Dixie

Gator bait!!! There ... I said it.

 

War on Dixie?

They'll probably tell you who to boycott soon.

 

Good question, wing. I think there will be different feelings about what you refer to as the "connotations" of the song. As you suggest, the lyrics are not overtly racist. Otoh, they portray freed slaves having nostalgia for the place where they were enslaved. Apparently the song originated in the north and was adopted by the Confederacy. That (lets' call it an) assumption is problematic, as it projects positive feelings upon black people; feelings that likely did not exist. Another connotation stems from the fact that the tune was played in minstrel shows featuring white people in black face. Minstrel shows were overtly racist.

So yeah, the song itself may not be outwardly racist, but its appropriation is offensive to many.

 

kind of like splash mountain

 

Kind of like saying the Horst Wessel anthem in Nazi Germany didn’t call for the extermination of Jews so what’s wrong with singing it , but it’s actually been banned.

Sometimes it’s all in the context, not the literal words.

 

Can't say I've heard The Battle Hymn of the Republic in a very long time and I've now lived over half my life in a union state.

 

Lincoln didn’t cancel it. Of course he was a white supremacist.

 

Well, you can always go to a Winn-Dixie

 

Dixie cups. That way you can carry it next to your heart.

 

I am sure Ole Miss and other Southern schools including Florida playing it at football games while waving the confederate flag caused the song to become a symbol of racism. Most of that was when the schools were segregated but it continued at Ole Miss well after. I say that it was done here at Florida but could be wrong. I feel like it was from memory as a kid or from pictures in the past though. It seems to make more sense than the Gator Bait ban. That is just stupid as it was never about race in any way. I am old and grew up here and never heard it related to real alligators or race.

 

I'm pretty sure it was the army fighting for slavery that made it their anthem that caused it to be seen as symbol of racism or Confederate sympathy. I think everyone else after was thinking those guys kinda had a point. It is a nice song, but I'm content to hear it in a period movie or some kind of context that isnt meant to provoke. To another posters point, its not like music from 150+ years ago is especially popular with anyone in most contexts.

 

picturing someone eating pancakes with Aunt Jem

and buy some Aunt Jemima syrup and Uncle Ben's rice, maybe some old school cream of wheat while you're at it....

 

Maybe they should take a page from the Dixie Chicks and rename themselves Winn.

 

That would be an example of a song created by a Nazi for the Nazi party. Dixie predated the civil war and was composed by a northerner. Lincoln had it played after the south surrendered.

On April 10, 1865, one day after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln addressed a White House crowd:

I propose now closing up by requesting you play a certain piece of music or a tune. I thought "Dixie" one of the best tunes I ever heard ... I had heard that our adversaries over the way had attempted to appropriate it. I insisted yesterday that we had fairly captured it ... I presented the question to the Attorney-General, and he gave his opinion that it is our lawful prize ... I ask the Band to give us a good turn upon it.

 

The good news is that spotify has 100,000,000+ songs available that might replace it. Might take some time, however.

 

Perhaps there's a timeline where there wasn't a difficult and sometimes violent Reconstruction, we become a multiracial democracy, Jim Crow never happens, and Lost Cause nostalgia doesn't exist and the song is just a song, but we don't live in it. But you are correct about the origins (though left out that it was a minstrel show tune). Battle Hymn of the Republic was actually a sectarian song in origin, but I dont think people really associate it as anything other than American anymore. I mean a southern school (UGA) uses the tune.

 

I don't miss the song and never think about it, except for this thread. Just don't agree that it is equivalent to a song created specifically for Nazis.

 

That's true. I mean, the Battle Hymn is probably a closer analogue given it was derived from "John Browns Body," a song about an abolitionist martyr. But John Brown was cool, Horst Wessel was a Nazi.

 

Sure, but the people in the 1960's and 70's would not have known the song for the most part if it had not been such a popular song for high school and college football in the South in my opinion. At least I can't remember it being played anywhere else unless maybe a movie.