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?

But the words given on Wiki are completely inoffensive, are they not? And unless you know it is an adaptation of something really offensive, or meant to refer to the old word for Native Americans, then it's just a song about counting boys who happen to be Indian.

You could sing
One little, 2 little 3 Liverpuddlians
or anything.

It's a meaningless counting song.

I wouldn't have flinched if it was sung at a group I took mixed-race, Anglo-Indian DS to.

I think people in this country think of 'Indians' as semi fictional people of yesteryear, like elves perhaps

Would it sound weird to sing 10 little Nigerians? Or 10 little Slovaks?

If so, why?

I would have thought it was down to the Indian mother to complain if she felt aggrieved and not for you to adopt a righteous stance on her behalf.

Niggers doesn't even scan though. baffled

Ooj, it was 'nigger boys' not 'niggers'.

I thought that if you don't know the tribe they are from, then the preferred term was American Indian.
'Native American' being thought up by academics.

PC gone mad. I like baa baa black sheep and 10 little indians.
and just becasue the indian ? lady didn't know that the song, or most people 'think' the song is related to american indians, doesn't make it wrong.
in a minute you won't be able to use the word black or african or anything. silly.

onebaby and chibi, ds1(6) likes cowboys and indians. likes the lone ranger too.

Following on from this, my mum sings this song when rocking my DD to sleep.

I had a dolly black as ink
He is an indian I think
his hair is black, his teeth are white
this song, I sing to him at night

Sleep my darling baby boy
you are mother's dearest joy
moon does shine, stars to peep
little baby go to sleep.

Now I'm fairly confident the PC-police would be out in force but to me I can't find anything offensive in it, it is just a sweet little rhyme about a black doll. Am I being naive though?

WTF !!!! What is offensive about singing about little Indians ??? This is crazy.

Hey fatty bum bum !

Could make me suicidal if I chose to let it.

Its not like you are singing about them doing anything, just counting them. If you changed it to ten little teddy bears you could equally offend a teddy bear !

One little two little Indigenous Americans actually works

One little two little self righteous op who like to flash their PC credentials from their high horse

nah, even Simon and Garfunkel couldnt get THAT sucker to scan

I don't know that it is wrong, it just sounds weird to me, where I grew up there were lots of first nations people, it sounds weird to count them

to me it sounds like one little Scotsmen might sound to someone from the uk, or one little Italian maybe, just odd

never sang it growing up, not part of my repetoire now

fwiw Madame the singular of Inuit is Inuk

Inuk ??
is this where the word kanook(sp) for Canadians comes from ?

It's Canuck and I don't think they are related

paisley leaf, I dno't know of any First Nations people in Canada who would describe themselves as American Indians.

YANBU. I just wouldn't have sung that one, it seems old-fashioned and inapproriate, particuarly in the company of an Asian lady. She was being insensitive and I would being having a friendly word. There are plenty of other kids songs to choose from, they're not missing out.

What version were they singing, melondrama? Looking at the wiki page, I'd say "One little, two little... etc." is fairly inoffensive, but the one all about choking to death and chopping themselves in half is definitely inappropriate and racist IMO!