Apparently that turkey in the straw one is super racist- or rather the lyrics of the version that took off and led to ICT fame. I swear ours still plays it… I’ll have to listen closely next time I happen to hear it.
The first and natural inclination, of course, is to assume that the ice cream truck song is simply paying homage to “Turkey in the Straw,” but the melody reached the nation only after it was appropriated by traveling blackface minstrel shows. There is simply no divorcing the song from the dozens of decades it was almost exclusively used for coming up with new ways to ridicule, and profit from, black people.
Perhaps I’m naive. I looked up the lyrics and found one spot in them where, yes, for sure, that’s racist. However, it’s akin to Enie meenie miney moe, where a slight change could make the song suitable again.
Apparently that turkey in the straw one is super racist- or rather the lyrics of the version that took off and led to ICT fame. I swear ours still plays it… I’ll have to listen closely next time I happen to hear it.
Perhaps I’m naive. I looked up the lyrics and found one spot in them where, yes, for sure, that’s racist. However, it’s akin to Enie meenie miney moe, where a slight change could make the song suitable again.
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/11/310708342/recall-that-ice-cream-truck-song-we-have-unpleasant-news-for-you
I already posted the relevant bit above. The history of this song in ice cream trucks was absolutely racist.