Black Parents Storm Out Of Own Children’s Concert When They Hear ‘Racist’ Song Choice

As Ohio families gathered to hear their children perform for this year’s fall concert, seventh and eighth graders took the stage to proudly perform their song selection. However, as soon as they began one of their show tunes, outraged black parents stormed out of their own children’s concert because of the school’s “racist” song choice.

When Springfield Middle School’s seventh and eighth-grade choir kicked-off their concert, several black families walked out over what they’re calling a “racist” song selection. (Photo Credit: Facebook, BotBIn/Wikimedia Commons)

As political correctness is enforced by the liberal community, censorship, hypersensitivity, and identity politics threaten to further divide our nation. Disturbingly, if even one individual deems something offensive, regardless of facts or intention, heads are sure to roll.

Although these social justice warriors claim to fight racism, they not only trivialize actual racial injustice but strive to erode our nation’s history and heritage. Sadly, their hair-trigger sensibilities are not only suppressing the majority but have now taken to ruining children’s concerts with their own thin-skinned theatrics.

When Springfield Middle School seventh and eighth graders gathered for their fall choir concert, they expected proud parents to marvel at the songs they had dedicatedly practiced for weeks. Instead, confused students watched as several families interrupted their performance by angrily walking out in the middle of their song.

The Blade reports that black parents stormed out in the middle of their own children’s performance because the students were singing the old folk song “Cotton Needs Pickin,” which several families deemed “racist.”The outraged parents audaciously argued that because the song references harvesting cotton, it denigrates black people.

While attending their daughter’s performance, Alonzo Maulsby, who is black, and his wife, Nicole, immediately walked out of the auditorium after gleaning the song’s words. Nicole then equated the song choice to hurling the “n-word” at black people.

The song, which is registered as an American folk song in the Library of Congress, is not considered a traditional slave song and makes no mention of blacks in the south. However, the Maulsbys and another anonymous black woman have taken offense to the song choice, arguing that it specifically disparages blacks during a dark time in U.S. history.

Below is a section of the song’s lyrics:

Oh, cotton needs pickin’ so bad,

Cotton needs pickin’ so bad,

Cotton needs pickin’ so bad,

We’re going to pick all over this field.

We planted this cotton in April,

Under the light of the moon,

We’ve had a hot, dry summer,

That’s why it opened so soon.

Oh hurry up, hurry up, children,

Look at the weather vane,

The wet wind’s blowing t’ward us,

I think it’s going to rain.

Radio host Charlie Mack joined in the criticism on Facebook, accusing the school of racial insensitivity following a controversial rally in which students posed with the Confederate flag a week earlier.

“Come on Springfield. This is the song you sing just a week after the confederate flag issue?” Mack wrote on Facebook, according to the Blade.

However, Springfield Schools Superintendent Matt Geha replied that the song had been chosen in August and that students were performing the rendition to honor a vital aspect of American history.

“I know that timing can sound bad, but it’s a historical component for what the choir department had to use for their curriculum,” he said.

While several of the black families surmised that the song references black plantation slaves, the comment section was inundated with individuals explaining that the majority of cotton pickers were poor white farmers. Some even claim to have harvested the crop themselves.

“I picked cotton on my grandparent’s farms in Oklahoma and Texas as a child. We are whiteys. So absurd.”

“Amazing fact, there were many many poor white sharecroppers picking cotton before and after the war.”

“I’m white. My ancestors were poor and they picked cotton too. Get over yourselves, Snowflakes.”

“My Grandmother (Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma by horse drawn wagon) and her family and then when she married my grandfather along with their kids my mom and two uncles picked cotton. They told me they would be out picking cotton by 4 to 5 each morning when it was wet since they would get paid by the pound and wet cotton weighs more. Guess what! They were white!! They did that up through the 50’s at least! I was born late 70’s and I picked tassels off of corn in Iowa! I was 12 when I could. Before that I was delivering papers at the age of 7! So where the hell is this racists crap coming from?”

Others explained that forgetting our history, including the unpleasant parts, is a dangerous move that dooms us to repeat our mistakes. Regardless of the fact that a mixture of Americans was and still is involved in the harvest of cotton, these students weren’t making light of anyone who picked the crop. In fact, they were respectfully paying homage to this crucial aspect of our country’s economy.

Still, these performers were just kids who had worked hard on their performance and didn’t deserve to be disrespected or used for a few easily offended listeners’ political campaign. Sadly, even children are at the mercy of baseless political correctness simply because a few immature and uneducated adults cannot control their emotions.

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