I know that one, and I am only 110% certain that that song is about heroin.
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Midwest in the '80s. Only knew “tiger” and not the origins of the chant, but, wow.
Someone on Facebook mentioned that her kid came home from school just the other day chanting this:
I don’t want to go to Mexico no more more more
I don’t want to go to Mexico no more more more
There’s a big fat policeman at my door door door
He grabbed me by the collar
He made me pay a dollar
I don’t wanna go to Mexico no more more more
Shame on you!
Shame shame shame.
The kids learn what we teach them, unfortunately…
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That sounds like a skipping rhyme. Such rhymes have often had political or social content, filtered through the understanding of children.
I actually don’t see this rhyme as racist, but as a description of the activities of ICE and other agencies. I can imagine it being chanted by Latino kids.
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That’s the thing. This was accepted. And ‘normal’. There were a lot of things we weren’t allowed to say, or talk about - sex, other bodily functions, politics, religion to a certain extent - but this was evidently just fine. The time I’m remembering I was aged less than 10 and I know I grew up in a deeply racist home because of a Vietnam vet father and well-fucked up mother, but jesus. I doubt I even knew what a n****r was. (Said not to excuse using that word, but as some sort of reason for it.)
Then again, I’ve blocked a lot of my childhood because of abuse, so this is like having a flashback. I can’t sleep. But I do also clearly remember said fucked-up mother reading Little Black Sambo to us and her absolutely revelling in it. And much later, her telling my two sisters who were involved with Anglo-Indians (their description) that she “hadn’t raised them that way”. I’m 44 and haven’t had anything to do with her for more than 20 years because of unacceptable beliefs such as those and many, many other problems.
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I’m sorry; I had to laugh. Sigh.
Sometimes I have to agree with John Cleese – whom I admire greatly – who thinks political correctness in humor goes too far.
Here’s an interesting, thoughtful interview with Stephen Fry. He talks a bit about political correctness at about 6:00, though I’d say the whole interview is eye-opening (for me, anyway). I am conflicted.
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Probably started by latino kids, but gets uncomfortable pretty quick when white kids (like those of my facebook friend) start chanting it without those latino kids present.
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Here’s another cultural artifact, remember all those musicals where the lady leads work at nightclubs and it’s like wink wink nudge nudge “she’s a prostitute,” but a classy one?
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I’m not going to excuse the shitty things he provably did, but Charlie Bucket was also supposed to be black.
“I think this arc – from what I find to be a fairly anti-racist novel to one that has been rightly criticised for its racist and imperialist politics – [shows] Dahl’s ambivalence,” said Keyser. “I think that’s the power of racism; to make someone able to hold these contradictory views at once. To both identify with the underdog and seem to understand the pain of stereotype, but then be completely flummoxed that anyone finds the Oompa Loompas offensive. He was genuinely surprised and very annoyed. So I don’t mean for this to whitewash Dahl’s racial politics. I just really love the vulnerability and the potential in this first draft.”
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Um, what is this?
Are they saying that the police in Mexico are corrupt, or that the immigration authorities in the US are corrupt?
Either way, they may have a point.
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I don’t think that genre is dead, see: Moulin Rouge (2001).
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ICE, I assume, since it was being sung by kids in Minnesota.
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I did not know that.
Still, gifted storyteller though he was, if I was one of those mythical authoritarian leftists trying to purge our culture of everything politically incorrect, Switch Bitch would be the first book into the fire. It wasn’t clever, it wasn’t cute, it wasn’t funny, it was just rape jokes from the Swingin’ 70s, albeit long and tedious rape jokes.
But I’m not an authoritarian leftist, so I still own Switch Bitch. I’m just not that tempted to ever read it again.
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ICE sure seems corrupt to me, so why not?
And it was being sung about Mexicans, and not Hmong or Somalis?
Yup. Minneapolis is pretty segregated and IIRC Facebook friend lives in an area with a lot of latino people and not very many Somali. No idea if Somali kids have similar rhymes.
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That would depend on what the white kids’ understanding of the chant was. It could be taunting, sympathetic, darkly humourous—context is all.
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but that Moulin Rouge was deliberately trying to call back to the golden age of musicals and bring modern music & style into the mix.
i’m surprised i read this entire thread and nobody has mentioned this yet:
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I think that Sting has admitted that that song was supposed to be skeevy even when it was written. It’s not a product of its time, it’s a song that’s straight-up about stalking.
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When I was an undergrad, I was in a church group where the band once played that song unironically as the voice of God…
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Totally. Sting has mentioned several times in interviews that he’s bewildered it’s become such a popular wedding song.
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