Education
This is for those of you who have participated in the Native American Name meme. It might have been all in good fun, and you probably didn't mean anything by it, but I think you ought to know that it just perpetuates a nasty cycle of racism.
"REDSKINS"
by Reverend Goat Carson (1999)
---------------------------------------
A lot of people don't understand,
they keep saying,
"Goat, why are you guys so sensitive,
about the, like, Washington Redskins?"
And, well, the story of that word "Redskins,"
that title, what that means,
is such a sad, is such a heavy story,
I said, well I must relay it,
but I gotta balance it.
And I've been thinking about my mama quite a lot lately,
and so I decided I'd just balance it out with her very favorite song.
So here it is, the story of Redskins and mama's favorite song.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
you make my happy,
when skies are blue
never knowing
how much I love you
please don't take my sunshine away.
Well you know the story of Andy Jackson
and his Indian Fighters.
Now Jackson devised the Indian Removal Act,
but his Indian Fighters had a very peculiar preoccupation,
and that was skinning the Indians on the battlefield.
They used to make pants, they'd be able to take an Indian
and skin him from the hip down and make themselves a pair of pants,
or they take, turn him over, start two strips, you know, from his neck
all the way down to his heel, and that'd be reins for their bridle.
This was of course to strike terror into people's hearts,
but it sort of became a joke.
And hence the phrase "Redskins."
The other night while I lay sleeping,
dreamed I held you in my arms.
Woke this morning, I was mistaken,
you know I hung my head and cried.
Well after making bounties on the Indians in all states,
which made it legal to hunt them basically,
a source of income, the skins then became more and more of a novelty,
quite collectible by the wealthy Easterners.
And the fascination got to such a terrifying point
that by the time of the Sand Creek Massacre,
in which the calvary massacred an encampment of Indians
who were flying the American flag,
and they were right where they were supposed to be on the reservation,
and the army surrounded them anyhow and cut them all down.
It was mostly old folks, women and children,
and so it wasn't much of a battle.
And of the 600 people that were killed that day,
eyewitnesses report not a single body survived mutilation.
Women's genitalias was cut and turned into hatbands,
their breasts into tobacco pouches,
the same thing with the men's testicles,
even the babies were skinned, the little boys and girls.
My sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me happy
when skies are grey
Never noticed how much I love you
please don't take my sunshine away
So back in the day calling an Indian a "Redskin"
was like calling an aligator a purse,
and considering the genocide policy of the government of the United States
a team like the Washington Redskins
is kind of like a team called the Auschwitz Lampskins
Ain't she sweet, just a-coming down the street,
Now I ask you very confidentially,
Ain't she sweet
Ain't she now
Look her over once or twice
Ask you very confidentially
Ain't she now
Just cast an eye
in her direction
oh me oh my
Ain't that perfection
I repeat
don't you think she's kinda neat
ask you very confidentially,
Ain't she sweet
"REDSKINS"
by Reverend Goat Carson (1999)
---------------------------------------
A lot of people don't understand,
they keep saying,
"Goat, why are you guys so sensitive,
about the, like, Washington Redskins?"
And, well, the story of that word "Redskins,"
that title, what that means,
is such a sad, is such a heavy story,
I said, well I must relay it,
but I gotta balance it.
And I've been thinking about my mama quite a lot lately,
and so I decided I'd just balance it out with her very favorite song.
So here it is, the story of Redskins and mama's favorite song.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
you make my happy,
when skies are blue
never knowing
how much I love you
please don't take my sunshine away.
Well you know the story of Andy Jackson
and his Indian Fighters.
Now Jackson devised the Indian Removal Act,
but his Indian Fighters had a very peculiar preoccupation,
and that was skinning the Indians on the battlefield.
They used to make pants, they'd be able to take an Indian
and skin him from the hip down and make themselves a pair of pants,
or they take, turn him over, start two strips, you know, from his neck
all the way down to his heel, and that'd be reins for their bridle.
This was of course to strike terror into people's hearts,
but it sort of became a joke.
And hence the phrase "Redskins."
The other night while I lay sleeping,
dreamed I held you in my arms.
Woke this morning, I was mistaken,
you know I hung my head and cried.
Well after making bounties on the Indians in all states,
which made it legal to hunt them basically,
a source of income, the skins then became more and more of a novelty,
quite collectible by the wealthy Easterners.
And the fascination got to such a terrifying point
that by the time of the Sand Creek Massacre,
in which the calvary massacred an encampment of Indians
who were flying the American flag,
and they were right where they were supposed to be on the reservation,
and the army surrounded them anyhow and cut them all down.
It was mostly old folks, women and children,
and so it wasn't much of a battle.
And of the 600 people that were killed that day,
eyewitnesses report not a single body survived mutilation.
Women's genitalias was cut and turned into hatbands,
their breasts into tobacco pouches,
the same thing with the men's testicles,
even the babies were skinned, the little boys and girls.
My sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me happy
when skies are grey
Never noticed how much I love you
please don't take my sunshine away
So back in the day calling an Indian a "Redskin"
was like calling an aligator a purse,
and considering the genocide policy of the government of the United States
a team like the Washington Redskins
is kind of like a team called the Auschwitz Lampskins
Ain't she sweet, just a-coming down the street,
Now I ask you very confidentially,
Ain't she sweet
Ain't she now
Look her over once or twice
Ask you very confidentially
Ain't she now
Just cast an eye
in her direction
oh me oh my
Ain't that perfection
I repeat
don't you think she's kinda neat
ask you very confidentially,
Ain't she sweet