School concert song in Detroit area dissing blacks needs to be discussed
November 14, 2005
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