Many Americans, especially Christians, tend to have an idealistic view of the recent past and yearn for the simplicity and moral uprightness of bygone times.  As a student of history, I like to think I have a more realistic view of the past, but the reality is that I am just cynical about human nature - then and now.  So, when collecting songs for our little quartet, I was curious about who might be "in the kitchen with Dinah."

I thought that a good knowledge of American folk songs, in addition to Christian hymns, would benefit our children -- giving them cultural insight and understanding beyond the knowledge of historical dates, events, and people.  Rhythm, harmony, and history… now that's homeschooling.

Well, in looking deeper into the kitchen, I was surprised to find Dinah "making love."  I was even more surprised that an earlier version of our "kid's song" was sung in a minstrel dialect and includes lyrics that, by all modern standards, are racist.  Correction, the lyrics are by all standards racist.  (Yes, I can judge the past by my modern standards -- chattel slavery was the result of racism.)

Here are the lyrics most of us grew up with, singing innocently enough:

I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away

Can't you hear the whistle blowing
Rise up so early in the morn
Can't you hear the captain shouting
Dinah, blow your horn

Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone's in the kitchen I know
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Strumming on the old banjo, and singing

Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Strumming on the old banjo

Ok, so first of all, Dinah was a "slang term for a slave woman and, by extension, any woman of African-American descent" (note) and apparently all the "Dinah" lyrics were adopted from an earlier song.  And my suspicions about Dinah was confirmed by this often deleted (but not always deleted, get this "camp songs" page) stanza:

Someone's makin' love to Dinah
Someone's making love I know-o-o-o
Someone's making love to Dinah
'Cause I can't hear the old banjo

If that was not bad enough, here are the origins of the modern song:

(SOLO) I once did know a girl named Grace--
(QUARTET) I'm wukkin' on de levee;
(SOLO) She done brung me to dis sad disgrace
(QUARTET) O' wukkin' on de levee.

I been wukkin' on de railroad
All de livelong day,
I been wukkin' on de railroad
Ter pass de time away.

Doan' yuh hyah de whistle blowin'?
Ris up, so uhly in de mawn;
Doan' yuh hyah de cap'n shouin',
"Dinah, blow yo' hawn?"

Sing a song o' the city;
Roll dat cotton bale;
Niggah aint half so happy
As when he's out o' jail

Norfolk foh its oystahshells,
Boston foh its beans,
Chahleston foh its rice an' cawn,
But foh niggahs New Awleens.

So... not so idealistic, not so morally upright.   I am really surprised that this song, even in its modern form, is still promoted as a children's song, programmed into baby toys (possibly due to the melody's popularity in Japan), etc.  One would have thought that the forces of political correctness would have put it to death by now.  But, in looking around, I do not think the full context or origins are well known.

So, now that you know, what will you do?  Do you care?  Do you teach it to your children for cultural literacy reasons?  Do you use the history of the song to teach about racism?  Do you use it as an object lesson that God created man in his image and that sin works in the hearts of men to form the false pride of racism?