Radio DJ fired for playing song from 1932

[gramophone-georg]

I tell people that in those days it was the common thing to use t "N" word and such.I'm thinking of the original verse of "Old Man River" and the chorus of "Misssissippi Mud".It was a DIFFERENT world!edisonplayer

Not to mention the lyrics to Louis Armstrong's theme song- "When It's Sleepytime Down South".

[Wagnerian]

Sorry to sound like "Mr Right-On" here but this DJ knew exactly what he was doing.

He behaved like a child that deliberately uses a rude word then slyly looks around to see how the grown-ups react. Well, now he knows how the grown-ups react; they sacked him, although subsequently offered him his job back which he refused.

In the UK and I suspect elsewhere in the English speaking world, this is one of the most toxic words in the language. It has a history of being used during the now, thankfully, long gone days of Empire to subjugate, patronise and abuse and apart from a few knuckle-dragging right-wing Neanderthals, nobody would dream of using this word in everyday conversation anymore so why play it on the radio, except to provoke a reaction?

That coloured people may use this word to describe themselves is irrelavent. We can freely criticise our own parents and children but when someone outside criticises them, we take great exception and it is the same with the use of this word.

This DJ has now had his 15 minutes of fame, so he can now return to the obscurity from whence he came.

All the best

Tim W-W

[bart1927]

Sorry to sound like "Mr Right-On" here but this DJ knew exactly what he was doing.

He behaved like a child that deliberately uses a rude word then slyly looks around to see how the grown-ups react. Well, now he knows how the grown-ups react; they sacked him, although subsequently offered him his job back which he refused.

In the UK and I suspect elsewhere in the English speaking world, this is one of the most toxic words in the language. It has a history of being used during the now, thankfully, long gone days of Empire to subjugate, patronise and abuse and apart from a few knuckle-dragging right-wing Neanderthals, nobody would dream of using this word in everyday conversation anymore so why play it on the radio, except to provoke a reaction?

That coloured people may use this word to describe themselves is irrelavent. We can freely criticise our own parents and children but when someone outside criticises them, we take great exception and it is the same with the use of this word.

This DJ has now had his 15 minutes of fame, so he can now return to the obscurity from whence he came.

All the best

Tim W-W

Are you familiar with this DJ? Is he well known for being a provocateur? I'm asking this because you seem very sure of his motives when he decided to play this particular record.

As has been said, this record was made in 1932. Times were different, and they used words we don't use anymore nowadays. Still these records are historical documents, that shouldn't be forgotten. Playing these records doesn't necessarily mean you agree with the lyrics.

If we would follow your train of thought all paintings portraying slavery, no matter how old they are, should be removed from the musea. Most cartoons from the 1930's (Bosco, early Loony Tunes, etc) should be banned. The double dvd-box of The Jazz Singer should be removed from all (online) stores, and at Laurel & Hardy conventions the screening of "Pardon Us" wouldn't be allowed anymore.

Also, lots of 78's from our collections should be destroyed. No more "My little bimbo", "Pickin' Cotton", "Where do you work-a, John", "Let's Do It" (Chinks do it, Japs do it), "Puttin'On The Ritz" (High-browns from down the levy) etc.

[gramophone-georg]

Sorry to sound like "Mr Right-On" here but this DJ knew exactly what he was doing.

He behaved like a child that deliberately uses a rude word then slyly looks around to see how the grown-ups react. Well, now he knows how the grown-ups react; they sacked him, although subsequently offered him his job back which he refused.

In the UK and I suspect elsewhere in the English speaking world, this is one of the most toxic words in the language. It has a history of being used during the now, thankfully, long gone days of Empire to subjugate, patronise and abuse and apart from a few knuckle-dragging right-wing Neanderthals, nobody would dream of using this word in everyday conversation anymore so why play it on the radio, except to provoke a reaction?

That coloured people may use this word to describe themselves is irrelavent. We can freely criticise our own parents and children but when someone outside criticises them, we take great exception and it is the same with the use of this word.

This DJ has now had his 15 minutes of fame, so he can now return to the obscurity from whence he came.

All the best

Tim W-W

This sort of thinking is exactly why the UK is in the state it is in today- Hopefully we in the USA never get there, although the Donald Sterling affair shows we are getting dangerously close. Do I think that being a racist and saying racist things is OK? Of course not. But I am enraged beyond belief that someone invaded Sterling's privacy like this- and it seems the only other person who feels that way is Kareem Abdul- Jabbar.

