# Morning briefing: Flyers' removal of Kate Smith statue angers the singer's niece



## The Last Stand (Apr 23, 2019)

https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-kate-smith-flyers-morning-briefing-20190423-story.html



Spoiler: First article









Kate Smith sings "God Bless America" before an NHL playoff game between the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers on May 13, 1975. (Associated Press)

Kate Smith’s niece said she is “appalled” by the decision of the Philadelphia Flyers to remove a statue of the singer after the team learned that she performed racially insensitive songsnearly 90 years ago.
“Aunt Katherine was probably one of the kindest people I’ve ever met,” Suzy Andron toldCBS Philly. “She was certainly anything but a prejudice person. She loved everybody.”
The Flyers said Sunday in a statement that the songs “Pickaninny Heaven” and “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” recorded by Smith in the 1930s, “include lyrics and sentiments that are incompatible with the values of our organization, and evoke painful and unacceptable themes.”
Defenders of the second song — which includes the lyrics, “Someone had to pick the cotton … that’s why darkies were born” — describe it as a satire and point out that Paul Robeson, an African American singer, also recorded it.
The Flyers started playing Smith’s “God Bless America” instead of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1969, and she performed the song before several games during the next two decades, including the team’s Stanley Cup-clinching victory over the Boston Bruins in 1974. The Flyers said they will no longer play the singer’s version before games.
Smith died in 1986, and the Flyers erected a statue in her honor the following year, which will now be removed from outside the Wells Fargo Center.
*Fighting birds*
Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson thinks Donovan McNabb is the greatest quarterback in team history. He also thinks the man is a snake.
Johnson offered both opinions Sunday afterMcNabb basically gave current quarterback Carson Wentz a two-year window to get the Eagles into the NFC championship game.
Appearing on CBS Sports Radio this weekend, McNabb said of the oft-injured Wentz: “I think in the next two, three … two years or so, he has to find a way to get in the second round, or out of the second round of the playoffs. … He hasn’t been healthy. If he can’t get out of the second round, they should look to possibly draft another quarterback, because they just don’t know about his durability.”
Johnson lashed out at the six-time Pro Bowl player on Twitter with no fewer than six snake emojis.


> Lane Johnson
> 
> *✔*@LaneJohnson65
> https://twitter.com/LaneJohnson65/status/1120135135993696256
> ...



4,146 people are talking about this



Johnson lashed out at the six-time Pro Bowl player on Twitter with no fewer than six snake emojis.
“You would think the best quarterback in franchise history would try to build up a young man that looks up to him instead of always criticizing him, critiquing him and wishing he would fail so he could be the missing link and feel better about himself,” Johnson said later on a radio show.
McNabb insists it was nothing personal.
“My comments were strictly based off of experience and understanding of how The Business of football works,” he tweeted Monday. “You are consistently evaluated everyday, every game [on] if you are reliable or healthy enough to play. … It’s the nature of the game.”


> Donovan McNabb
> 
> *✔*@donovanjmcnabb
> https://twitter.com/donovanjmcnabb/status/1120371358041542657
> ...



589 people are talking about this





> Donovan McNabb
> 
> *✔*@donovanjmcnabb
> https://twitter.com/donovanjmcnabb/status/1120371899870085120
> ...



95 people are talking about this





> Donovan McNabb
> 
> *✔*@donovanjmcnabb
> https://twitter.com/donovanjmcnabb/status/1120372897841909763
> ...



266 people are talking about this




https://www.latimes.com/sports/spor...lyers-statue-racist-songs-20190419-story.html



Spoiler: Second article



The Philadelphia Flyers have draped a black cloth over a statue of singer Kate Smith that sits outside the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia after unearthing songs with racially insensitive lyrics by Smith in the 1930s.
This comes a day after the New York Yankees announced they will suspend the playing of Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch at Yankee Stadium. The club had been playing the song since 2001 in the wake of 9/11.
The Flyers began playing Smith’s version of “God Bless America” in place of “The Star Spangled Banner” in 1969. Smith performed the song throughout the 1970s at Flyers’ games, which led to the team erecting a statue of her in 1987.
Flyers officials said in a statement, “We have recently become aware that several songs performed by Kate Smith contain offensive lyrics that do not reflect our values as an organization.
"As we continue to look into this serious matter, we are removing Kate Smith’s recording of 'God Bless America’ from our library and covering up the statue that stands outside of our arena.”
The Yankees, in their statement, said, “The Yankees take social, racial and cultural insensitivities very seriously. And while no final conclusions have been made, we are erring on the side of sensitivity.”
Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America” in 1918 during World War I and revised the track 20 years later during World War II with Smith doing the vocals on the 1938 version.
Smith died in 1986.


