Many people conveniently forget parts of American history like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese internment camps that dotted the American West during WWII, but the truth is, Asian Americans have never had it easy in the States. Eenie, meenie, minie mo." An alternate version: "Catch a negro by his toe/ If he hollers make him pay/Twenty dollars every day." Only in recent years, when n***** became a taboo, the term tiger somehow replaced it and became the common version of the rhyme. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. I contacted Matthew Shaftel, a professor of Music Theory and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Florida State for an expert opinion. Bellow are the lyrics of one of the accepted modern versions of the "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" rhyme and also an older version. Harvard PhD student Adrienne Raphel looked into its origins, and tells NPR's Rachel Martin it's found on playgrounds around the world. eenie meanie, miny, moe phrase. But when you get money, your little bride Will surely find out where you hide, So there's the door and when I count four, Then out goes you. And who decides this? [31] The uncensored word was restored for the Criterion Collection edition of the film. The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words such as " O. U. T. spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea"[3] or "My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are [not] it";[3] while another source cites "Out goes Y-O-U. Each country had their own lyrics, but the structure and melody remained the same. Were not born racist; its something thats taught. It starts with a group of nonsense syllables and ends with a phrase that will indicate the games goal. How the Great Recession paved the way for influencers to inherit the earth, The surprising lesson from a century of Oscar scandals. Or. Is it my responsibility to foul the sweet taste of ice cream with their first taste of racism?". Vis, vos, vay. Related Chasing Games. F. B. Haviland Publishing Co (1906). Accuracy and availability may vary. You can replace catch a tiger with any word (catch a boy, catch girl, etc) or any animal, or when singing to baby you can say catch a baby. The book was published in 1888 and thoroughly describes the authors research into various childrens counting-out rhymes that were popular at the time. The meaning: The protagonist of the song is an African-American slave who is portrayed as dumb and naive. Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe is a rhyme for choosing who's "It" in a game or to choose who goes first. Seemingly innocent, the rhyme is not what it seems. In my search, I stumbled upon the book The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: A Study of Folk-Lore by Henry Carrington Bolton. The vinyl release of Radiohead's album OK Computer (1997) uses the words "eeny meeny miny moe" (rather than letter or numbers) on the labels of Sides A, B, C and D respectively.[27]. All The Pasta Shape Names Explained: How Many Do You Know? They heard versions in Zimbabwe. The first record of a similar rhyme, called the "Hana, man," is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme: Henry Carrington Bolton discovered this version to be in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century. The song is made up from a number of syllables, (the counting out rhyme). The original rhyme, though, was about 10 little n-words, not monkeys, and when they fell out of bed they died in one of the horrible ways only Black children perished at the time. We change the songs and scrub them clean. Reader support helps us keep our explainers free for all. She wrote about eeny meeny miny mo for The Paris Review. Thanks so much for talking with us, Adrienne. Added to that, as far back as the 19th century there have been variants of the rhyme which are so dissimilar to our current version as to be scarcely recognisable - 'Hana, mana, mona, mike' (from New York) and 'Eetern, feetern, peeny, pump' (from Scotland) and many of these now have local variants and words added from other languages. "[4] "Tigger" is also used instead of "tiger" in some versions of the rhyme.[5][6]. Whenever I hear the music now, the antique voice laughing about niggers and watermelon fills my head," Johnson wrote. "BasketBall, Watermelon, Cadillac cars, we aint as dumb as you think we..is". [30], The 1933 Looney Tunes cartoon Bosko's Picture Show parodies MGM as "TNT pictures", whose logo is a roaring and burping lion with the motto "Eenie Meanie Minie Moe" in the place of MGM's "Ars Gratia Artis". To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. The song can be seen as glorifying and poking fun at slave conditions. A more acceptable version has now established itself: Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, "These songs are part of a racist history our nation's history. Its well known that theres some challenging language in the Gospel of John,". The Eeny Meeny Miny Moe shirt with Negans iconic baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire was deemed racist by shoppers and was eventually removed from stock. Versions of the rhyme have existed since before 1820. A version from Yorkshire is: Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo. It goes