Talk:Leo Friedman

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To call a song "racist," it should conform to the Wikipedia article on the word. A song which parodies the foibles and exaggerates the peculiarities of a group is not necessarily "racist," and may have nothing to do with an ideology. It might be in poor taste, or out-dated by modern norms; it may make us uncomfortable because of our own problems with racial and ethnic matters; but in the times when they were written and performed, such songs were regarded as humorous, just as we tolerate today much humor that in earlier days (and perhaps in the future) may be considered not only tasteless, but corrupt and degraded by any reasonable standard.

A society which tolerates the public performance of the "Vagina Monologues," with sponsorship by universities and intellectual media, should be somewhat modest about casting aspersions on the relatively innocent entertainments of a century ago.

Furthermore, the parody of racial groups has always occurred. The famous "cake walk," for example, has its origin in Black parody of fancy dress balls performed by Whites. Much humor deals with stereotypes. We have the same thing today.

In the case of "coon songs," a close examination indicates that there is a Romantic element of envious admiration for the supposedly freer, more natural life of its subjects. It is also interesting that most such songs were written in New York City by recent or first-generation immigrants from Europe. Were those people "racists"?

It would be a very healthy and honest thing if we could be more understanding, and not smugly hurl around vague epithets like "racist," which imply a particular ideological construct better know to people who use the term that to anyone who was around in 1910. The term is not only misapplied in this case, but represents slovenly thinking and superficial scholarship.

How convenient and comforting it is to point disdainfully at problems of a century ago, and avoid the immediacy of today!