have to do a paper

I have a friend here in South Louisiana who still tries to 'pass for white'. He gets away with it often. He even has a fake name that sounds like a 'white' name that he uses when he meets new women. I tell him often that , this is 2006 and he dosen't need to worry about things like mixed race and all that these days......

I rarely refer people to "wikipedia" but if you go on there there's a bunch of good information and quotes about the whole debate on whether or not "Show Boat" is a racist musical or story. Most of the critics can really just point to the language, you know like "dis" and "dose" that the black characters use in the story, but in the time Hammerstein wrote the book that was probably seen as "realism". Also it's interesting that the lyrics to the song at the beginning of the musical have been changed many times. The original lyric by Hammerstein says *beep* all work on the Mississippi, *beep* all work while the white man plays". It was a way for Hammerstein to put all his cards on the table right up front, considering that "Show Boat" only tangentially touches on race issues it's a pretty bold way to begin the show. I believe Hammerstein used the "n word" because he did not want to present a sanitized or "minstrel" type of perspective on the black people in the story. A lot of people complain about Joe being a "lazy, shiftless" stereotype, but by giving him the song "Old Man River" Hammerstein essentially gave Broadway its first dignified portrait of a black man, at least the first time in song.

In the end, I think Hammerstein's attitudes can be seen sometimes as patronizing, but never maliciously racist. I think he knows enough not to stray too far from stereotypes because then the audience would just not believe the story (sadly, stereotypes are the closest thing to knowledge in the absense of truth), but he also turns those stereotypes on their heads -- having the black characters sing of themselves as *beep* being a perfect example of this confrontational stance by Hammerstein. Later versions of teh play revived in the 40s, 50s, even up to today have often changed the lyric to say "colored folk work on the Mississippi" or "Negroes all work on the Mississippi" or even the super Disney version "All of us work on the Mississippi". Productions that make that kind of choice in my opinion sacrifice not only the history of Show Boat but a lot of its emotional impact as well, all for the sake of political correctness.

Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'