UK: Baa baa rainbow sheep...?

Post Reply New Topic

This sort of thing is a disgrace.

Let's have a look at the original nursery rhyme, shall we?

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.

One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.

Please help me find the racism and xenophobia in these words, because I'm damned if I can see them.

The 'diversity' industry is creating this dangerous nonsense and I suspect real ethnic minority people are not consulted on the vast majority of these ridiculous moves.

Meanwhile, most real racists will simply carry on with almost no chance of being identified by these mindless cretins.

We have alot of these in British culture, fundamentally the racism is actually very suttle because its just a reflection of the times. Nursery rhymes you never really look deeply into as a child but alot of them are quite messed up in some way or another.

Ring around a roses is about people dying from the black death

And the one you've picked is, i imagine, a referance to the use of black slave labour in cotton farms of southern america and the sugar cane farms of the carribean. Which doesn't make sense when its talking about wool but either way that is actually its point of origin.

I have an encycolpedia for kids from the 1930's and my goodness its amazing the kind of content thats in it. Even the most anti-PC of us would find it a very alien book to read. Infact when I next go home in april I will have to pick it up so I can quote from it. It really gives you a good reflection of the racist attitude of people at the time towards the conquered subjects of the British Empire and its within the last 100 years.
I pciked it up from a pub in Great Yarmouth just purely out of coincidence and i think its a fascinating insight into issues that your raising because you see the origins of some of our culture has a very dodgy past

Like the word Chav. Never consulted the travelling/gypsy community of this country if they were offended by this word, when the community found out about it they found it very funny and confusing that so much offense was generated over a word that means boy in romani.

No, all uses of "Black" should not be "blacked" just because of some fancied slight.
Doubly so when it is illusory.

Similarly the move to change the name of Market Jew Street in Penzance, because of the supposed racial slight. That the name has nothing to do with the Jewish race at all, but is derived from the Cornish "Marghasyou" meaning Thursday market, has not really disarmed those so inclined.

Trouble is, are people prepared to wait and check for reality, or will they fire up, and off, at mere perceptions?


And yes, you don't have to go far to find real racism and prejudice in say, Bulldog Drummond, or the early Rupert books. But that doesn't mean you have to see it where it isn't.

Last edited by Emettman on 07 Mar 2006, 4:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i agree. and it infuriates me, because it lumps real anti-racist (etc.) work in with this sort of hysterical, PC BS, and devalues it.

interesting book there, though, laz - care to give the details?

Haven't got it on me

Its basically a teenagers encyclopedia printed in the 1930's covers quite lot, history, british empire, bilogy, science, history. Its hard to describe but the way it is written is so vulgar and blunt/un-pc that i find it quite amusing. There is racist content in it, theres quite dodgy politics in it as well. It just reflects the times really. Rise of the nazi's, great depression and the aftermath of world war 1.

Have any of you been on the recieving end of racist attacks out of curiosity?

yep.

Same here sadly

I always thought that the rhyme mentions black sheep because in a normal flock of English white sheep, there is the occasional completely black sheep. I used to love watching new lambs in the fields round my home to see if any black ones were born. I can't understand why they would want to change the rhyme to a colour that isn't found in sheep. If some overly politically correct pen pushers think, wrongly, that anyone is offended by 'black' sheep, why not change it to 'white' sheep? A few years ago a council wanted to change it to 'green' sheep. Crazy

What is a rainbow sheep? I've seen black ones but rainbow. Europeans complian about Geneticly altered food but want geneticly modified sheep?



I agree with vetivert on this

baa baa hippy beatnick sheep have you any dope?
yes mon yes mon 3 blocks full mon
one for the godfather
one for ma be'yatch
And one for ma dealer who lives down the lane

I really look forward to you posting sometimes Laz, this was good