This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain:
And now we go deeper into the linguistic gymnastics which are required to avoid being called a racist.
Having covered Black Friday, Black Hole, Providence Plantations, Rejigger, Gobbledygook, and “No Asians,” among other words and phrases, we will now move on to rhyme.
The subject tonight is the 200+ year old English nursery rhyme, Baa Baa Black Sheep:
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.
The rhyme has nothing to do with human races. The 1744 reference to “black sheep” actually appears to be a reference to black sheep. The claim that the rhyme contains a reference to slavery is disputed by someone who has studied the subject.
But that is not good enough for some school administrators in Australia, who are so politically correct that they are teaching school children to sing “Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep“:
“BLACK sheep are on the endangered species list as some children in north Queensland learn to sing Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep.
The English nursery rhyme may have survived for 200-plus years but political correctness could finally put it out to pasture.
Some schools in Britain have banned the song for being racist, but Pelicans Innisfail Child Care allows children to sing about black sheep or rainbow sheep.
Director Pam McLaughlin said some teachers sang the changed lyrics, and some children already knew the changes….
Ms McLaughlin said she thought changing the lyrics was a bit confusing for children. “You can get a black sheep but you can’t get a rainbow sheep.””
Apparently the controversy is not new. There have been repeated attempts in Britain to stop having school children recite the rhyme.
There are Facebook pages for both Baa Black Sheep and Rainbow Sheep devoted to debating the topic, in case you want your voice heard on the subject (but not until you join my Facebook page!).
Just don’t drink any black coffee while commenting, or you will be in big trouble.
And be sure to put a rainbow cat bumper sticker on your car so that you are not mistaken for one of those racist Tea Party supporters (via reader PapaTodd):
You have to be proactive on these matters, because gossip spreads like, well, you know.
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Comments
Wait. The "Master", the "dame", AND the "boy…down the lane"?!? Sounds like wealth re-distribution to me!
What is that song?! That has got to be the funniest thing I've seen – I am literally laughing out loud! Is that song for real, or is it a parody?! And rainbow sheep? I love the quote from Ms. McLaughlin, "You can get a black sheep but you can't get a rainbow sheep." What in the world made the words "black" and "coffee" bad, but the truly racist thinking of the race PC paranoid leftists? Lighten up, people! (Oops, is that raaaaacist, too?! Alert the race PC police! Stat! Heh.)
Man, people think waaay too much about race. Could we even have a Martin Luther King Jr. in 2011? I somehow think he would be called numerous epithets for believing that people should be judged "not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
How far we've traveled away from that Dream.
I don't know how you stop this madness.
Last year our son was in 4th grade and the kids in his class had to pick a historical figure from California's past and do a report and presentation on that person. They got to choose whomever they wanted. Our son chose (completely on his own) Ronald Reagan. I was very surprised and quite happy … until my wife told me a few days later that the teacher had overruled his choice and assigned our son a very minor historical figure (had never heard of the man) who, I'm sure, was black just by coincidence.
I guess alarm bells went off for this woman (who has a life-sized cardboard image of Obama standing in the classroom) when a young boy in her class dared to pick a popular Republican.
I told my wife that was the last straw … but she overruled me. "I'm the one who has to deal with these teachers and parents," she said.
But I could tell she wasn't too happy, either. She's from Japan and hates the way politics and political correctness are injected into the schools here, especially the ultra-liberal area in which we live.
She closed the conversation with, "American people have lost their minds."
I couldn't really argue with that. I just clarified with, "Honey, American liberals have lost their minds."
And your wife is enabling them. Dictators don't care why sheep stick around to be shorn.
I'd be more concerned about the sadomasochism and pedophilia references in the rhyme:
"Master" "Madam" and what is a grown man doing delivering presents to a little boy down the lane?
Is "down the lane" some euphemism for a sexual activity?
The above is as rational as the idiotic rantings of the Ozzies.
@Luke-I have a new-founded respect for you. Any Conservative in California needs support, and you are facing brutal leftist lunacy in The Golden State.
Don't give up the fight. Your children are worth it. Reinforce your child's love of Ronald Reagan at home. Stand. You and your wife are right: we have "lost" our collective minds, as evidenced in 2008; let's "find" it in 2012!
@DINORightMarie
Thanks, Marie!!
It ain't easy. Our two little ones in elementary school are happy with lots of friends and my wife wants to keep it that way. She knows how intolerant these LA westside Hollywood types are. She doesn't want anyone at school to know I'm a Republican!
The morning after Obama was elected, one of the mothers at school came up to my wife with tears streaming down her face and, hugging my wife, said "Now there is hope in America!"
My wife came home, told me what had just happened, and asked, "How do American people become so creepy?"
That time, too, I told her that most of America is not like the area we live in. These people are "special."
But for all the aggravation … in some ways I think it makes our kids stronger. During the 2008 campaign, my wife was volunteering in our son's classroom the day the kids voted for either Obama or McCain. They wrote their vote on a piece of paper and put it in a box. Then the teacher read each one and kept a tally on the board. 20 students. The final tally? 19 votes for Obama, one for McCain. My wife said all the kids were shocked when the teacher read McCain's name that one time and that our son blurted out loudly, "Who the heck voted for McCain??!!"
Of course, it was our son who voted Republican (and was aware of the environment enough to know to cover up any suspicious tracks : )))
My wife and he were laughing and laughing about it when he got home. So, the way I look at it, compared to the other kids, our son grows up with a sense of humor and grows up not so self-absorbed to assume everyone does and should hold the same opinion.
We did have a little episode with his best friend's mom. His best friend's father is Elizabeth Montgomery's son. One day the best friend and his mom came to pick our son up. I'd forgotten to take my "McCain/Palin" magnetic bumper sticker off and they saw it when they drove up. Instantly the boy was loudly expressing his disapproval and I heard his mom (50% jokingly) also expressing her disapproval.
Our front door was open and we heard them. My wife ran out and quickly told her (while kinda laughing) "That's my husband's, not mine!" I then came out and the mom (whom I actually do like) smiled that smile and shook her head at me as if to say, "I'm so disappointed in you."
I said, "You know, I loved your husband's mother in Bewitched and other things, but I really admired your husband's grandfather (Robert Montgomery). Don't forget he was a Republican !!"
Navigating the California Coastal Social Current can be treacherous at times. But it will make my kids stronger (hopefully) and not like the zombie-like lefty kids.
Believe me, they get plenty of input from me about America's greatness. They always will. And I'll be damned if they don't grow up learning to think for themselves, not afraid to hold an opinion that's in the minority (unless it's on the order of something like 19 to 1) and with a sense of humor to take on all life throws at them.
Baaa to correctness, it's shear lunacy.
I think those who would try to pull the wool over our eyes and ram through things like Obamacare and carbon futures to fleece everybody are more embarrassed by the term "sheep", since they themselves are a mindless clovened flock shepherded by crooks.
Afer all, being in the black is a good thing, yes? But Indians, I mean Native Americans have a really good gripe about Mitch Daniels calling debt the "new red menace." So no more Little Robin Redbreasts, which is clearly sexist, too.