tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post5311129466878633955..comments2024-03-28T07:58:41.643-04:00Comments on pancocojams: Selected Examples Of Referents For Black People In Children's Recreational RhymesAzizi Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-79847677956172647572017-06-24T11:46:36.214-04:002017-06-24T11:46:36.214-04:00People reading this pancocojams post might also be...People reading this pancocojams post might also be interested in a 2006 discussion thread that I started and participated: <a href="http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=90660%20?iframe=true" rel="nofollow">http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=90660%20?iframe=true</a> "Skin color in songs & singers' names". <br /><br />I had forgotten about that discussion thread until I looked up information about the Bahamian band "Exuma" as a pancocojams commenter today had sent me information that that band was the first to include the lyrics "Bluehill waters run dry" in the "Bown Girl In The Ring" song. <br /><br />Part of my response to that pancocojams commenter was that I didn't know that [Exuma] band, but (via Google search), I found out that I had apparently mentioned Exuma in that 2006 Mudcat discussion thread.<br /><br />It also might be pertinent to share the following comment that I wrote in that 2006 Mudcat thread in response to two comments which criticized my focus on the influence of and/or mention of race and skin color in folk music and in other music:<br /><br />"I deny that I have a "fixation" about race. However, I am very much interested about what & how thoughts, attitudes & concerns about race influence or has influenced the thoughts, attitudes, concerns, and behavior of people. <br /><br />Why I am interested in that general subject is largely beyond the scope of this specific thread.<br /><br />I would hope that this thread does not drift into a generalized commentary about race relations and issues of race itself in the USA and/or elsewhere. <br /><br />I intend to limit my comments in this thread to the specific topics of references to skin color as they are found in lyrics or in the names of vocalists/celebrities. <br /><br />I hope those who wish to discuss the general issue of race and race relations would find other Mudcat threads to do so, or would start a new thread on those topics."<br />-snip-<br />A Mudcat moderator eventually deleted the two critical comments writing that "I have deleted the two references above. They were an attempt to hijack the thread and offered nothing to the conversation that the author of the thread intended. Please stick to the topic. Azizi isn't the topic. The thread title says it all." <br />-snip-<br />As background, I'll also note that-with one brief exception and also excluding the participation for some years of a person who identified as Black from Australia - I was the only self-identified Black person who was a member of Mudcat folk music discussion forum during the almost five years that I actively posted there. That fact influenced the amount of postings that I initiated on that forum about race and also influenced the amount of comments that I responded to on that forum about race and about racism, often in response to published queries that were directed to me by name asking my opinions of and/or explanations about racial incidences that were current then.(For example, what "nappy headed ho" meant).<br /><br />Those described dynamics were part of my reasons for starting this pancocojams blog in 2011 and withdrawing from that folk music forum from which I learned so much and I (largely) enjoyed being a part of.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-17083135863639968432017-06-24T10:48:21.991-04:002017-06-24T10:48:21.991-04:00A reader comment that was sent in to a pancocojams...A reader comment that was sent in to a pancocojams post about the Caribbean singing game "Brown Girl In The Ring"* reminded me that that singing game is another example of the use of racial referents for Black people in children's recreational material.<br /><br />*<a href="https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/03/is-caribbean-game-song-brown-girl-in.html" rel="nofollow">https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/03/is-caribbean-game-song-brown-girl-in.html</a> Is The Caribbean Game Song "Brown Girl In The Ring" Racist?<br /><br />Here's an excerpt that I wrote in that post in which I shared that a [perhaps earlier] title for that song was "Black Boy In The Ring":<br /><br />"The title "Brown Girl In The Ring" is routinely given for this game song. However, the title "There's a black boy in a ring" is included in a list of "ring tunes" (circle songs) in this 1904 book "Jamaican Song And Story: Annancy Stories, Digging Sings, Ring Tunes, and Dancing Tunes. With introductory essays." by <br />Walter Jekyll, coll. and edit., 1904 (Dover reprints), The Folk-lore Society, LV. [posted by Q (Frank Staplin) on <a href="http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=138255#3168488" rel="nofollow">http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=138255#3168488</a> "Songbook Indexing: Calypso/Caribbean Songbooks"<br /><br />That same discussion thread but a different post (comment) includes a listing for a Jamaican song entitled "See Ma Little Brown Boy?". That song is included in the book <i>Calypso Songs Of The West Indies</i> by Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco (1943)." Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-8211664951216780272017-06-22T15:22:55.318-04:002017-06-22T15:22:55.318-04:00Children's rhymes that include references to &...Children's rhymes that include references to "Black power" (such as "Ungawa Black Powa!" without any other Black racial referents) could also be included in this category.<br /><br />Another group of children's rhymes that could be included in this category are the "Momma's having a baby' rhymes that refer to a "chocolate baby".Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.com