# Mammy? Offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 27, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447 "2006-05-27T14:31:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/1 "2006-05-27T14:31:39Z")
My daughter was in a song and dance recital where someone sang a solo of “Mammy”. There was nothing obviously offensive with the song. Yet, that word has negative connotations. Why? (Was it once sang in “black face”?) What’s the SD? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/2 "2006-05-27T14:33:18Z")
Rent _The Jazz Singer._ Al Jolson sings “Mammy” in blackface. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_jazz\_singer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_jazz_singer) ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/3 "2006-05-27T14:36:07Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > (Was it once sang in “black face”?) What’s the SD? 😕 [That’s pretty much it.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Al_Jolson_Jazz_Singer.JPG) From the Wikipedia article: > [@](#): > > His legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because of his use of stage blackface, at the time a theatrical convention used by many performers (both white and black), but today viewed by many as racially insensitive. According to the article, he performed Mammy in blackface in **The Jazz Singer**. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/4 "2006-05-27T15:00:34Z")
Pfft. Just tell her to tell people that she’s doing the version from “Liza with a Z”. Liza’s was better than Jolson’s anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/5 "2006-05-27T15:07:42Z")
> [@Linty Fresh](#): > > From the Wikipedia article [on Al Jolson- **BoD**]: > His legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because of his use of stage blackface, at the time a theatrical convention used by many performers (both white and black), but today viewed by many as racially insensitive. I may just Wiki-up myself and alter that entry as follows: _His legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because he was a hopeless eye-rolling ham with a voice like a steam-powered kazoo._ ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/6 "2006-05-27T15:12:56Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > I may just Wiki-up myself and alter that entry as follows: > > _His legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because he was a hopeless eye-rolling ham with a voice like a steam-powered kazoo._ I do give him a pass for those mannerisms. He was literally pioneering the transition from silents, and eye-rolling hamminess (and not-ready-for-talkies voices) were pretty much non-sins then. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/7 "2006-05-27T15:14:20Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I do give him a pass for those mannerisms. He was literally pioneering the transition from silents, and eye-rolling hamminess (and not-ready-for-talkies voices) were pretty much non-sins then. As was performing in blackface. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/8 "2006-05-27T16:46:19Z")
It does call back to a more racist era. Still, if I saw a kid singing it at a dance recital, I’d probably just laugh my ass off. How old was this singer? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/9 "2006-05-27T17:19:20Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I do give him a pass for those mannerisms. He was literally pioneering the transition from silents, and eye-rolling hamminess (and not-ready-for-talkies voices) were pretty much non-sins then. Well, to be fair, Al Jolson was not himself any more of a pioneer than any other contract actor of the time. He just lucked into a place in history on a technicality. Sure, _The Jazz Singer_ is the first studio feature film with synchronized dialog, but notice how many qualifiers there are in that statement? It was far from the first talkie. Me, I consider _Sunrise_–a far, far greater movie than the nearly unwatchable _Jazz Singer_–as the first feature sound film. No dialogue, but synchronized score and sounde effects. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/10 "2006-05-27T17:20:38Z")
I should say, \*it was far from the first _sound film._ It was not, in fact, that far from the first _talkie._ ---
**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:** [May 27, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/11 "2006-05-27T18:19:41Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > _His legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because he was a hopeless eye-rolling ham with a voice like a steam-powered kazoo._ You owe me a new monitor and a cup of herbal tea for that. I dare you to put that in Wiki. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/12 "2006-05-27T18:35:01Z")
Even if he hadn’t sung it in blackface, I think the song would still be uncomfortably un-PC today. I think the mammy character (basically, think of Mammy in Gone With the Wind) is associated with old stereotyped caricatures of African-Americans along the lines of Uncle Toms and “pickaninnies”. If a white kid today had a black nanny, he would never be taught to call her his “mammy.” \*\*A quick google search indicates that the lyrics of the song may have originally meant to refer to the singer’s birth _mother_, not his “mammy.” Even so, I think most people today would not hear it that way. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/13 "2006-05-27T18:42:16Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > I should say, \*it was far from the first _sound film._ It was not, in fact, that far from the first _talkie._ Not really a talkie, either. Songs on the soundtrack, dialogue on title cards. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/14 "2006-05-27T18:43:38Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > \*\*A quick google search indicates that the lyrics of the song may have originally meant to refer to the singer’s birth _mother_, not his “mammy.” Well, of course! Why else would a white guy put on blackface to sing it? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/15 "2006-05-27T19:30:22Z")
You can see him singing “Mammy” [here](http://www.archive.org/details/LetsGoToTheM) at 2:30. (I added it to Wikipedia.) ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/16 "2006-05-27T19:35:14Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Not really a talkie, either. Songs on the soundtrack, dialogue on title cards. Well, no, that’s the technicality it squeaks by on. Yes, most of the story is told in good old-fashioned title cards, but Al Jolson couldn’t shut up, so there are snatches of dialogue included before and after some of the musical numbers. ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/17 "2006-05-27T20:14:37Z")
Mammy is an offensive word, like squaw.noun: a term for a Black nursemaid in the southern U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/18 "2006-05-27T20:17:03Z")
> [@Lady Eboshi](#): > > You owe me a new monitor and a cup of herbal tea for that. I dare you to put that in Wiki. I sublimated the urge by making an addition to the page about [kazoos](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kazoo). It doesn’t involve Jolson but, rather, Paul Whiteman. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/19 "2006-05-27T20:32:40Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > I should say, \*it was far from the first _sound film._ It was not, in fact, that far from the first _talkie._ **The Jazz Singer** – or, to be precise – the massive popular success of the film, which brought Warner Brothers back from the brink of bankruptcy – is the first talking film that _mattered_. Others were experiments; **The Jazz Singer** transformed movies. No matter how much you nitpick, it is the film that made talkies possible and put an end to the silent cinema. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447/20 "2006-05-27T20:43:25Z")
> [@priapus](#): > > Mammy is an offensive word, like squaw.noun: a term for a Black nursemaid in the southern U.S. Or, in some cases, what a person would call his/her mother. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mammy-offensive/358447.md?page=2)