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## TerribleIdeas™ (Apr 23, 2019)

Is this a new record for how far back people have gone to get offended?


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## Male Idiot (Apr 23, 2019)

Nigger Loves A Watermelon
					

Still from Performance Piece, Video, Screen Capture from Original 1896 Short film titled "The Watermelon Eating Contest", 2017 Included in this piece is…




					vimeo.com
				




Watermelon is good eatings! Though we should teach them the proper eastern europe way, so they eat it with powdered sugar and in tracksuit as God intended!


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## IV 445 (Apr 23, 2019)

TerribleIdeas™ said:


> Is this a new record for how far back people have gone to get offended?


They have reached as far back as the Cambrian period when Pikia had only two genders of its species.

Kidding, but they will.


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## HomeAloneTwo (Apr 23, 2019)

Its funny because the Flyer fans have no problem calling one of their own players the N word during a game.


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## Ruin (Apr 23, 2019)

They know they can leave right? No one's forcing them to stay in evil racist America. They can easily go be kangz and queenz somewhere else.


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## The Last Stand (Apr 23, 2019)

Ruin said:


> They know they can leave right? No one's forcing them to stay in evil racist America. They can easily go be kangz and queenz somewhere else.


I want to bet the people complaining or made the decision aren't even black.


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## Ineedahero (Apr 23, 2019)

The Last Stand said:


> Appearing on CBS Sports Radio this weekend, McNabb said of the oft-injured Wentz: “I think in the next two, three … two years or so, he has to find a way to get in the second round, or out of the second round of the playoffs. … He hasn’t been healthy. If he can’t get out of the second round, they should look to possibly draft another quarterback, because they just don’t know about his durability.”


That wasn't Donovan McNabb, that was Alvin from the Cosby show.


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## Slappy McGherkin (Apr 23, 2019)

TerribleIdeas™ said:


> Is this a new record for how far back people have gone to get offended?



Well, they have gone further back with destroying Confederate war hero statues. But yeah, IF WE CAN JUST REWRITES HISTORY -- no one will be offended anymores! 

Absolutely redonk-u-lous.


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## AlephOne2Many (Apr 23, 2019)

To erase or "adjust the placement" of history is a blight on society.


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## Male Idiot (Apr 23, 2019)

NumberingYourState said:


> To erase or "adjust the placement" of history is a blight on society.



It is a very old trick, much loved by commies especially.


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## Feline Supremacist (Apr 23, 2019)

For the longest ice cream trucks in Upper Manhattan played the Nigger Loves a Watermelon jingle and not a single person cared. I bet some still play it.

Someone also planted a bunch of cotton shrubs in Harlem too, it's damn annoying when it's windy and they bloom. I'm the only one who cares and once asked my co-workers is this like a bad joke? They just laughed it off.


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## RadicalCentrist (Apr 23, 2019)

Feline Supremacist said:


> For the longest ice cream trucks in Upper Manhattan played the Nigger Loves a Watermelon jingle and not a single person cared. I bet some still play it.


Every ice cream truck I have heard has had that jingle.  Never knew its origins lmao


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## Chocolate Guy (Apr 23, 2019)

Maybe they'll melt the statue down into a replica of the Stanley Cup so they can pretend to have won something for the first time in 40+ years.


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## Ineedahero (Apr 23, 2019)

Feline Supremacist said:


> For the longest ice cream trucks in Upper Manhattan played the Nigger Loves a Watermelon jingle and not a single person cared. I bet some still play it.
> 
> Someone also planted a bunch of cotton shrubs in Harlem too, it's damn annoying when it's windy and they bloom. I'm the only one who cares and once asked my co-workers is this like a bad joke? They just laughed it off.


