[78-L] Stephen Foster

[DAVID BURNHAM]

Cary Ginell expressed what I was trying to convey only far more eloquently.  When I became familiar with the Shilkret Stephen Foster set as a child, I knew nothing about racism, in fact it was quite a while before I discovered that Stephen Foster was white, but even today, I don't think Foster would have written any differently if he were black.   Scotsmen aren't treated with dignity in many Harry Lauder songs, they're often depicted as lazy drinkers but of course Lauder was a Scot himself.  

I was brought up in waspy East York at a time when there was one black classmate during all my years in elementary school and she always joined the rest of us in the playground.   There was a black man whom we all loved who supervised the kids at the local wading pool;  during the rest of the year he was a respected teacher at East York Collegiate.  There was also one Jew on our street, and I only found that out because when we were playing our usual knock on the door and run routine, the lady came to the house and accused me of being antisemetic.  I tried to assure her that we did this with any neighbour, I didn't even know what a Jew was, but that didn't make it any easier on my rearend when my dad found out.  As far as I know, there were no Synagogues anywhere in East York, (although I've found out since that there is at least one Jewish Cemetary close by). 

db