something like this: Eenie, meenie, miney, moe, Catch a tiger by the - it has rhythm built into it. You could rock, paper, scissors for it, or you could do the following ANNA KULBASHNY: Catch a tiger by the toe EMILE BEAUBIEN: If it hollers, let him go MARTIN: Every kid seems to know this rhyme, or at least a variation of it, including the kids you just heard - 11-year-old Cecilia Clemens and Anna Kulbashny, 10-year-old Emile Beaubien and Sarayu Mudiya, age 6. You know them by heart, but you can do these little, like, switches and flips and variations in them. The best known version of the rhyme is the one that is now widely derided as insulting, especially in the USA, where the middle two lines originated: Eena, meena, mina, mo, Catch a n*gger by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, Eena meena, mina, mo. And, this particular rhyme isnt only found in the US; kids in England, France, Denmark, Germany, and Zimbabwe all make decisions using similar-sounding rhymes. When he's done, Wipe his bum. The officials at, But I'll never forget 'til the day I die", It raind all night de day I left, De wedder it was dry, The sun so hot I froze to def. Raphel wrote about eeny meeny miny mo for The Paris Review. Another is that it associates Asians with either poor hygiene or subservience. The classic American version most are familiar with goes like this: "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, catch a tiger by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, eeny, meeny, miny, mo." There's no doubt that the rhyme is older than the 19th century recorded versions, possibly very much older. Stick, stack, stone dead! The words: "Eenie, meenie, minie mo. [14] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century. It was written by Stephen Foster (Camptown Races, Swanee River,) in the 19th century, and was originally sung in a slave dialect. It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo": Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo, Catch a nigger by his toe, If he won't work then let him go; Skidum, skidee, skidoo. Israeli/British. Doo-dah!/ I come down dah wid my hat caved in Doo-dah! There is a similarity between the words of the phrase and some of the numerals in pre-English Celtic and Cumbrian languages; for example, the oral tradition of the English coastal town of Yarmouth voices 'one, two, three, four' as 'ina, mina, tethera, methera'. Later, they can learn where the songs came from, and that lesson will be an important one. or "Daniel Boone was a man, he was a big man, but the bear was bigger so he ran like a nigger up a tree". I understand that one of the earlier versions of the rhyme included a racial slur. "When the reach of racism robs me of fond memories from my childhood, it feels intensely personal again. An unavoidable question arises: what do you do with these songs? You can replace "catch a tiger" with any word (catch a boy, catch girl, etc) or any animal, or when singing to baby you can say "catch a baby". Une, fine, fane, fo Whilst there are versions of the first line of this rhyme in both German and Cornish, the two middle lines, it is agreed, undoubtedly originated from America. "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" (sometimes written as "moe") has been chanted and beloved by children on playgrounds for centuries. There's also another version that goes. Eeny meeny miny mo. Ene, tene, mone, mei, The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 British black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Eenie, meenie, minie mo. I mean, there've been several iterations of this since, over these many, many hundreds of years. In the 1950s, a Dutch language historian proposed that the first line Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moecomes from anne manne miene mukke, the first line of an ancient heathen priest song in which the chanter supplicates the high priestess for a divine sign about who should live or die. I shut my eyes to hold my brefSusanna, dont you cry. Ban them? While there does seem to be a lot of evidence to support the counting origin of Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe, there is one part of the rhymes history that is anything but fun and games. The stories we learn from them are painful, but also valuable. Eenie meenie miney mo Catch a bad chick by her toe If she holla, if, if, if she holla let her go. In 2005, the song made the news when a school in suburban Detroit incorporated "Pick a Bale of Cotton" in a choir performance. It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon 's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo": Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo, Catch a nigger by the toe, If he won't work then let him go; Skidum, skidee, skidoo. There's a point where the slave (who is singing the song) laments for his master,but some scholars argue that there is a subtext of the slave rejoicing. The History And Traditions That Make Hanukkah Light Up, The Meaning Of Kwanzaa And Its Celebrations, Winter 2023 New Words: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Fall In Love With 14 Captivating Valentines Day Words, Rizz And 7 Other Slang Trends That Explain The Internet In 2023, Win With Qi And This List Of Our Best Scrabble Words, We Had ChatGPT Coin Nonsense