I thought that song was 'do your balls hang low'. I can't believe it, I could have been a much more offensive child just by using the original lyrics.


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## break these cuffs (Apr 23, 2019)

TerribleIdeas™ said:


> Is this a new record for how far back people have gone to get offended?


Just off the top of my head for music, a couple years ago some commie professor REEEEd about how racist Jingle Bells is during Christmas. That's from 1850s.


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## Judge Holden (Apr 24, 2019)

1) Tiny number of miserable assholes on the fringe of society loudly complain about a non issue while claiming to represent some great "silent majority" despite the fact that nobody outside their number gives a flying fuck or has even heard of them or the shit they complain about

2) Spineless PR obsessed companies desperate for more customers bend over backwards to appease them, thinking it will get them proverbial magical beans that will forever win them the love and shekels of all those the miserable assholes claim to represent forever

3) Tiny numbers of miserable assholes claim victory and use this to "prove" they are indeed the majority view and thus to assume more legitimacy in bullying others, while the companies that sold out to them either continue stagnating or crumble away even faster.

This pattern is eternal.


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## Super-Chevy454 (Apr 24, 2019)

The New York Yankees should had checked if they throwed their rock from a house of glass instead of removing Kate Smith song. https://www.americanthinker.com/blo...cist_kate_smiths_or_the_new_york_yankees.html



> Whose past is more racist: Kate Smith's or the New York Yankees'?
> By Neil Braithwaite
> The New York Yankees Major League Baseball franchise took Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless America" off its seventh-inning stretch playlist when its managers learned of the singer's "history" of racism.  Evidently, as reported in the New York Daily News, Kate Smith recorded a song and video in 1939 with blatant racist content.
> 
> ...


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## Kiwi Lime Pie (Apr 29, 2019)

RadicalCentrist said:


> Every ice cream truck I have heard has had that jingle. Never knew its origins lmao



The last ice cream truck that came through my area played this on a constant loop. An instrumental of _Turkey in the Straw_ - or its racist predecessor - would  have been an improvement.

Relating to the OP, I'm not sure what to think when SJWs and their ilk are so desparate to find microaggressions to scREEch about that they start digging back several decades, scraping the bottom of the barrel in the process, to find stuff that should be nothingburgers to anyone with any sort of thinking skills. Yes, there are times in past American history when people addressed minorities with less respect and dignity than they deserved. Erasing old history solves nothing in the present day, however, especially if we're to take that history and use it to learn what not to repeat.


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## Recoil (Apr 29, 2019)

Feline Supremacist said:


> For the longest ice cream trucks in Upper Manhattan played the Nigger Loves a Watermelon jingle and not a single person cared. I bet some still play it.
> 
> Someone also planted a bunch of cotton shrubs in Harlem too, it's damn annoying when it's windy and they bloom. I'm the only one who cares and once asked my co-workers is this like a bad joke? They just laughed it off.


Holy shit, that's hilarious - I've lived in various hoods over the years where that song gets blared loud enough to pierce project walls & all the kids go running from every building. That's the title of the song? That's madness. I know the trucks crank it louder when they get to poor neighborhoods, I wonder how many ice cream men are in on the joke?


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## MistressCaridad (Apr 29, 2019)

Kiwi Lime Pie said:


> The last ice cream truck that came through my area played this on a constant loop. An instrumental of _Turkey in the Straw_ - or its racist predecessor - would have been an improvement.



The whole “RAAAAACIST ICE CREAM TRUCK REEEEEEEEEE” thing was way overblown.

Turkey in the Straw was an old, old folk tune for fiddle that dated back to the very early 1800s and all the other incarnations (Niggo Loves A Watermelon, Zip Coon, etc) came after. The bleeding hearts at NPR and other news outlets who made a big deal of racist ice cream trucks got it wrong.

As to the Yankees... they could have very easily had Willie Mays and Ernie Banks if not for their unwillingness to sign black players. They had a guy named Tom Baird helping them scout. Mr Baird was the owner of the Kansas City Monarchs and also a member of the KKK.

But sure, okay, Kate Smith is “cancelled” because she sang a satirical song that was originally made popular by a black singer/musician. Guess if image and $$$$ are at stake then hypocrisy is acceptable.


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