RACISM & ICE CREAM: NPR, ‘Buying Ice Cream From Ice Cream Truck Supports Racism’(language warning)

Clash Daily ^ | 5/13/14

[Impala64ssa]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is about a virulently racist song. Read no further if you wish to avoid racist imagery and slurs.

“Ni**er Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!” merits the distinction of the most racist song title in America. Released in March 1916 by Columbia Records, it was written by actor Harry C. Browne and played on the familiar depiction of black people as mindless beasts of burden greedily devouring slices of watermelon.

I came across this gem while researching racial stereotypes. I was a bit conflicted on whether the song warranted a listen. Admittedly, though, beneath my righteous indignation, I was rather curious about how century-old, overt racism sounded and slightly amused by the farcical title. When I started the song, the music that tumbled from the speakers was that of the ever-recognizable jingle of the . (For the record, not all ice cream trucks play this same song, but a great many of them do.)

[SonnyBubba]

The ice cream truck in my neighborhood plays “Helter Skelter “
Steven Wright

[TomGuy]

The ice cream truck that comes through my area frequently plays “La Cucaracha.” I don’t find that very appetizing.

“The Cockroach”?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I was always taught these lyrics to that tune:

"Well I had a little chicken and she wouldn't lay an egg.
So I poured hot water up and down her leg.
Oh the little chicken cried and the little chicken begged,
And the little chicken laid me a hard boiled egg!"

[TomGuy]

It amazes me how history is so often viewed through the enlightened glasses of today, rather than the lens of the time.

The moral superiority is enough to gag a maggot.

That is also noticeable in a some TV series that are set, for example, in the 1870s, but try to apply modern PC to them.

I watched one series via Netflix from Canada. It protrayed live in a boarding school out in the country. One of the later episodes was anti-gun. Anti-gun, out in the country, in the 1870s? Thankfully, not all of the characters were anti-gun and one guy had one hidden. It came in handy to fend off bandits.

[cynwoody]

If Theodore R. Johnson, III needs material for his next NPR piece, he should check out Life Magazine's August 27, 1965 issue, page 60 bottom, where there is a little item on a gun shop in Fern Park, Florida, offering a unique "guarantee" on one of their 12-gauge models.

[Chickensoup]

Only the truly culturally ignorant would not know that it is folk song called Turkey in the Straw

[GeronL]

wow

[cynwoody]

I can certainly remember “Eenie Meenie Minee Mo” from the 1950s which was before it was changed to use the word “tiger”.

Brazil nuts

Another story idea for Teddy Three-sticks: Check out the 1922 Stan Laurel film The Pest.

[The Great RJ]

How many people are alive today who would have possibly heard those 1916 racist lyrics and who would associate the tune to them? The tune for our national anthem was an 18th century English drinking song so does that make playing the Star Spangled Banner offensive to recovering alcoholics?

[a fool in paradise]

Ice Cream!
You Scream!
We all scream, for racism!!!

[MrB]

OH! So it’s a song about animal abuse!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

OH! So it’s a song about animal abuse!

Uh, yuh.

[MrB]

I tell my children that it’s the “child catcher” when they hear that song.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I tell my children that it’s the “child catcher” when they hear that song.

Oh that's perfect. No kids running around yelling, "Ice cream!!!"

[Organic Panic]

I am going to listen to my NWA cassette for some good old fashion non-pc rap music about pimpin’ hos, slingin’ dope and bussin’ caps.

[OldNewYork]

The elites at NPR could have taken away from this something like, ‘wow, in contrast to today, that’s really racist - we’re far from that now’. But no. This.

[GeronL]

How does buying ice cream from a truck “support” racism, exactly? How much of the revenue is earmarked to support racist endeavors? I would bet none

[dfwgator]

Why can’t they just make it real simple and come out and say what they really mean, “If you’re white, you’re racist.”

[x]

I’ve never heard an Ice Cream truck around here play Turkey in the Straw.

Neither have I. The usually play a tinkly, little, anemic bell tune. I usually associate "Turkey in the Straw" with fiddles. Just about any folk tune that's been around long enough could have been put to bad uses at one time or another.

I just wonder how many idiots are automatically going to assume that the music they heard coming from the ice creme truck just had to be "Turkey in the Straw" and just had to be racist because some idiot at NPR told them so.

[rktman]

Uh, Neanderthals with attitude? LOL!