Reading a book review in today's Press-Register got me thinking about the passage of time, and whether anything I hold true today will be laughable a century from now. John Sledge reviews the book "Alabama History On The Air: Mobile Radio Broadcasts of the 1930's". It's made up of a series of transcripts of broadcasts about Alabama History made 80 years ago on a Mobile Radio Station. They were assembled by the son of a man who became known as "The Old Narrator", John F. Glennon.
Eighty years is a long time, and reviewer Sledge gives Glennon a pass on his comments about the whistling "happy slaves" and "negro deckhands". Glennon was born in 1877 after all, just a handful of years after the end of The Civil War. But I wonder if the son considered leaving those commentaries out? And, as I asked up top, I wonder if you have any firmly held views that deep down, you know will sound quaint or downright barbarian in 2090?
Was there an explanation of why these phrases were kept in the book?
ReplyDeleteThere are pros and cons regarding keeping comments that we now regard as racist and unacceptable.
A similar situation exists in regard to people with disabilities. "Crip," "retard,"
"deaf and dumb," "blind as a bat" and so forth.