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Viola Davis points out racist lyrics of famous 'Ice Cream Truck' song, Angry Internet says it's 'sickening'

Some were shocked after learning the Ice Cream Truck' song’s actual lyrics, the rest said it needs to be banned owing to its racial slurs
UPDATED JUL 9, 2020
Viola Davis (Getty Images)
Viola Davis (Getty Images)

The ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ star Viola Davis actively uses social media to raise her voice against the injustice towards the Black community and other relevant social issues. On July 8, she took to her Instagram to share with her 5.5 million fans the famous 'Ice Cream Truck' song, which consists of racist lyrics. 

Davis shared a video of a girl explaining the origin and meaning ‘Old Zip Coon’ and captioned, “The more you know” followed by a rainbow emoticon. In the video, the girl explains that the song was released in March of 1916 by Columbia records and it’s now commonly known as ‘Turkey in the Straw’. It often pops up in the searches when you’re looking for children’s songs. 

She plays the song and further explains its lyrics, which read, ‘N—er love a watermelon..ha ha ha ha.” While the original video featured African Americans, the video by Columbia records sees a Black man enjoying a piece of watermelon, she explained urging the viewers to not sing along with the song. 

Soon fans started flooding Davis’s post with a series of comments with all sorts of reactions. While some were shocked after learning the Ice Cream Truck' song’s actual lyrics, the rest said it needs to be banned owing to its racial slurs. One wrote, “I once told white a co-worker of mine that I didn’t like watermelon. The response was “but you're black”. I took that as a moment to teach them about the origin of the myth that all black people love watermelon and the racism behind it” 

“Well this is insanely disturbing. Also strangely our towns icecream truck does not have that tune. But it might be because it is a black-owned operation. I wouldn't play that music if I knew the background to it either.” added another.”

Many of Davis’s fans, meanwhile, thanked her for bringing awareness towards the history of racism in this country which is "SICKENING!”. One commented, “Racism in this country is the dirt swept under the rug; it's there, must be uncovered, addressed and removed BY ALL OF US. Yep knew this....I'm glad we're all collectively experiencing this awakening of consciousness together. @violadavis “

Another commented, “The more you examine the more it becomes clear that damn near all of it is built on this supremacy. When you live among those that owned/branded/bred/sold you like cattle, they have to come up with all kinds of narratives to justify their BS. It’s in so many songs and so deeply embedded in all aspects of this society. Burn it down!”

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