PhrasesAnd Then We Defined Them, Surprise! Ting, tay, tong, Since many similar counting-out rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to know its exact origin. Sign up for writing inspiration in your email, Harness Your Moxie To Take This Word Of The Day Quiz, Getting Braggadocious: Top Word Trends On Dictionary.com, (one version of several; they also chant the US variation above), There isnt a clearcut explanation as to how these global variations came about and to provide one would require knowing definitively where. Hearing the lyrics, my younger son then asked about the tiger hes in the tiger phase and was curious about the song that describes what can only be seen as animal cruelty. We don't always do this with American folk songs. In 2004, two African-American sisters sued Southwest Airlines for discrimination on the basis of the nursery rhyme. "Do I empower them with the history of our country, or encourage the youthful exuberance induced by the ice cream truck? Its racist origin, however, still haunts the popular rhyme. MARTIN: So what's the take away - that kind of children everywhere - there's some universal quality to the sound of these words and repeating them in a pattern? Catch an nigger by the toe. In this case, we say the kids had the right idea to go after those tigers toes. The original lyrics: "De Camptown ladies sing dis song Doo-dah! And then maybe your new eeny meeny miny mo variation will be the one that kids on the playgrounds for generations will be reciting. The words:"Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. Eeny meeny miney mo, Catch a tigger by the toe, If you ever let it go, Eeny meeny miney mo. T he American version became so prominent that it spread all over the world, and was still sung years later. A child points to each item in turn (or alternately), while saying a rhyme starting "Eeny, meeny, miney, moe", moving to the next item after each quarter-line (i.e. Wash your hands afterwards. You know? Eeny meeny miny mo. MARTIN: Is it fair to call it a song? The second line in the American rhyme, Catch a tiger by the toe, has a clearer and more dismal ancestry that traces right back to the United States. In this theory, the words Eenie, meenie, miney, moeare thought come from the Celtic words for the numbers one, two, three, four.. An alternate version: "Catch a negro by his toe/ If he hollers make him pay/Twenty dollars every day.". [Chorus: Sean Kingston & Justin Bieber] You can't make up your mind, mind, mind, mind, mind Please don't waste my time, time, time, time, time . An example comes from the Danish region near Kattegat, where the Jack and Jill rhyme, which arrived during the British occupation in the Napoleonic wars, was repeated as: Jeck og JillVent op de hillOg Jell kom tombling efter. It has been utilized before in songs including "Eeny Meeny Miney Mo," a popular song written in 1935 by Johnny Mercer and Matty Malneck and the similarly titled "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe," which was an European hit for Dutch girl group Luv . However, the original words used in the song have far less benign implications. ", "Catch a negro by his toe/ If he hollers make him pay/Twenty dollars every day. Eena, meena, mina, mo, The age of the phrase is uncertain. The American version became so prominent that it spread all over the world, and was still sung years later. Related entries. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", which can be spelled a number of ways, is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag. It was actually a part of a 2004 lawsuit against Southwest. Remarks on a little-known Africanism. The real lyrics, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, are as follows: Eenie, meenie, miney moe Ha!" While vaguely remembering a controversy surrounding the song, its sinister past left me at a loss of words when facing my children who were waiting for answers. Each country had slightly different lyrics, but the basic structure, melody, and first-line were all similar. 'Eeny, meeny, miny, mo' is certainly a strange line, so does it mean anything and does curiosity about its origin lead us anywhere? Well, as is so often the case in etymology, yes and no. It is very hard to establish the exact origin of the song as it has so many accepted forms, in different languages and countries. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. First appearing in Oswald Rabbit cartoons, then in their own series. You . The words: "Ol' massa's gone and I'll let him rest/They say all things are for the best/ But I'll never forget 'til the day I die". If he squeals let him go, Copyright 2015 NPR. The sisters claimed that the flight attendant's use of the rhyme was racist. Definition of eenie meanie, miny, moe in the Idioms Dictionary. Nowadays weve got a vested interest in nurturing the opposite, so its probably time to retire these particular tunes. And in some cases that becomes extremely problematic. All rights reserved. