# Apparently, My Whistling Is Racist **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 29, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401 "2005-06-29T18:20:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/21 "2005-06-29T23:48:54Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Well, whistling Colonel Bogey (q.v. _Bridge on the River Kwai_) when there are Japanese around is frowned upon in these parts. What parts? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/22 "2005-06-29T23:49:00Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Not so much a band name, as a great name for a post-modern afro-centric performance art group of some sort. _I’d_ go see 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Shana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Shana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shana)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/23 "2005-06-30T00:02:02Z")
Thanks Hal…Your story actually made me cackle with delight. No small feat as I am feeling rather grumpy and pregnant right now. Glad everything worked out alright! ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/24 "2005-06-30T00:52:02Z")
Upon opening this thread, I pondered what brother **Hal** could have done to annoy. He doesn’t come across as the type who would whistle _Jump Down Turn Around Pick a Bale of Cotton_ in the workplace, or anyplace for that matter. Oh Lordy, deliver us from the hypersensitive. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/25 "2005-06-30T01:12:30Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > Are there really people **that** sensitive on this planet? Yes. I once got accused of sexual harrassment because I, shhhhh- was overheard mentioning to a coworker that I was going out with my girlfriend that night and it SERIOUSLY OFFENDED a born-again Christian at the office walking by. He didn’t have a problem with people discussing heterosexual relationships though. Or, apparently, the fact that our company was a search engine and our biggest advertisers/content was _porn_. No, apparently, goat sex, balloon fetishes, S&M, and grannies in corsets is fine, but NO HOMOS. He didn’t have many friends at the office, needless to say. ---
**Author:** ![corncobpipe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/65b543/32.png) [@corncobpipe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corncobpipe)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/26 "2005-06-30T02:46:52Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > _"You can’t be whistling that!_ That shit is bananas b-a-n-a-n-a-s ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/27 "2005-06-30T05:28:43Z")
I thought you might have been whistling the tune that I heard in a cartoon (dang if I can remember the production company) years ago. In it, some slow-walking wolf with a southern accent was trying to out-smart three pigs. Every time he was setting up another trap, he’d be whistling the tune to [Kingdom Comin’](http://www.civilwarmusic.net/display_song.php?song=jubilo) ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/28 "2005-06-30T11:22:04Z")
A slight hijack related to whistling and racism in a very round-about way. I can’t whistle because everytime my grandmother overheard me trying she’d say “a whistling woman should have her neck rung like a chicken” in Afrikaans. Terrified me enough that I never learned. Seems like Afrikaaners don’t like women whistling for some reason and they’re not a cultural group renowned for their racial sensitivity. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/29 "2005-06-30T11:44:34Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Well, whistling Colonel Bogey (q.v. _Bridge on the River Kwai_) when there are Japanese around is frowned upon in these parts. You’d better sing the words then, which are plainly nothing to do with the Japanese at all, and let’s face it, Hitler’s in no position to complain about the unsubstantiated allegations of being somewhat challenged downstairs. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/30 "2005-06-30T11:45:48Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > …Afrikaaners don’t like women whistling for some reason and they’re not a cultural group renowned for their racial sensitivity. Or any other sort, for that matter. 😛😃 ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/31 "2005-06-30T13:42:30Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > Well, it seems the issue has been cleared up. > > Our department has a grand total of one non-white – a very sweet, fun lady named Nancy. It seems that while coming in to work today, some inbred affront to Darwinism cut her off and yelled at her to “learn how to drive, ya fuckin’ nigger!”. > > She was understandably upset, and was feeling, as she put it, “very Afro-sensitive”. > > Now that some time has pased, she admits she completely overreacted to the whistling incident. She also made sure DeeDee didn’t take it any further. > > So, everything is cool now, and she laughed out loud when I walked away, whistling _Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos_. Don’t take this the wrong way, but damn you’ve got a talented tongue. Do you take requests? How about _By the Time I Get To Arizona? Fear Of A Black Planet? Bring The Noise?_ ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/32 "2005-06-30T13:53:58Z")
Just don’t whistle Dixie. (well, it made me laugh) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/33 "2005-06-30T13:56:24Z")
SO does this mean that if I hum German robot-pop, I’m at risk of offending the robosexual population? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/34 "2005-06-30T13:57:58Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Don’t take this the wrong way, but damn you’ve got a talented tongue. Do you take requests? How about _By the Time I Get To Arizona? Fear Of A Black Planet? Bring The Noise?_ Why thanks…the trick is to whistle while inhaling as well as exhaling. _By the Time I Get To Arizona_: I can pull off a passable version, but you’d probably wouldn’t know what I was whistling unless I told you. _Fear Of A Black Planet_: Ehhh…not one of my favorites. _Bring The Noise_: Oh, hell yeah! Anytime…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/35 "2005-06-30T14:59:55Z")
Oh, geez. I can’t believe how paranoid/overly sensetive some people are. There’s a world of difference between whistling a rap song and whistling Nazi war party songs (I don’t know if there actually _are_ any, but I wouldn’t have put it past them). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/36 "2005-06-30T15:43:04Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > Why thanks…the trick is to whistle while inhaling as well as exhaling. I can whistle _The Stars & Stripes Forever_. I wonder how many other talated whistlers we have around here. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/37 "2005-06-30T15:44:34Z")
No, I don’t mean just the “Be Kind To Your Web-Footed Friends” bit. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/38 "2005-06-30T16:09:09Z")
**Inkleberry** and **Lute Skywatcher** …thanks for the info. I’m going to go stick my head in the sand now. Someone pull me out if and when sanity is free to roam the earth unhindered. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Eboshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@Lady\_Eboshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Eboshi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/39 "2005-06-30T16:23:52Z")
> [@GrizzRich](#): > > I thought you might have been whistling the tune that I heard in a cartoon (dang if I can remember the production company) years ago. In it, some slow-walking wolf with a southern accent was trying to out-smart three pigs. Every time he was setting up another trap, he’d be whistling the tune to [Kingdom Comin’](http://www.civilwarmusic.net/display_song.php?song=jubilo) You’re thinking of MGM, who produced many Tex Avery cartoons. I believe the Southern talkin’ wolf was one of his creations. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401/40 "2005-06-30T16:35:53Z")
Hm. I guess I was committing a major misogynist hate crime when I whistled _Sugar Walls_ while I worked. Yes, I do whistle. Yes, I have whistled the tune _Sugar Walls_. No, I was not using it as a mating call. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-my-whistling-is-racist/310401.md?page=3)