This 1919 sheet music cover for I-N-F-L-U-E-N-Z-A Blues, by white songwriters Happy Klark and Arthur C. Brown, features racist minstrel stereotypes widely used in American entertainment in the 19th and early 20th centuries. “Minstrel shows” of white performers in blackface dominated early vaudeville and radio programs, mocking Black culture in offensive caricatures. Like the one featured on this cover, tropical settings evoked white supremacist notions of an uncivilized culture, equating the music with a “primitive” sensibility. In addition to spreading harmful stereotypes, minstrelsy set demeaning expectations for Black performers, as audiences expected Black artists to meet the vulgarized standards of minstrel performance. The music recording and publishing industries adhered to these racist trends in popular culture, and this imagery is often associated with early “race records” and Ragtime “Blues” compositions.

Please consider this post an example of my DEI antidote to the torrent of racist rhetoric that is spewing daily now from our nation’s capital. Afterall, it is February, Black History month. At least I think that it still is. They have not changed that yet, or have they? It is still early. I am sure that they will get to it.

This song commemorated the 1919 epidemic, the so-called Spanish flu. The one before the 2020 pandemic. Its lyrics rail against this plague. Explaining that this disease affects both the rich and poor, “It killed the rich, killed the poor.” Unlike Covid, which was more deadly to the old, that flu tended to kill the young and healthy. The tune views this malady as God’s judgement upon our land, but as the cover sheet claims, it still makes for wonderful dance music. We are both vaccinated and have so far escaped getting sick this winter. Knock on wood.