I just got a phone call from a certain beloved children’s educational television show (one that played a crucial part in my own graduation to literacy!), asking me whether there was any reason to be nervous about using the song “London Bridge is Falling Down.” Edginess about nursery rhymes and old songs (e.g. “Eenie, Meenie”) has apparently reached the point that it’s safer to check out every one of them for potential offensiveness before use. I was apparently the right person to call becasue I both know something about English-British history and something about ethnic politics.
I reported, in case you’re interested, that to the best of my knowledge its origins had no offensive overtones (it might be about one of the Norse invasions of England in the 11th century, might be about a birdge fire in the 13th) and– unlike ‘Eenie, Meenie’– it hadn’t picked up any offensive lyrics or connotations in the American interim, either.
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