An Ice Cream Truck Jingle's Racist History Has Caught Up To It

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Good Humor ice cream asked Wu-Tang Clan singer RZA to create a new jingle to replace 'Turkey in the Straw,' a ubiquitous ice-cream truck song with racist roots — and is teaching drivers how to replace the music box that plays it.

Good Humor hasn't actually operated any trucks since 1976, explains Russell Lilly, a senior director at the company, but wanted to be"part of the solution."back in 2014

. As he explained,"Turkey in the Straw" is a 19th century folk song that riffs on an Irish fiddle song,"The Rose Tree." Depending on the version you listen to, the lyrics change a little bit every time, but are generally nonsensical. But it wasn't until the advent of traveling minstrel shows that the melody really lodged itself into American pop culture — and the tune acquired racist lyrics.

And as those lyrics make clear, it's a cruel caricature of a free Black man trying to join white society by"dressing in fine clothes and using big words," Johnson wrote. (We won't write out the exact lyrics;

 

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This is ridiculous. Get a life people. Evidently you have to much time on your hands

Corporate PR gimmick. GoodHumor are a brand of the mega corporation Unilever who also make ‘skin whitening’ cream called ‘Fair and Lovely’ they promote in Asia using racist marketing tactics.

SERIOUSLY When are these racist idiots on the left side of the isle going to grow up. Next thing you know the Man in the Moon will be racist. There is nothing more racist that a bunch of people who sit around looking for anything that they can call racist and demand change!

This is utter absurdity. Growing up I heard for Years a different jingle, anyway. Cool your horses.

Never knew that. NPR you did it again.

Replace all ice cream truck music with the old Morning Edition theme song.

Remember the time when journalists reported the facts and let other people make up their mind? Why can't NPR do it? Just because everyone is a democrat or libtard, why can't you have the moral decency to report on facts and not the lefr agenda?

Only at NPR, the quintessential promoter of victim culture DefundNPR.

No thanks. Not changing my memories for pc bs.

I never heard this music from an ice cream truck growing up in SC.

JFC

No one cares

The point is, once you know the words. They are the only ones you hear when you hear that music. If you have never been called the n word, it probably doesn't have the same impact. I can tell you it has a different impact for me. So why not just change the tune?

Shouldn’t it just be an adapted C.R.E.A.M.?

Ice cream jingles are racist 🤣🤣🤣 Forget Trump, im voting Ctulhu/Ghenghis Khan to not give these woke nutjobs political power.

How about one story on actual genocide happening right now in this world? UighurGenocide UighurLivesMatter

Whoever made my 2020 bingo card has some explaining to do.

I'm sure that children have been traumatized by this jingle for decades!! I mean that's why they scream ICE CREAM MAN!! The terror brought on by hearing the truck coming up the road had children running!! 🙄

Ice C.R.E.A.M.

Such a small step. We have so many cities, towns, streets, schools, statues, parks, resorts, books, rivers, foods, crops, railroads, cars, toys, hand gestures, and clothes to rename or abolish. Lets all pull together now and destoy history, so we can repeat it.

I can guarantee Black people don't give a rat's patoot about turkey in the straw. We want basic things like a right to not be killed just for existing. Is that something that's going to be added to the trucks?

So, at some point long after the song was first introduced, someone attached racist lyrics to it. Now the song is defined by those lyrics? This is so stupid.

I can only imagine the terror struck into the hearts of young black future doctors and lawyers and engineers.

Wu-Tang “singer” RZA?

enter the wu-tang (36 flavors)

What about the entertainer by Scott Joplin?

This is no different to the Nazi's burning books

This song was made before being used for blackface, the world has gone mad, Why not get rid of Amazing grace wrote by slave trader John Newton and played at George Floyd's funeral

I grew up on the Mr Softee jingle in NYC. I’m pretty sure that one’s not racist.

CASH 🎵 RULES 🎵 EVERYTHING 🎵 AROUND🎵 ME... There's your jingle. But seriously, can they please stop with these empty gestures and make some real changes?

Liberals trying to shut down another company. liberals only want communism to strip crying and be equal

This one seems so obvious then....Raekwon “Ice Cream”

There is a reason so much racist programing made its way into jingles,nursery rhymes,cartoons & even ice cream truck tunes. There is no argument to keep this around. Was skeptical but the new jingle slaps.

what BS

You know, this is where things go overboard. There was nothing remotely racist to the version I grew up with as a kid in the 60s -- for one thing, it was purely instrumental. The only version with lyrics I ever heard started: Do your ears hang low? Do they wobble to and fro?

We live in a glorious time with few real problems.

And he’s come up with a nice little tune called “fuck whitey”

Dear NPR. Please stop trying to find reasons for people to dislike each other. Signed, Everyone.

This is a huge reminder to always educate yourself in the history of like EVERYTHING...GEESH!

Wu-Tang is for the children.

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