Dr. Katya Ermolaeva
Nov 3 · 1 min read

There are a lot of historical American songs that aren’t racist.

I wanted to keep the article as short as possible so I didn’t discuss all the options (I plan to do so in a future publication)— but as I mentioned in another response, Bessie Jones’ Step it Down is an excellent resource for African-American children’s singing games. Many play-party songs — by European-American settlers living in rural frontier areas — are not racist in origin. And there is a growing crowd-sourced spreadsheet of Anti-Racist Songs here (be sure to click on the second tab).

    Dr. Katya Ermolaeva

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    Musicologist, music editor, music educator & musicological consultant. | Russian & Soviet Music | American Children’s Music