Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Disco "Bigotry" Rears Its Ugly Head Yet Again

When Mark Steyn comes to town next month (as a semi-last minute replacement for Liz and Dick Cheney, who canceled due to "security concerns") he may or may not regale the crowd--as he did Australian ones during a recent trip to their continent--with a not-quite-ready for American Idol/The Voice rendition of "racist" disco tune "Kung Fu Fighting." It occurs to me, though, that there's another similarly "racist" number from that late, unlamented era that might also make it into the Steynian repertoire, even though as far as I can tell no one has ever remarked on its inherent, um, racism. I refer, of course to this one:


To recap the "racist" lyrics in question:

Play that funky music, white boy,
Play that funky music right.
Play that funky music, white boy.
Lay down the boogie
And play that funky music till you die.

An allusion to skin colour followed by the dismissive pejorative "boy" followed by an implicit death threat--a clear-cut case of prejudice, no? Time to alert Bernie Farber, Barbara Hall, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council and the CRTC!

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