Sunday 24th - C-Nooks and Jim Crow

I didn't do a great deal today.  Went to Emmanuel at 10.30 and  I have just updated my C-Nook.  The newest version has a much longer battery life, which will be useful when travelling.  Its main feature though is the way it is lit, so I will be able to read it a lot easier in bright sunshine.   I think there must be a newer one about to be launched because this was being sold at a bargain price.

 

Anyway, it arrived on Saturday afternoon and had to be charged for four hours, so I couldn't do anything about it until today, so this afternoon I set off for Barnes and Noble in Norman.  Transferring all the data from the old one is far too technologically challenging for me, and the kind lady in B & N did it all in fifteen minutes.

I pulled into a Sonic for a hamburger on the way.......and

I had a cup of tea in Starbucks in the middle of the store, while I made sure before leaving that I was comfortable using it.   I didn't hang about though, I left home at 1 o'clock and was back by 4.30.

 

Theoretically I was home in time for the Sunday evening cookery competitions, however I have not been sleeping well, and combined with - what is to me - a long drive, it all caught up with me.

 

With all the racial tensions going on at the moment in Missouri the phrase 'Jim Crow laws' , referring to the laws and racist attitudes used to oppress blacks in the southern United States is being bandied about a lot. By the way, when 'niggers' became an offensive term they were referred to as 'negroes' but that is no longer pc, they now have to be called 'blacks'   - I tell you, you have to keep up here.

 

Anyway, in my naïveté I wondered who Jim Crow was and thought I'd look him up, seeing as how you can find out anything now on Google.   And this was what I discovered......

That ‘Jump Jim Crow’ was actually a song performed in the 1830s by a white entertainer, who darkened his face with cork and costumed himself as a plantation slave, he then became nationally famous performing this song in variety theatres.  The spellings and punctuation of the song were all designed to reinforce an ugly racial stereotype.

 

I also discovered this eye opening little piece - at least it was eye opening to me.

The American musical has one shameful chapter in its history – minstrel shows. The most popular musical stage shows of the early and mid 19th Century, minstrelsy embodied racial hatred. Both white and black performers donned blackface, and audiences of all colors loved it. Hateful as their content was, minstrel shows were the first form of musical theatre that was 100% American-born and bred.

Ohhhhhhhhh Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaar............They were popular in the mid 20th century when I was a child.   I LOVED the Black and White Minstrels.   I used to eagerly sit down in front of our 9" television to listen to their catchy little tunes and dances.   I can't for the life of me remember the lyrics, but as a child I knew nothing about the US, the Civil War, and racial tensions so they would have gone over my head anyway.