Originally Posted by
scorrie
The Black and White Minstrel show was from an era when it was deemed acceptable to call black people "wogs", "darkies" and "nignogs" in light entertainment and comedy shows. Even The Goodies were not so "good" when poking fun at black people setting up businesses in Britain, calling their headquarters Sambo Enterprises and bemoaning the fact that they couldn't return to England from South Africa, because England was now "Full of NigNogs" that Episode was aired in 1975 but will never be broadcast again. Unlike Wick, the BBC tend to learn from their gaffes.
The original Minstrel shows began in the early 19th century, and they were specifically intended to mock black people. In time the sentiment became quite brutal:-
Minstrelsy's racism (and sexism) could be rather vicious. There were comic songs in which blacks were "roasted, fished for, smoked like tobacco, peeled like potatoes, planted in the soil, or dried up and hung as advertisements"
Some Minstrel shows had real black people with the appeal intended to be that you were watching authentic "Coons" but being in pre-abolition days the advertisements would sometimes read akin to this one:-
"SEVEN SLAVES just from Alabama, who are EARNING THEIR FREEDOM by giving concerts under the guidance of their Northern friends"
The Minstrel shows lost popularity during the Civil War and declined but, as said previously, continued in some form or other right up until the late 70's.
From 1880 onwards there was a huge appetite in the USA for what were called "Coon Songs" this continued through to the 1920's. A big hit in the middle of that period was the rather blatant "Coon, Coon, Coon" where the lyrics read thus:-
VERSE 1
I know it's not my color
I'm feelin' mighty blue
I've had a lotta trouble
I'll tell 'em all to you
Now I'm just plain disgusted
Thru life an' that's a fact
Because my hair is wooly
An' because my color's black
CHORUS:
Coon, coon, coon
I wish my color would fade
Coon, coon, coon
I'd like a different shade
Coon, coon, coon
Both morning, night or noon
I'd rather be a white man
Instead of bein' a coon
VERSE 2
My gal she took a notion
Against th colored race
Said, if I'se to wed her
I'd have to change my face
Said, if I'se to wed her
That I'd regret in soon
Now, I'm shook good an' hard
Because I'm a coon
VERSE 3
I had my face enameled
I had my hair made straight
I dressed up like a white man
I certainly didn't look great
I went down t' see her
T'was shortly after dark
On th way t' see my babe
I had t' cross th park
VERSE 4
Just as I was thinkin'
I had things fixed up right
I passed a tree where two loves set
Makin' love that night
They stopped an' looked me over
I saw my finish soon
They both shouted, good and loud
Coon, coon, coon
I know that someone covered the song in 1969, so it didn't quite die in sentiment terms along with the popularity of the genre in 1920. The song "Coon, Coon, Coon" along with "All Coons Look Alike To Me" and "Every Race Has A Flag But The Coon" were identified as being the songs that brought the term "Coon" into the American vocabulary as a derogatory term for black people. Other racist titles were "Mamma's Little Pumpkin Colored Coons", "I Wonder What The Coons Game Is?" and "No Coons Allowed"
The songs may have changed by the 1970's on the BBC but the casual inappropriate name calling did not and it was often in the name of comedy. In my opinion that rubbish belongs back in the 70's at the very least and was probably totally inappropriate then. I reckon if you have one black friend and find that 70s attitude acceptable, then you don't know what crap blacks and Asians had to put up with arriving into Britain at the time. Looking further back and knowing the history of it better, you really should be finding what went on back then abhorrent.
Shockingly the last black person to be lynched was not back in the slavery days. It happened in 1981 in Alabama when Michael Donald was picked out entirely at random because he was the first black man they saw. They strangled him with a rope and then cut his throat three times before leaving him hanging in the tree for the mixed race neighbourhood to see.
Michael Donald was 19 years old.
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