to think the song 'ten little indians' is inappropriate?

[melondrama]

yesterday at my local church baby/toddler group the leader introduced this song at circle time and it seemed very wrong. especially as 1 regular mum and dd are indian and looked very confused.. I didn't sing along! I was thinking to have a word with the leader as she is a neighbour friend but am I over reacting?

YANBU. Ten green bottles would be more appropriate.

YANBU.
I think I have heard the same song but with something else replacing 'Indians'- name of an animal maybe? Which seemed much better.

YANBU. Surely it's about "American Indians" anyway.

Actually I'm going against the grain here but really does it matter ? INot to me it doesnt.

I hate all this PC ness in fairy tales, and rhymes. My toddler group only sings ba ba black sheep if they add all sorts of colours to 'even' it out. And this song has nothing to do with colour, it has its roots in medieval history, christianity in fact !

YABU it's a song about native american indians.

Surely better to use it to talk about different people and places than hide behind your hanky looking .

Even Agatha Christie changed the name of her book because it was offensive. Ok well maybe the publishers changed it for her but you get my point. OP, I'd guess the church lady doesn't know the origins, a friendly word wouldn't go amiss.

But the offensive n' word has been changed to indian , and the actually song isn't negative or offensive.

from Wiki

no YANBU

which version? I'd never heard of it so looked it up on wiki. I hope it wasn't the original! .

YANBU - I would have a quiet word, the woman probably wasn't thinking but this was a song written for a minstrel show, which I would hope all would agree is not acceptable in modern society. There are plenty of counting songs to use.

Uh o. the thought police are on the beat again.
It's the sentiment that matters, not the words.

It's possible to say 'good morning' to someone and to fill it with all the bile and hate in the world

fransandisco-I realise the song is referring to native american injuns but the indian mum and her dd didn't look as though they were aware of that. +hould 8 explain to them next week 'it's not you the songs about..!' still doesn't feel right. I'd hate to be only Brit in mumbai playgroup listening to everyone singing similarly silly song

I had the notion of stronger racist connotations nd wiki link confirms.

It does bother me the whole baa baa black sheep example of political correctness gone maaaad, adapting that song to be colour inclusive is lunacy but some songs just don't have a place in 2010

shoud Ioldmac not hought police but questioning appropriateness of song if it mmakes people feel uncomfortable. to be fair to group leader she probably picked it for simplicity and figger wiggling

finger wriggling!

well, melons
I accept that I am out of step with the majority view, but I could list a thousand things that make me uncomfortable, people singing songs about me would be bottom of the list.

I guess some are more thick skinned than others

What Solid said.
Not singing ba ba black sheep is just ridiculous though. The people who dothis are the types that say "I love black people" to every black person they come across. Not realising they appear as trying to placate them because they've bought into the "chip on shoulder" stereotype. It's embarrasing

We used to sing the song in my group, but the word Indian was changed to elephant, and the kids made an elephant's trunk instead with their arms.

YANBU - Native Americans are not "Indians" and the term is offensive. TOtally different to baa baa black sheep - which is a song about black sheep.

Changing it to "Teddies" works really well, unless you have a problem with "Teddy Boys"

They sang it at toddler groups my DD went to. But it wasn't any of the words on that wiki page. They used to sing
"10 little indians in a teepee
sleeping quietly as can be
Along came the chief and what do you think?
Up jumped the indians as quick as a wink"
Then they all jump about doing that woo woo woo woo thing.

the woo woo woo thing -

very culturally sensitive