I remember seeing a Minstrel Show in Baltimore a few years ago. The troupe was half-black and half-white, and nobody wore black face. No one wore rags, everyone was dressed in morning coats, ascots and spats. (The formal wear that usually is used only for weddings today). They did high stepping dances, played banjos, bones, and tambourines, and sang clever songs in impeccable harmonies. They made no secret about the fact that they were cleaning the traditional shows up to make them acceptable to modern moral standards. At one point, one of the white performers did a hideously racist song from the era, while the other performers, and the audience, cringed. One of the black performers then talked about the compromises and sacrifices that the original black performers had to make in the 19th and early 20th centuries, how they still managed to make a form of entertainment that swept the world, and why they should be honored for that.

So what do we do with songs with racist lyrics that are written by African American composers, such as Eubie Blake, James Bland and Scott Joplin? Do we erase their contributions to American music because they don’t sound woke enough by modern standards?