Not defending it per se, nor getting my panties in a twist either. I am speculating that the issue was considered. I doubt that GH will receive substantial blowback over this, but I’m not ruling it out. As I implied, if they have issues 5-10 years down the road, they can just swap it out again.
I confess that I have 21st century/late 20th century biases. Lots of homophobia and misogyny in the popular media. Rather less explicitly bigoted bullying of blacks, though some are intent to change that.
My impression from the NPR article is that this was not widely known before Theodore Johnson’s research in 2014. So I suspect the Wikipedia information derived from that.
In any event, this is not the crux of the matter - I’m not at all objecting to killing off a jingle with racist connotations. It’s the bizarre double standard of then hiring a known homophobe and misogynist to write the replacement.
What is this supposed to mean? Do you think we should be ignoring the fact that they hired a musician who uses the slur “faggot” repeatedly in his songs? Yes I’m fucking outraged.
The “other” jingle commonly heard from ice cream trucks has always been “Pop Goes The Weasel”. Will this be next on the hit list? (Something about “monkeys” chasing “weasels”?)
Reassuringly, there doesn’t appear to be any deeply problematic content as depicted in the Wiki article. Pop Goes the Weasel - Wikipedia
(The article notes that during the Pop The Weasel craze of the 1850s, people didn’t know what the phrase meant either. That said, some say it was Cockney slang for pawning a coat.)
Looking at the Wiki page now, I don’t see any reference to the history. I’m not sure if it was there at the time, or if it was somewhere else, but this would have had to have been 2013 at the latest. I know this because I would sing to myself and my dogs as I bathed them, and I had an employee by 2014, and wouldn’t have been composing songs out loud.
But, it took me far more time to figure out the name of the song in order to get any information on it than it took me to find that it was used in minstrel shows. This was 7 or so years ago, so my memory is not the best on it, but I had a really great jingle to it that still makes me chuckle. I wouldn’t have abandoned it if I didn’t think it was problematic.
I also had one for “Row your Boat.” But apparently that one actually originated with minstrel shows, so that was definitely a no go. Racists ruin everything.
In any case, they are not killing off the jingle. Sounds like if you want to keep using it, you can. You just have an alternative.
I’m not outraged over the current jingle, and I see no reason to be outraged over words used in other songs that the person who wrote this new one made. I don’t really enjoy that genre of music, and don’t follow it much, largely because it is every type of “ist” or istic" you can put a suffix to, but who would you recommend that is above reproach in having never used any disapproved words? I have no idea of the context, and not all utterances of the the “f” word are slurs. A very brief google skim doesn’t show any specific accusations of RZA being homophobic, so other than the use of a word that I would agree could be used far less in nearly every context, especially rap, I’m not seeing where your particular outrage comes from.
Do you have examples of homophobia or other hate speech, other than the repeated observation that he has used a bad word?
I’m curious about those who are upset with this change: What do you propose? Should a private company not be permitted to change their jingle music, if they so choose? One might think that they’re making an unwise choice, or an unnecessary choice, but surely it’s still their choice to make?
If Good Humor had said they wanted to change the jingle because Turkey in the Straw was old and didn’t appeal to young people who are their market demographic, and then used RZA’s music because that’s what young people listen to, that would be fine.
But Good Humor is trying to get credit for being “woke” by changing the jingle for alleged racism and replacing it with a jingle written by someone famous for homophobic rap songs.
How tone deaf can you get? Racism bad, homophobia okay?
Afroman did a version called “Dicc Hang Low”. When I heard the jingle on the radio I had to wonder why they would choose this particular song for ice cream trucks. I won’t link to it but it’s on Youtube.