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Athens, GA (Apr 28, 2008) - The University of Georgia hosted the 2008 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships this past weekend, winning their 4th consecutive team title. But apparently, there was a small problem. One of the piped in songs used to pump up the crowd was deemed racist by the NCAA and the host school was asked to not play it. No, it was not "Dixie", which was banished from the University many years ago at sporting events. It was "Cotton-eyed Joe."

Racist? Just because one would associate the song with a bunch of white guys in tight jeans, boots and cowboy hats joining with a bunch of white women in the abomination called line dancing does not mean it is racist. It just means that the black community in the United States has not embraced a kick-ass tune as much as the black community of the Eastern Caribbean has (yes country western music is huge in that region, a holdover from World War II). If it is racist, why would Nina Simone have recorded a version of it?



Come on NCAA, go on and worry about bigger issues like people blogging from events, or heaven forbid, graduation rates! If I can hear this song song by a music great like Nina Simone,or hearing it coming from voices in St. Lucia and Trinidad, it is far, far from racist.