Is It Racist To Sing...

[Togo]

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot? The England RU fans are now accused of an ignorant appropriation of "slave lyrics" by an American "academic". Josephine Wright, a professor of music and black studies at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Sigh.

[Deskdiary]

I go to Twickenham to watch England as much as I can, and this year I've been very lucky to have been to the France and Italy games, and on Saturday I'm going there to see us embarrass Scotland.....and every time I sing swing low, at the very front of my mind is that I am committing "cultural misappropriation", as I'm sure do all the other England fans!

I save comments like this in a section of my brain labelled 'Complete Arsewater'

[emmie]

no its a great song.

[hc4361]

The song is about being in such despair that you are hoping to die so that you can find comfort in heaven.

I thought England rugby was going quite well :D

[jno]

the crowds seem to know exactly one line of it, which is really too feeble an effort to count as appropriation of any sort. They should sing "God Save the Queen" instead, they must know three of four lines of that.

[ichkeria]

I always thought the Chris Oti connection was slightly iffy.

[Peter Pedant]

// Wallis Willis was a Choctaw "freedman" //

so presumably was NOT the baby Billy Joe threw off the bridge at Tallahtchie ....

sorry bit of cultural appropriation going on there

[Togo]

Haha Deskdiary give em hell.

[jim360]

No.