
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WHY I BELIEVE IT'S IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE RACIAL/ETHNIC DEMOGRAPHICS WHEN COLLECTING AND/OR SHARING EXAMPLES OF CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND CHEERS
(These reasons are given in no particular order.)
I believe that including racial demographics when documenting children's recreational rhymes
1. helps document/demonstrate that racial group’s creativity
Children's rhymes/cheers are legitimate examples of a population's cultural expression as are other genres of music and oral or written compositions that are created by and for adults.
[I begin with this point because I distinctly remember asking one of my teachers in elementary school (in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s) why we were only studying White kings and queens. I clearly remember that teacher saying that "There haven't ever been any Black kings and queens. I also distinctly remember that White woman saying that "Black people never created anything".
When I was young I didn't know how ridiculous that statement was, but I instantly felt that it wasn't true. Those statements stayed with me and were directly responsible to motivate me to research and study Black history and cultures in the United States and elsewhere.]
(All of the students in that Atlantic City, New Jersey elementary school were African Americans. That school had a Black male principal, but only had two Black teachers. All the other teachers were White women.
2. helps document/demonstrate the chanter’s attitudes and/or some of that racial group’s attitudes & opinions about their race/ethnicity
3. helps document/demonstrate the chanter’s attitude & opinions and/or some of that racial group’s attitude about other people’s race/ethnicity
4. helps document/demonstrate the chanter’s attitude & opinions and and/or some of that racial group’s attitude about other things in their world (i.e. gender, parents, romantic relationships etc.)
5. helps document/demonstrate what slang and other things were/are interesting to specific populations during that time period
6. helps explain the meaning of certain slang words and saying which are found in certain rhymes and/or identify a particular person who is mentioned in rhyme
For instance, the word "jive" has had a number of slang meanings over time. However, in some examples of "Hula Hula" cheers that I've come across in the early to mid 2000s, "don't take no jive" means that the person is not going to let anyone "mess over" her (i.e. say or do anything foolish to her or problematic with or for her.
And the line "hangin out with Genuwine" in at least one of those same cheers means "spending time relaxing with the rapper whose stage name is Genuwine.
7. helps document/demonstrate how certain types of rhymes are preferred by certain populations during that time period and how those preferances might have changed over time
8. helps document/demonstrate the same or different preferences for certain types of rhymes among different populations within the same nation in the same time period
For instance, it seems to me that gross out rhymes such as "Great green gobs of greasy grimey gopher guts" aren't as well known among African Americans as they are among White Americans.
9. helps document/demonstrate how certain performance activities are preferred by certain populations during that time period
For instance, it appears to me that most Black children's hand clapping rhymes are percussive and usually include accompanying syncopated performance activities such as hand clapping and/or foot stomping
10. helps document how specific rhymes are found in various cities, states, and/or regions of a nation and/or in various nations of the world.
Besides having that information for the historical/cultural record, this information is useful for comparing and contrasting geographical locations and/or documenting what makes a specific location distinctive in a particular time.
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ADDENDUM: SOME PANCOCOJAMS POSTS THAT INCLUDE OF CHILDREN'S RHYMES/CHEERS THAT INCLUDE EXAMPLES OF RACE
Here are some pancocojams posts on children's recreational rhymes and cheers that include my comments about the influence of race/ethnicity on the composition/meanings of those rhymes/cheers and other points about the influence of race/ethnicity on how these examples are performed and more:
Conceptualizing, Collecting, & Sharing Contemporary Black Children's Rhymes
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/06/conceptualizing-collecting-sharing.html
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Race Mentioned In Contemporary Children's Recreational Rhymes
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/04/childrens-recreational-rhymes-that.html
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Selected Examples Of Referents For Black People In Children's Rhymes
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/06/selected-examples-of-referents-for.html
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The REAL Origin Of The Word "Ungawa" & Various Ways That Word Has Been Used In The USA
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-real-origins-of-word-ungawa-various.html
Racialized Versions Of "I Like Coffee I Like Tea"
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/racialized-versions-of-i-like-coffee-i.html
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Examples Of & Comments About The Children's Rhyme "I Like Coffee, I Like Tea, I Like Sitting On A Black Man's Knee"
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/01/examples-of-comments-about-childrens.html
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The REAL Meanings Of "The Spades Go" & "The Space Go" In Playground Rhymes
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-real-meaning-of-spades-go-space-go.html
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As a continuation of the information that I shared after Reason #1 of this post about the racial and gender demographics of my Atlantic City, New Jersey elementary school principal and teachers in the 1950s (i.e. Indiana Avenue School), here's some general information about the racial demographics in my middle and my high school in that city (in the late 1950s through June 1965:
ReplyDeleteIn the mid 1950s Atlantic City's two public Junior High School (7th & 8th grade now-referred to as "middle school) were the years that public school students in Atlantic City, New Jersey first attended racially integrated schools. For elementary school in the public school system, children were assigned to neighborhood schools. Since the neighborhoods were segregated, the schools were also segregated.
There was only one public high school in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Therefore, that high school was racially integrated.
The first time that I had a Black teacher was in the 7th grade. As it happened, that Black teacher was a woman who my mother knew (since that teacher's family traveled to Atlantic City on the same ship from Barbados as my grandfather and grandmother.) That teacher also had a sister who taught in that junior high school, but I was never in her classroom. I remember the principal was a White man and most of the other teachers were White women. There were also a few White male teachers, but no teachers who were Asian, or Latino/a or any other race/ethnicity.
In my high school the student population was what we called "half and half" (meaning the demographics of students attending that school was mostly 50% Black, and mostly 50% White.) I recall that there were a very small number of Asian students and an even smaller number of Latino/a students.
During that time, Atlantic City High School had a White man who was the principal and very few Black teachers. Most of those Black teachers were women, but I can't recall having any as my teachers. There was at least one Black male teacher and I definitely recall having him as my teacher. I also recall having an Asian man as my Spanish teacher. One distinct memory I have was his response to some students wondering out loud that a Chinese man could teach Spanish. He said something like "You are forgetting that English wasn't the native language for Black people and for lots of White people." I thought that was profound and I'd rank that as a statement that also motivated me to learn more about Black cultures around the world, along with that White elementary school teacher's infamous comments that "There had never been any Black kings and queens and Black people never created anything."
And, to complete this sharing of my memories of the racial demographics of my schooling, from August 1965-to around June 1969 I attended a small private liberal arts college in Northern New Jersey. Almost all of the students at that college were White. Some of those White students were Jewish. My freshman year at that college was when I first learned that White people differentiated Jewish White people from other White people. Because my first roommate at that college was a German Jew (who had blond hair and blue eyes) I learned about that and I indirectly learned about White prejudice toward Jewish people- even If I couldn't tell the difference between the two populations.
DeleteIn my freshman year at that college, there were only two Black women (besides me) who lived on that campus and three Black men. A small number of Black students commuted to that college from nearby Newark, New Jersey and other nearby cities.
There were a few other students who were Asian at that college, but I didn't have any interactions with them besides in class.
Besides one Indian man (from India) who taught there for a brief time, all of the administration, faculty, and staff of that school (besides the maintenance staff) were White.