Jessica Kabat

Ethics & Issues in Education

EDUW 695
Filter Reflection: Race

Growing up in a small town without much diversity, I was sheltered. I didn’t have any

experiences with black people within the community. I would see them on television or in

movies, or on trips to the neighboring city. Fast forward a few years, and I am in a college

course in which the phrase “white privilege” was brought up. Being I had never heard of such a

thing, I learned about how my “whiteness” provided me with opportunities and advantages

that non-white people often had to work harder for or were looked over.

Keeping this in mind as an educator is so important, but also very difficult. I have made

so many mistakes, not knowing the impact at the time. One example that has recently emerged

is knowing the origins of folksongs that I teach to young children. I teach so many different

songs, I don’t always think about the origin and the true meanings behind the words. “I’ve Been

Working on the Railroad” is a song in which I have taught my students. The lyrics seem

harmless and when I learned the song myself, when I was in elementary school, I thought of the

men who worked to build the rail system. I came to realize that this song was originally titled

“The Levee Song” and was used in blackface minstrelsy. The original lyrics were written in black

dialect and were published that way in children’s music books. The lyrics actually describe the

harsh conditions in which African Americans endured as their white foremen oversaw their

work on the railroad. The phrases, “rise up so early in the morn” and “all the live-long day”

refers to the longs hours in which African Americans were forced to work. The song goes on to

reference “Dinah”, which is a term used for an African American woman, who seems to be the

cook for the railroad workers. Later in the song, “someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah” refers to
the drunken plantation owner’s mistress who is frolicking with another man in the kitchen. The

origin and story of this song is enough for me to slash it from my literature list. There are plenty

of wholesome songs that can replace it.

In the future, I plan to do my research on these folksongs. The past cannot be changed,

but what I do in the present can make a difference in the future. Knowing that there are a

handful of songs with racist lyrics or origins will help me to be more mindful of which songs I

will teach to my students. Though my students might not grasp the concept of singing racist

lyrics, it is important to weed out these songs and to lay them to rest in our history.