You Should Be Mad

[Kathy Martin]

These Statements were taken from Now Former Flyers Fans

It's a travesty that the Philadelphia Flyers have not actually done research on who Kate Smith actually was and what she has done for people?

She was humiliated in her early career because she was such a big girl and fought through it becoming 
a Broadway phenom.

She preformed more than 122 shows at the Apollo. That's right she was part of a show  at Harlem's Apollo.

Also she was one of the first people to ever have a civil rights activist Josephine Baker on her show 

Kate was deeply involved with with the fight for civil rights and has received presidents medals of honor 
for her dedication to fundraising in wartime

In 1951 the black entertainer Josephine Baker returned to the United States after living in France for seven years.
She returned to play some US night club engagements and was very vocal about the desegregation of club and theater audiences. 
Josephine Baker quickly became a dangerously controversial figure and practically every TV variety show was afraid to book her except one The Kate Smith Show.
Kate Smith had the guts to have miss Baker...a performer who no one would touch preform on her show "The Kate Smith Evening Hour" on October 31.

The two songs that racist lyrics were recorded and preformed for a Broadway musical that attempted to bring light and make common knowledge the trials
through which slaves had prevailed and assist in the fight against segregation.
This media driven frenzy, once again taken completely out of context as usual by twisted hateful people and organizations is a horrid example at an attempt to brandish
a woman's reputation, who would roll over in her grave hearing what she is now labeled. Making all of her life's work and journey worthless 

We call on the Philadelphia Flyers organization to have the guts to admit that they made a mistake and withdraw their slander of Kate Smith and reinstate 
her and her statue to the Flyers organization

PLEASE PASS THIS ON

I can't believe that the Philadelphia Flyers let themselves be bullied by a bitter twisted  person or organization and caving in without taking the time to research the background of a wonderful person like  Kate Smith and letting her be labeled as a racist.  We have to stop letting ourselves stop be Bullied by bitter twisted people or organizations that use racism as a weapon.  
 

Oh and to the Flyers I think that you change your team uniform from Black & Orange to YELLOW

Please Don't let the Philadelphia Flyers off the hook for rushing to judgement and Caving in on Kate Smith and letting themselves be Bullied by persons or organizations unknown.
I expect to see a drop in attendance and Flyers goods...Also we deserve to know who the accusers are. If they have the balls come forward and let themselves be known. I also except to see the Flyers uniforms be changed from black & orange to SOLID YELLOW

WE LOVE YOU KATE and We Are Not Going To Let This Go until you are vindicated ..........What ever sick person or organization that did this went too far this time......... Much too far...Kate Must Be Vindicated
 

Please Pass This On

Edited May 3, 2019 by radoran
removed unncessary/unrelated/ad hominem/political attack

[Kathy Martin]

When we first heard this about Kate Smith we thought that the Flyers had a boat load of evidence about Kate being a racist but now we come to find out all they have is those two songs that were taken out of context.

 

I am very disappointed that the Flyers rushed to judgement on Kate out of fear. 

 

I also feel that they should change their uniforms to Yellow

 

 

[Kathy Martin]

It's so sad what they did to her

[mojo1917]

Hi Kathy, 

Respectfully, this business about not playing Kate Smith's version of GBA is not much of a story. "Some sports teams decide not to play an artist's version of a patriotic song", is akin to "Goldman Sachs fires VP of horns-waggling for racketeering" .  

 

There are 5 pages of thoughtful debate on this subject in this thread. Nearly every person who's commented here seems to understand times were different. What was once acceptable isn't so much now, and they haven't let this news change their opinion on Kate. 

I am not sure if you read any of it because your posts look like pot stirring to me. 

By all means continue to fly the Kate Smith flag if that's what is in your heart though.

 

I would prefer the teams that inhabit the arena start creating legacies to where there isn't a need for fictional and "entertainment" figures to inhabit the garden of fame ( or whatever the place these statues stand is called ). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kathy Martin]

YOU SHOULD BE PISSED
No Kate No Flyers. The Philadelphia Flyers caved in immediately due to pressure from an unknown source that Kate Smith was a racist because she sang a song in the 1930's almost a hundred years ago that may have been though by some as racist by today's standards. While stand up comics like Chris Rock and David Chappell use the N word in their act over and over again while nothing is said.
This is not right no one should be aloud to use that word and if they ban Kate Smith for something much much less, than those comics should also be banned for using the N word.
Plus if the person or organization was so outraged at Kate for simply singing a song almost a hundred years ago WHY are they not outraged at those comics?

Well the reason is that there are people and organizations that make it their business to search for anything that they can claim as racist because it benefits their agenda.
....
.The worst part of all of this is that Kate Smith was just the opposite in fact if the Flyers would have took the time to look into Kate's life instead shaking like little girls and rushing to judgement they would have found that Kate Smith was an advocate for civil rights. She also had a black singer on her TV show, Miss Josephine Baker, that no one else would touch because of her out spoken political views and Kate stood by her all the way.
The two songs that were considered racist lyrics were recorded and preformed for a Broadway musical that attempted to bring to light and make common knowledge the trials through which slaves had prevailed and assist in the fight against segregation.

This media driven frenzy, once again taken completely out of context as usual by twisted hateful people and organizations is a horrid example at an attempt to brandish
a woman's reputation, who would roll over in her grave hearing what she is now labeled with and making all of her life's work and journey worthless.

Kate Smith was the Flyers lucky charm .but the way the Flyers stabbed this good hearten wonderful woman in the back.
I hope that the Flyers loose every game now.

I also hope that the crowd at the game have the balls to chant... WE WANT KATE... to send a message to the Flyers to grow some BALLS , show some class and show that you have a backbone. admit that you were wrong and bring back the statue of Kate Smith.
Now to those twisted hateful people and organizations ..
WE HAVE ENOUGH OF YOUR HATE
 

[JR Ewing]

I didn't think that multiple topics about Kate Smith were necessary, so I merged Kathy's new thread with the existing one. @Kathy Martin: you're sort of a one-issue politican, eh?