To contact this jazz band and tell them to stop using this word?

[FauxWhiteOrchid]

There’s a local jazz event taking place soon and the bio describes the band as “Dixieland”. I remember the Dixie Chicks apologising and changing their name.

The word derives from the American South and is also used in a Confederate song. Here’s the full Wikipedia page for “Dixie”. Basically, its usage is racist.

I was surprised to see the word at all but also not surprised as I live in a very white Reform/Tory voting area.

AIBU to contact the band and ask them to change their description? Or leave them alone? I know what the reaction will be if I do contact them: just music blah blah been a traditional word for this style of jazz blah blah world gone mad woke blah joy thief etc. But I see no reason to use this word in this day and age.

WWYD?

What does living in a white/reform area have to do with it?
Tbh you sound like on of those insufferable bores that seaches night and day to find something to be offended about

I've copied and pasted this from Reddit as the same question was asked on there.

I agree with this -

savemejebus00*
•
8 yr. ago

'Jesus Christ, will you keep gender studies degrees out of jazz? Your entire description of "racism" just associates it with racist behavior. Your opinion of it being corny can be immediately rejected by having a different opinion. Inaccurate? Funny I have a jazz history book by Gunther Schuller that has no problem using the word in the second sentence of chapter 2. Why? Because it is accurate and depicts a part of history. Here is a much more innocuous article on the word "Dixie" in the NYT.
Let me guess, upper middle class white person? Stop creating problems where they do not exist. This kind of nonsense is decisive, incendiary, and exaggerated. You are just trying to show how "not racist" you are by causing problems unconcerned to the damage you do under the protection of a false sense of righteousness.'

Ah. I see the confusion. I live in this area but I don’t agree with the views of the Tories et al. I referenced them because of the expected reaction if I did raise the issue with the band.

enlighten the band/PR company and they can decide what to do with the knowledge

What’s Tory got to do with it?

what word is the replacement for Dixieland? You must tell them what word to use instead of Dixieland.

So you really believe this to be racism? And anybody suggesting on the contrary to be a racist?

Tbh you sound like on of those insufferable bores that seaches night and day to find something to be offended about

This ^

I posted that you're being unreasonable because it's a style of music of an era that's long gone - and one that you can't change.

Am I allowed to say ' well he can whistle Dixie', a common expression in some parts of the country?

OP, I didn't know about the associations with the word so thank you, I have learned something. And I am interested in the use of language and would prefer not to use things that have the potential to offend anyway, so I find this useful knowledge.

And I definitely think it would be worth contacting the band and making them aware, as they may well feel the same.

I would be most interested in hearing the views of black Mumsnetters on this. I think when we are looking at potentially offensive language, what is most important to hear is the views of those with the potential to be offended by it.

Obviously people may not want to share their ethnicity (just like any other detail about themselves) and that's fine, but are there any black Mumsnetters willing to share their opinion on this term, and whether it would offend them used in this context?

Classic case of the world (woke?) gradually distorting the meaning of a word to give it a meaning it never had, so that we can all be offended.
Dixieland Jazz is a type of music many enjoy, leave the band alone, go and find someone else to annoy.
(PS - A much more worthy cause would be you contacting all the drill/rap groups etc that use "n133er" in every other sentence... now that is offensive to most people. My guess if you only got offended at Dixieland because they are white!)

Do you live in an area with a lot of black Americans?

Or are you going 'these are black people, all black people must find this offensive because those black Americans do'?

Massive overreach on your part. Dixieland jazz is a style of jazz and you are not going to get the name changed.

Dixie is also a nick name for dyslexic. Could be a reference to that

The fuss over the use of the word was at the time of the BLM campaigns.
That fervour is now reduced.
As we are a long way from Dixie, it rather looks as if you are looking for something to be offended by.
Live and let live Hun, They probably rely on electric guitar too much anyway.

Dixie is quite often used as a Christian name. Also Dixie Grammar School exists in Wellsborough.

How do you know he identifies as "he"?

(Runs out of thread)

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I should have said ' they', shouldn't I? 😁

This. They will just laugh if you message them about this.

Yabu to ask them to change it. You are not in control of them.

You would be reasonable to ask questions.

I would be asking them to please explain whether their use of the word Dixie in their band title is because they directly embrace and approve of the philosophy behind that word (provide a link) or is it more that they don't really think about the experiences of marginalised people as being relevant to them?

Well I used "he" as well, so I will save you a seat on the bigot bus to hell.

I used to go to Jazz Festivals in the mid 90s, and any “Dixieland” jazz band would have been a small band of late-middle-aged white old fart types wearing waistcoats and straw boaters, with the obligatory trombonist. The same old shite music watered down and played by old codgers who got together at an adult education class somewhere in suburbia.

I’m mixed race and I used to think that these white men were appropriating what started out as a black/mixed race art form that originated in the American deep South, and watering it down for English suburbia, and found it mildly annoying/offensive. My white friends couldn’t get why I felt this way when I expressed this opinion!

It’s now 30 years later, and any audience for this music is dying out. At the same time “Dixie” is associated with brainless Donald Trump reporters and red-neck white supremacists.

Nowadays, I would rather be in the audience for young musicians being, playing something with more creativity and genuine improvisation. I wouldn’t waste my time telling a bunch of old farts they were a bunch of old farts! I’m saving my anger for the new breed of white supremacists who feel emboldened by the likes of Trump, Farage et al.

However OP, if you want to tell them why you find the term offensive, do it.

Let’s hope “Dixieland” jazz (the white old codger Uk version) goes the same way as black-face minstrel shows - consigned to the dustbin of history!

And all Tories are white …. You are SO racist. You offend … racist “white” orchid.

You are just virtue signally wanting to do good, and looking to MN for virtue support. just go find a black person annd ask them what you should do about Dixieland. Maybe you will find an actual African American expat in your “white Tory” neighborhood and they will find you very racist indeed.

Exactly! And yet again the username gives it away. Same as the Coconutti one yesterday. Wind ‘em up and watch ‘em go.

Mumsnet is becoming unusable.