Difference between revisions of "Pickaninny Heaven by Kate Smith (1933)"

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[[Category: Black Racism in Song Lyrics]]
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[[Category: Black-Targeted Racism in Song Lyrics]]

Latest revision as of 07:48, 15 March 2021

Pickaninny Heaven Cover

Pickaninnies Heaven is a song released in 1933, written and composed by Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston. The song was a soundtrack of the film 1933’s Hello Everybody. [1]

The song was performed by Kate Smith and intended for colored children listened in a t an orphanage in New York City. The video showed the unkemptness of black children, while Smith sings "pickaninny heaven" where "Mammy" is waiting for them as well as "great big watermelons." [2]

Kate Smith

Key Lyrics

Little pickaninnies listen to the tale of a place that I know

It's twice as high as the moon

You get there in a balloon

Haven't you been told of the place where the good little pickaninnies go?

I've just been there so I ought to know

Great big watermelons roll around and get in your way

In the pickaninny heaven

Luscious pork chop bushes growin' right outside your doorway

In the pickaninnies' heaven

I've heart that they've even got a Swannee River made of real lemonade

And though the good lord took your mammy

She'll be waiting for you In the pickaninny heaven

Heaven

Heaven [3]

Controversy

Pickaninny Heaven was a song featured in the film Hello, Everybody! where Kate Smith addressed a group of orphans of African-American children. The track was basically encouraging these orphans to fantasize about the ideal afterlife, which refers to Pickaninny Heaven. However, the song was controversial and considered racist as the term pickaninny used in the word basically is a derogatory term for a black child since the 19th century. The term used in Jim Crow era to refer African-American children. [4] [5]

The impact of this song led Yankees, the Major League Baseball in New York, to stop playing Kate Smith’s God Bless America which had been used since 2001 as rediscovery of the song in April 2019. [6]

References

  1. Berish, Andrew. Kate Smith and Our Minstrel Past. June 16, 2019. musicologynow.org. Retrieved January 21, 2021
  2. Tsioulcas, Anastasia. Kate Smith's 'God Bless America' Dropped By Two Major Sports Teams. April 22, 2019. wwno.org. Retrieved January 21, 2021
  3. Pickaninny Heaven by Kate Smith. Song Facts. Retrieved January 21, 2021
  4. Pickaninny Heaven by Kate Smith. songfacts.com. Retrieved January 21, 2021
  5. Anglin, Maria. What Kate Smith, bless her, might say. April 27, 2019. apnews.com. Retrieved January 21, 2021
  6. Anglin, Maria. What Kate Smith, bless her, might say. April 27, 2019. apnews.com. Retrieved January 21, 2021