I'm sure you all were taught in middle or elementary school about the origins of “Ring Around the Rosie” and “London Bridge is Falling Down:” the stories of the black plague and the attack on the London Bridge, respectively. But do you know some of the racist and twisted stories behind other popular nursery rhymes?
According to NurseryRhyme.org, “The Muffin Man” originated between 1589 and 1598. The story was of a man named Frederic Thomas Linwood, who was known as The Muffin Man. He lived on Drury Lane like the nursery rhyme says, but the real story is that he killed as many as 15 children by luring them into dark alleys with a muffin tied to a string.
“Five Little Monkeys,” the nursery rhyme that now is used to teach children how to count, was first known as “Ten Little Monkeys” and originated in 1864. Initially, the song was used as a way for people to dress up in blackface and jump up and down on the bed while saying racial slurs.
Other racist nursery rhymes include “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” “Jimmy Crack Corn,” “Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me,” and “Eenie, Meenie, Miny, Moe.”
What if I told you that “Eenie, Meenie, Miny, Moe,” a nursery rhyme that children play in order to choose a person or thing, was originally a racist song? The game goes that the child saying the nursery rhyme points at each person or thing, and on each beat the person or thing last pointed to is the person who’s “it.” Originally, the song lyrics were often changed to include many racial slurs.
Unfortunately, this shows how deep racism is rooted in our country and world’s history.
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