How do you separate the music from the racism?

[Austin]

There are some really racist titles for pieces. How do you separate the racism associated with them from the actual music? Because they are incredibly fun to play.

[Byron Thomas]

There are a lot of early pieces for banjo and popular American music (1840's to at least the 1910's) that depicted horrible caricatures of various groups of people. When dealing with this music, I just understand that racist material may show up, especially in the lyrics and interpretations. That was the time in which it was written. However, there is a lot of information that can be learned from these pieces. Not only are you learning the music, but you are also getting a glimpse at the general sentiment for society of the day and what was allowed to go unchecked.

[Jody Stecher]

I think you have answered your own question.  

[Jody Stecher]

In the upper right corner of the home page (and other pages ) on this site  is a search window. Type in "racism" and then you can read past discussions on the topic.