Coon Songs Must Go! Coon Songs Go On

Coon Songs Must Go! Coon Songs Go On . . . Tyehimba Jess (bio) 1 A show goes all ‘cross country, to a farmland country town or big city— —some low down uppity Negroes put loudmouth blame on a coon shouter minstrel for how he sings moanin’ “Coon, Coon, Coon” or some other song —but we wear blackface that has plenty of coon in it to make white folks’ truths easier, with an emphasis on the word coon. to mask the ugly in their mirrors.Left side is excerpted from “Coon Songs Must Go!” Indianapolis Freeman, Jan. 2, 1909. 2 In this way I make cash- and in many other ways I give white folks giggles too numerous to mention when I wear blackface. Yeah, them “coon” songs have done more earnin’ much bread. Want to insult the highfalutin’ Negro and cause hilarity with his white brethren, laughing all ‘round? Crackers, especially the young generation, they want to see unrefined niggers: to have a bad opinion of the way they think we are. There ain’t good Negroes and bad Negroes, but one kind of coon they want. And more . . . than anything that has ever happened . . . they want it made true for them on stage.Left side is excerpted from “Coon Songs Must Go!” Indianapolis Freeman, Jan. 2, 1909. [End Page 317] 3 The colored man writes the “coon” song, This song that I sing. Do you know how the colored singer sings the “coon” song, twisting beauty into ugly burns? the colored race is compelled to Believe this: ain’t no way I’d take a stand for the belittling and ignomy of insult if I weren’t getting paid. Yes, I sing the “coon” song, but the money from the “coon” song —it keeps a belly full. That work flows with ceaseless activity just enough to feed my own. I sing into the white man’s pockets . . . to put clothes on my baby’s back.Left side is excerpted from the Indianapolis Freeman, Aug. 24, 1901. [End Page 318] Tyehimba Jess Tyehimba Jess, a native of Detroit, is author of leadbelly (Verse Press, 2005) and African American Pride: Celebrating Our Achievements, Contributions, and Enduring Legacy (Citadel, 2003). A graduate of the University of Chicago and New York University, he is an assistant professor of English at the College of Staten Island. Copyright © 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Beauty · Blackface · Blame · Insult · Literature · Political science · History · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society

• Author and Title Index to Callaloo Volume 35 (Whole Numbers 130–133)

  Kathryn B Karasek, Hannah Sears•Callaloo•2012

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