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David and Tom, 

As one of the pitifully few members of ARSC who are of African descent ('Black" if you need me to spell it out), I must say that I always find it interesting that the most outspoken critics of political correctness are usually NOT the people for whom political correctness was meant to shelter from racist speech, images, etc. I happen to have a thicker skin than most, yet I find myself subconsciously cringing every time I hear the so called "N" word no matter what the context (and I don't buy that clap trap that the "N" word wasn't offensive in the day). Since neither of you gentlemen will ever have that word hurled at you the way it has been at me, I think your calling political correctness a "cancer" instead of racism interesting and while I understand that political correctness can go overboard at times, I see nothing wrong with trying to ease the years of hurt that certain people in this society has had to endure for so long when racist words and images were "acceptable." Think about it gentlemen. Do we really need to call a football team the Washington Redskins, if it offends Native Americans? Just my 2 cents worth and I really don't want to go into a long series of emails about this. 

Vincent Pelote 
----- Original Message -----

From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]> 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 11:38:28 AM 
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pittsburgh's Stephen Foster Memorial Museum 

Hi David: 

This is the politically "correct" thought police at work. It's a cancer on American society, created 
and nurtured in academia. It's disgusting to me, because it's dishonest and anti-truth. It's 
straight out of George Orwell, as are most far-left academic notions. Totally agree about Stephen 
Foster. He was a major part of American musical and cultural history, whether his lyrics "offend" 
people whose default stance is moral "outrage" or not. 

-- Tom Fine 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "DAVID BURNHAM" <[log in to unmask]> 
To: <[log in to unmask]> 
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 11:21 AM 
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pittsburgh's Stephen Foster Memorial Museum 


>I think one of the sadest developments in American musical history is the ostracizing of Stephen 
>Foster's music because he is described as being "racist". Stephen Foster wrote prolifically about a 
>period in history which was cruel to African Americans, (although, of course, he never used that 
>expression), but he always described them as honest, God fearing, family oriented, loving people. 
>Sure, some of his songs containg the "N" word, but he lived in a time when that word wasn't used as 
>offensively as it is today. 
> Gilbert, of Gilbert and Sullivan was a very morally upright person who would not knowingly offend 
> anyone, but he used the "N" word twice in "Mikado", (which is occasionally described as offensive 
> to the Japanese). 
> "Showboat" is often described as racist. When it was to be shown in Toronto to open a new concert 
> venue over 20 years ago, there were huge outcries from protesters who obviously didn't understand 
> the work at all. "Showboat" was a curageous statement AGAINST racism at a time when racist 
> sentiments were quite acceptable, (late '20s). The very first word in "Showboat" is the "N" word, 
> (I'm not spelling it out because I don't want to offend anybody and if there is automatic 
> monitoring of ARSC posts, the presence of the word would cause the post to be rejected), and that 
> word is used throughout "Showboat", but anyone who knows "Showboat" knows it's anything but 
> racist. Paul Robeson was a very outspoken critic of anything racist and would not participate in 
> anything which was offensive to anyone, yet he was proud to appear in "Showboat" and "Old Man 
> River" almost became his theme song. 
> db 
> 
> 
> On Monday, April 27, 2015 10:56 AM, "Williams, Tim" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> 
> 
> Though not as big or eccentric as the Bayernhof Museum, Pittsburgh's Stephen Foster Memorial 
> Museum is much more accessible and quick to tour: 
> 
> 
> http://www.pitt.edu/~amerimus/Museum.htm 
> 
> 
> It's on Forbes Avenue (lots of buses go from Downtown up Forbes) in Oakland, at the foot of the 
> University of Pittburgh's gigantic Cathedral of Learning and across the street from the Carnegie 
> Museums and Library and the Dippy the Dinosaur statue. 
> 
> 
> 
> See lots of you folks a month from now! 
> 
> Tim 
> 
> 
> Timothy R. Williams 
> 
> Librarian 
> 
> Music, Film & Audio Department 
> 
> Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh 
> 
> 
> 
> Check out this list of Pittsburgh jazz musicians: 
> 
> http://carnegielibrary.org/research/music/pittsburgh/pittsburghjazzmusicians.html 
> 
> 
> 
> 



-- 
Vincent Pelote 
Interim Director 
Institute of Jazz Studies 
Rutgers University 
Dana Library 
185 University Avenue 
Newark, NJ 07102 
phone: 973-353-5595 
email: [log in to unmask]