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Yankees ban Kate Smith's 'God Bless America' over 'history of potential racism'
Victor Morton April 18, 2019
The New York Yankees‘ anti-racism efforts have extended to pulling from their seventh-inning stretch a famous recording of the legendary Kate Smith singing “God Bless America.â€
Not because anyone has complained that the song is racist, but because Smith recorded other racially-insensitive standards from and during the Jim Crow era.
The Yankees pulled Smith’s “God Bless America†from the rotation at the start of the season, but the New York Daily News reported the reason Thursday — “the Yankees were made aware of Smith’s history of potential racism.â€
According to the Daily News, the “potential racism†of which the Yankees were made aware included that she recorded “Pickaninny Heaven,†a jingle about black children where, among other things, they fantasize about “great big watermelons.†She recorded a film clip to promote the song at a black orphanage and, the Daily News reported, “much of the imagery is startlingly racist.â€
She also endorsed a “mammy doll†in 1939, which the Daily News said resembles the Aunt Jemima caricature.
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