Was Kate Smith a Racist?
by John Lawrence, May 10, 2019
Kate Smith, whose rendition of "God Bless America" has become a second national anthem, has been recently called out for being a racist based on the fact that she recorded a couple of songs in the 1930s with lyrics considered racist by today's standards. In the 1930s they didn't cause too much concern; they were just a part of the culture that no one complained about. Times have changed and standards have changed. The songs, “Pickaninny Heaven” and “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” which was also recorded by the African-American singer and activist Paul Robeson, had titles and lyrics that demean black people by today's standards. The furor has caused the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Flyers, two sports teams that featured Smith's rendition of "God Bless America," to take down her rendition and replace it with someone else's.
Although the racist history of the US is unfortunate, it is part of our history, and a person who was just participating in the culture of her day, but was not an overt racist shouldn't be trashed. The Flyers even took down a statue of Kate Smith outside their stadium. No one is suggesting that Paul Robeson, a black man, was a racist even though he sang the same song. In Wildwood, NJ, however, where playing Kate Smith's "God Bless America" is a sort of tradition, they will continue playing it.
Smith was a foundational figure in pop culture during World War II and used her fame to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the U.S. government's war efforts. During one 18-hour broadcast on the CBS radio network alone, she helped raise more than $100 million in war bonds. (That would amount to more than $1.4 billion in 2019 dollars.) The sensitivity to racism has reached new heights just like the sensitivity to male-female relationships as exemplified by the #MeToo movement. When hair sniffing and invading somebody's personal space can be subjects for serious debate in the media, the whole subject of correct behavior has become ridiculous and is taking space and time that should be devoted to serious issues of the day like climate change.
Frank Sinatra made a lot of racial jokes at the expense of Sammy Davis Jr but it was just considered inoffensive banter. Frank wasn't considered a racist. In fact, despite the jokes, Frank benefited black people in numerous ways including the way of including Sammy in the Rat Pack. If any reference to black people is considered racist, then the songs of Stephen Foster like Old Black Joe must be eliminated from the American lexicon. And "Yankee Doodle Went to Town" can't be sung any more because it contains the line "And with the girls be handy."
NJ 101.5 reprinted a speech made by Kate Smith:
"It seems to me that faith in the decency of human beings is what we must have more of, if there is to be a future for all of us in this world. We read in the papers every day about conferences on the best way to keep the peace. Well, I’m not an expert on foreign affairs — and I don’t pretend to know all the complex things that will have to be done for a lasting peace. But I am a human being — and I do know something about people. I know that our statesmen — our armies of occupation — our military strategists — may all fail if the peoples of the world don’t learn to understand and tolerate each other. Race hatreds — social prejudices — religious bigotry — they are the diseases that eat away the fibers of peace. Unless they are exterminated it’s inevitable that we will have another war. And where are they going to be exterminated? At a conference table in Geneva? Not by a long shot. In your own city — your church — your children’s school — perhaps in your own home. You and I must do it – every father and mother in the world, every teacher, everyone who can rightfully call himself a human being. Yes, it seems to me that the one thing the peoples of the world have got to learn if we are ever to have a lasting peace, is — tolerance. Of what use will it be if the lights go on again all over the world — if they don’t go on … in our hearts."
Life is complicated. The main thing is that standards are being raised supposedly although hate mongers and racists are still among us. Going back over history and condemning every person who participated in the popular culture of the time, however unfortunate, is a ridiculous exercise in inanity.
