The popular media is flooded with images and stories on the new and final season of Game of Thrones. Or rather, with images and stories about all the sex and violence in the new and final season of Game of Thrones.
Anyone who says they don’t watch the program appear to be branded as haters, as in “Hating something that’s popular doesn’t make you a unique person.” That’s as may be. But liking something that’s popular doesn’t make you a unique person either.
Funny times, I said. Because at the same moment, Kate Smith is in the news. A long-deceased popular singer, well-known for her patriotic songs. She’s on the track to becoming an unperson because, back in the 1930s, she sang some songs.
[Whispered] They refer to “darkies.”
Nevermind that one of them was regarded as satirical, even at the time, and was also recorded by one of the most notable African-American performers of the time.
And no matter – for the moment, at least – that others of the time also sang songs featuring the derogatory term (including Bing Crosby, who’s probably next for unpersonning). Kate Smith is now on the Unperson List. Soon to follow, Woodrow Wilson, founder of the League of Nations, because he watched “Birth of A Nation” and liked it.
I could suspect Elmer Fudd is a racist, as he sang, at least in part, “Oh Susanna!” whose full lyrics are, ahem.
The song was composed by Stephen Foster, who had a statue in his honor in Pittsburgh until recent times.
You have probably sung some of Stephen Foster’s songs, which include:
“Old Folks at Home”
“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”
“Beautiful Dreamer”
So you, reader, might be a racist. Or at least associated with a racist’s not-so-racist songs.
Does it matter that Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” is the song that is performed, or that the performer, nearly 90 years ago, sang something questionable?
We must utterly condemn and shun and unperson people of the past for their sins, and it mattereth not if they still live or if they are conveniently dead. And we must watch sexy times and the blood flow and like it or at least remain absolutely quiet about it, or risk being labeled a “hater.”
One could argue the songs are racist and Game of Thrones is not. And one might be right.
But one could counterargue that both the songs and the show are offensive, albeit hitting different offensive-sensitivity underbellybuttons. And one would be labeled a racist-supporting Puritan prude h8er who is out of touch with modern times.
You don’t win arguing with some of these people. Thus the funny times.
So I end on this note, from James Lileks:
As I said before, somewhat joshingly - 1984 is coming to pass not because it's imposed, but because everyone is volunteering to do their part.
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