Man! They just don't write 'em like this anymore.

What Makes The Red Man Red?
Music by Sammy Fain. Lyrics by Sammy Cahn.

Why does he ask you, “How?”
Why does he ask you, “How?”
Once the Injun didn’t know
All the things that he know now.
But the Injun, he sure learn a lot,
And it’s all from asking, “How?”

Hana Mana Ganda!
Hana Mana Ganda!
We translate for you:
Hana means what mana means,
And ganda means that too.

When did he first say, “Ugh!”
When did he first say, “Ugh!”
In the Injun book it say
When the first brave married squaw
He gave out with a big ugh,
When he saw his Mother-in-Law.

What made the red man red?
What made the red man red?
Let’s go back a million years,
To the very first Injun prince.
He kissed a maid and start to blush,
And we’ve all been blushin’ since.

You’ve got it from the headman,
The real true story of the red man,
No matter what’s been written or said.
Now you know why the red man’s red!

Sambo’s Restaurant. Couldn’t get away with that one today either.

I was a kid when both of these began to go away. Disney’s *Peter Pan * & Sambo’s. Song Of The South is all but gone too–all that seems to be left is Zip A Dee Doo Dah.
Not having an adult perspective on them I have to ask this: were these so offensive? Or were they innocent victims of militant cultural cleansing aimed at eradicating racism in general? I never felt compelled to think less of Blacks or Reds because of these things. Was I supposed to? Or was someone just being extra careful to make sure that MY kids wouldn’t know who Uncle Remus was?

That still doesn’t offend me. Peter Pan is one of my favorite movies and I think it’s a great song.
As for Song of the South, I watched it when I was a kid but I don’t remember much about it. I bought a bootleg copy of it at a comic book convention about three years ago but I still haven’t gotten around to watching it. I’ll let you know when I do.