Racist or just plain caring...

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  • RED
    Very Senior Member - OFC
    • Aug 2009
    • 11689

    #1

    Racist or just plain caring...

    This was written back in the 1950's and are said to be racist... I think these words memorized the thoughts of the people in the South and reject racism...

    Read it... word for word...

    I was walking in Savannah past a church, decayed and dim
    When slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn
    My sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew
    'Til I found myself environed in a little colored pew
    Out front a colored couple sat in sorrow nearly wild
    On the altar was a casket and in the casket was a child
    I could picture him while living, curly hair protruding lips
    I'd seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips
    Then rose a sad, old colored preacher from his little wooden desk
    With a manner sort of awkward and countenance grotesque
    The simplicity and shrewdness in his Ethiopian face
    Showed the wisdom and the ignorance of a crushed, undying race
    And he said, "Now don't be weepin' for this pretty bit of clay
    For the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away
    He was doing very finely and he 'ppreciates your love
    But his sho nough father wanted him in the big house up above
    The Lord didn't give you that baby, by no hundred thousand miles
    He just think you need some sunshine and he lent it for a while
    And he let you keep and love him 'til your hearts were bigger grown
    And these silver tears you're shedding now, are just interest on the loan
    Just think my poor dear mourners creeping long on sorrow?s way
    What a blessed picnic this here baby got today
    Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fella round
    In the angels 'tender garden of the big plantation ground
    And his eyes they brightly sparkle at the pretty things he view
    But a tear came and he whispered, "I want my parents too"
    Then the angel's chief musicians teach that little boy a song
    Says if only they be faithful, they'll soon be comin' 'long
    And so my poor dear mourners, let your hearts with Jesus rest
    And don't go to criticizn' the one what knows the best
    He has give us many comforts He's got the right to take away
    To the Lord be praised in glory, now and ever, let us pray
    What do you think?
    Last edited by RED; 05-04-2019, 06:36.
  • Sako
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2009
    • 654

    #2
    Anyone that was an adult at the time it was written would understand and see it as a well written poem, a person born in the last 30 years wouldn't see the value in the history of it and could easily find reasons to call it racist.

    Comment

    • togor
      Banned
      • Nov 2009
      • 17610

      #3
      Patronizing to say the least, perhaps out of ignorance. Seems not written by someone familiar with the south. These verses catch my eye:

      The simplicity and shrewdness in his Ethiopian face
      Showed the wisdom and the ignorance of a crushed, undying race
      Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fella round
      In the angels 'tender garden of the big plantation ground
      And his eyes they brightly sparkle at the pretty things he view
      Ignorance? Crushed? Plantation? These words guarantee the poem could not age well. But for the time the sentiment was not hostile and the poem recognizes the humanity in Americans with African ancestry. 2 out of a possible 5 stars.

      Comment

      • Roadkingtrax
        Senior Member
        • Feb 2010
        • 7835

        #4
        "The Negro Baby's Funeral" by Will Carleton (late 1800s), or known as the "The Funeral" by Hank Williams.

        If anyone was alive when it was written, I'd be amazed.
        "The first gun that was fired at Fort Sumter sounded the death-knell of slavery. They who fired it were the greatest practical abolitionists this nation has produced." ~BG D. Ullman

        Comment

        • Allen
          Moderator
          • Sep 2009
          • 10583

          #5
          Thanks for posting.

          "we're only here on loan". An aspect of life I hadn't thought about in quite that way.

          Comment

          • togor
            Banned
            • Nov 2009
            • 17610

            #6
            Originally posted by Roadkingtrax
            "The Negro Baby's Funeral" by Will Carleton (late 1800s)
            From Michigan. Yep even in the updated lyric by Wiliams, it had a northern feel to it.

            Comment

            • Clark Howard
              Senior Member
              • Sep 2009
              • 2105

              #7
              To a Christian, this poem and it's meaning is perfectly clear. To the godless agnostic, it is merely a provocation. Regards, Clark

              Comment

              • Vern Humphrey
                Administrator - OFC
                • Aug 2009
                • 15875

                #8
                Originally posted by Clark Howard
                To a Christian, this poem and it's meaning is perfectly clear. To the godless agnostic, it is merely a provocation. Regards, Clark
                Anything Christian is an outrage to the atheists.

                Comment

                • lyman
                  Administrator - OFC
                  • Aug 2009
                  • 11269

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Clark Howard
                  To a Christian, this poem and it's meaning is perfectly clear. To the godless agnostic, it is merely a provocation. Regards, Clark
                  you need to look up the definition of Agnostic

                  a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.

                  thinking you meant Atheist?

                  Comment

                  • lyman
                    Administrator - OFC
                    • Aug 2009
                    • 11269

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Maus45
                    It means Red loves the feeling of black foreskin touching the back of his throat. Same with DOGTAG.
                    big sexy man,,, you are back,

                    bet you like the foreskin tightening up as it slips up your bum?

                    Comment

                    • S.A. Boggs
                      Senior Member
                      • Aug 2009
                      • 8568

                      #11
                      Originally posted by lyman
                      big sexy man,,, you are back,

                      bet you like the foreskin tightening up as it slips up your bum?
                      Wonder which one of the "three" is hiding behind the mask?
                      Sam

                      Comment

                      • Vern Humphrey
                        Administrator - OFC
                        • Aug 2009
                        • 15875

                        #12
                        Probably all of them -- a research psychiatrist would have a field day with our resident multiple personality cases.

                        Comment

                        • lyman
                          Administrator - OFC
                          • Aug 2009
                          • 11269

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Maus45
                          You sir have me confused with the female members of YOUR family. They once told me. Once You Had BROWN You CantTurn It Down. Just ask DOGTAG. He will probably will start a thread on it.
                          no,

                          I think I have the right one,


                          question is are you capable of admitting it,


                          not everyone judges here

                          Comment

                          • S.A. Boggs
                            Senior Member
                            • Aug 2009
                            • 8568

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Maus45
                            You sir have me confused with the female members of YOUR family. They once told me. Once You Had BROWN You CantTurn It Down. Just ask DOGTAG. He will probably will start a thread on it.
                            Maus45 is a prime candidate for the need of a cayuse, a stout well oiled hemp then a short hanging around. It is to societies degradation that this type of deviant sexual miscreant is allowed to obtain O2.
                            Sam

                            Comment

                            • lyman
                              Administrator - OFC
                              • Aug 2009
                              • 11269

                              #15
                              Originally posted by S.A. Boggs
                              Maus45 is a prime candidate for the need of a cayuse, a stout well oiled hemp then a short hanging around. It is to societies degradation that this type of deviant sexual miscreant is allowed to obtain O2.
                              Sam
                              different strokes Sam
                              free speech says he can speak freely,

                              thing is, he cannot take what he slings out,

                              Comment

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