There was a story that broke in the news that some town police official in New England called President Obama "the N word". Horrors! Only this, too, was a private conversation in a restaurant overheard by someone and reported- had nothing to do with this person's official capacity or anything else whatsoever.

Paula Deen. Good grief, I feel exactly as Anthony Bourdain does about her- but what happened to her is a national tragedy.

And blacks using the N word? Sorry, but a "bad" word is a "bad" word- doesn't matter who uses it. If we're going to say it's acceptable for black people to use it but not whites, then we're setting double standards based entirely on race- and, from where I'm sitting, setting a double standard based on race was exactly what started the whole mess.


Enough already.

[epigramophone]

Quite right.

If this politically correct nonsense had been allowed to influence the playing of certain cylinders, the CLPGS would have had to omit 29023 "The little Alabama coon" from their excellent CD transfers of the complete Edison Royal Purple series.

Fortunately common sense prevailed.

[Steve]

Quite right, Roger!

There is a CAVERNOUS gulf between shouting these "offensive" words at a member of a different "race" (aren't we all really the same...er...human?), as though you intend it to harm and insult someone, compared to simply playing a vintage record that marked a time when human evolution hadn't quite reached the sophisticated levels it has today. After all you can't point a record at someone really, can you? It isn't racist and shouldn't be especially provocative to play old records.

Despite Tim-W-W comments, this DJ did not know that line in the song. It was later removed from all subsequent versions of the song. Unless you lived in 1923 there is a good chance you wouldn't know about it. I certainly didn't!

For the record, the DJ was offered his job back but is unable to take up the offer due to the resurgence of a medical condition and stress caused by the incident and the (over)reaction of the muppets in charge of the BBC these days. As others have said I would tell the BBC where to stick its PC agenda.

Good on Boris Johnson for speaking up on behalf of all those people who are sick to the back teeth of this Namby Pamby Super-Nannying State we now live in.

I don't know his name but I heard a black gentleman on the radio stating that he didn't want a lot of respectable well meaning middle class white people complaining on his behalf about something he had no issue about. He thought THAT was a lot more offensive and patronising than the DJ playing the record.

Shouldn't we let those who are genuinely offended complain for themselves or does the white man still think he has greater intellect, social responsibility and position to act than the black man?

[edisonplayer]

You're ABSOLUTELY right!!AMEN,and 'nuf sed! edisonplayer

[celticguitar666]

My father, not to make excuses, used that word frequently and he liked black people he just grew up that way it was wrong word to use and I use to point it out to him but if we clean up the past we will make the same mistakes. I believe Jim Crow stuff art work etc. is very collectable to black Americans too. I bet it was white revisionist that complain initially. and yes it used today like it was nothing not like it was a highly offensive word it is. Aren't coon records very collectable and I find that word offensive too

[kirtley2012]

How about I lend them my cylinder of 'the merry whistling darkie' that'll cause a stir

the fact is that it doesn't mean now what it did then, now it's offensive, then it was simply a general term.

[Wolfe]

Quite right, Roger!

There is a CAVERNOUS gulf between shouting these "offensive" words at a member of a different "race" (aren't we all really the same...er...human?), as though you intend it to harm and insult someone, compared to simply playing a vintage record that marked a time when human evolution hadn't quite reached the sophisticated levels it has today. After all you can't point a record at someone really, can you? It isn't racist and shouldn't be especially provocative to play old records.

Despite Tim-W-W comments, this DJ did not know that line in the song. It was later removed from all subsequent versions of the song. Unless you lived in 1923 there is a good chance you wouldn't know about it. I certainly didn't!

For the record, the DJ was offered his job back but is unable to take up the offer due to the resurgence of a medical condition and stress caused by the incident and the (over)reaction of the muppets in charge of the BBC these days. As others have said I would tell the BBC where to stick its PC agenda.

Good on Boris Johnson for speaking up on behalf of all those people who are sick to the back teeth of this Namby Pamby Super-Nannying State we now live in.

I don't know his name but I heard a black gentleman on the radio stating that he didn't want a lot of respectable well meaning middle class white people complaining on his behalf about something he had no issue about. He thought THAT was a lot more offensive and patronising than the DJ playing the record.

Shouldn't we let those who are genuinely offended complain for themselves or does the white man still think he has greater intellect, social responsibility and position to act than the black man?

You got it. Excellent post.