(October 9, 2023)
The most hateful song
couched in who-picks-first baseball*
"...My mother told me..."
"they" changed "the name" to "tiger"
"...if he hollers let him go..."
*(Sandlot ritual in which neighborhoods - though sometimes just a few streets provide the competition on an empty, stony, big pine tree root-cluttered backstop to serve as catcher for both squads - pick up teammates from available resources by clasping opposing hands on a bat, one after another until the topmost hand grips the club's fat rim as players chant "Eenie, Meanie, Miney, Moe, Catch A Nigger By The Toe; if he hollers, let him go. My mother told me to pick the very best one, and you are it." Our gang didn't resort to the offensive ditty, though there were some among us who did - and worse. If I were either Meeney or Moe (or Eenie or even Miney) I'd sure object to being included in the bigotry. Besides, how did "Mom" get included in the quest to pick sides? It's bigotry, not racist, people. Bigotry is putting one ethnicity ahead of another by word or deed; racist (and its close cousin racism) is the provably false belief in the natural superiority of one "race" over another. Actually, since there is but one "race" of homo sapiens left on planet Earth, such activity is akin to committing the same foolishness time after time in the lame belief the results eventually will change to your heart's desire. Lenny Bruce, for all his famous faults had it right: do not ban objectionable words, it just gives them cachet which otherwise they could not so claim, but instead use them - the most offensive the better - until the words themselves become meaningless. Time to put such words into the ice box and lock the door.)
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