School concert song in Detroit area dissing blacks needs to be discussed

This whole issue of race relations bugs the snot out of me.  I live in a mixed urban area where people seem to get along, but I've experienced a distance between the races.

You can go so far, then there's a wall.  I know that it's not because of a lack of problems involving racial understanding and sensitivity.  But, nobdy seems to want to talk about the issue, whether black or white.

Then I saw this story in today's Detroit News about a middle school in upscale Berkley, MI in Oakland County,  just north of Detroit.  The school is having a concert where one of the songs is "Pick A Bale of Cotton."  An 11-year-old student said she felt the song glorified the days of slavery when African Americans were forced to the fields to pick cotton.

As a performer in the concert, she protested and her dad echoed her concerns and the school district appeared to blow them off. 

The pretty-much all white school comes off as disrespec tual and insensitive to what happened to our African-American brothers and sisters in the past. 

• Should this whole issue be talked about more?
  

• Should the concert continue to incloude "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" ?
  

Technorati Tags: Oakland County, Pick A Bale of Cotton, Race relations, Slavery, Berkley Schools