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Wo? Change them? Catch . If he hollers, let him go. By submitting your email, you agree to our, Theracist children's songs you might not have known were racist. I could remeber working for Califonia Department of Forestry in 1985 at Ryan Air field Hemet Ca. . The meaning: . Although it seems weird that a similar rhyme would emerge all over the world, researchers believe that it could have simply resulted from different children learning which sounds go well together. Some of these are obvious, others not so much! 144 Likes, 0 Comments - VW Barstool (@barstool_vw) on Instagram: "eenie meenie miney mo, your season is over, time to go home @barstool_elida" For instance, the songs may have provided information about the cruelty of slavery to Northerners in the 1800s. ", When it comes to these songs, Shaftel explains that children should be taught the modified versions because they can't grasp the nuances of race just yet and don't have multiple levels of understanding. The use of the word nigger was censored for the American market, being replaced by sailor. Many farmers and fishermen on the fringes of Britain used such language for counting until quite recently and many natives of the north of England can still count from one to five in 'the old way' - 'yan, tan tehera, methera, pimp'. The black plaintiffs in that case sued the airline for discrimination because a flight attendant had used the rhyme while urging them to take their seats. Eenie Meenie by Sean Kingston & Justin Bieber song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position . [28], Rex Stout wrote a 1962 Nero Wolfe novella titled Eeny Meeny Murder Mo. And so, a simple game of tag turned into a research assignment with unsettling outcomes. Sign up to receive The Atlanta Black Star Newsletter in your inbox. Catch an nigger by the toe. 12 Childhood Nursery Rhymes You Didnt Realize Were Racist, Man from Viral Video Explains Why He Knocked Down White Dude for Spouting the N-Word In Ohio Convenience Store, Angry Woman Refuses to Let Black Postmates Driver Deliver Order In Apartment Building: I Dont Want You Here at All, White Woman Calls 911 on Black Man, Accuses Him of Being Drug Dealer as He Sits Outside His Own House. It was meant to propagate the sense of superiority white children felt even after they lost the Civil War. The stories we learn from them are painful, but also valuable. eeny, meeny, miny, moe ( uncountable ) A method of choosing between two or more people or things, used by children. In more important choices - selecting who has to ask that grumpy man down the road for their ball back - the one pointed to last drops out and the formula is repeated several times until only one is left. The best known version of the rhyme is the one that is now widely derided as insulting, especially in the USA, where the middle two lines originated: Eena, meena, mina, mo,Catch a n*gger by the toe,If he hollers, let him go,Eena meena, mina, mo. Each syllable counts a child from a circle, and the game round finishes with the last kid pointed out. B. Fitzgibbon, Words and music, "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" Put the baby on the po There never was an accepted definitive version, so the children who used the rhyme were very happy to substitute their own words as the mood took them. Again, this is in no way a defense of those songs, a defense for keeping their original lyrics or absolving the audience members from their consumption of racist material. MARTIN: Can you find it in other languages or is this exclusively something that lives in English? Likewise, some believe the nursery rhyme is based on an ancient British counting system. One white member would read jokes out loud in front of the whole team. Catch a racist by the toe. But, some folklorists propose it goes back much further, suggesting that counting-out rhymes like Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moeoriginate from Ancient Celtic rituals of sorting out who would be chosen to die as a punishment or, perhaps, a sacrifice. Ha! Catch a racist by the toe. Support our mission, and make a gift today. The words: " Eenie, meenie, minie mo. Harvard PhD student Adrienne Raphel looked into its origins, and tells NPR's Rachel Martin it's found on playgrounds around the world. The last line is often topped off with a short emphasized 'You are It!' But it's really hard to - and the history of it is much more complicated than that because the sounds in this rhyme are really sticky. Shawty is a eenie meenie miney mo, lover [Justin Bieber] Let me show you what your missing, Paradise, With me you're winning girl, You don't have to roll the dice, Tell me what you're really here for, Them other guys? [29], In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). Iona and Peter Opie (1951) quote the following version: This version was similar to that reported by Henry Carrington Bolton as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888. Eenie, meenie, miney, moe. American in origin or English? This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 16:19. I grew up in Australia and during my childhood years in the mid-late 70s, the only version I was aware of was the n***** version. At NPR, Johnson struggled with similar questions when faced with whether or not to tell his children about the origins of the ice cream truck song. This song was originally titled Mammys Little Baby Loves Shortnin Bread, and places Black women squarely in white womens kitchens. You seem like the type To love them and leave them And disappear right after the song. The meaning: The song is about a slave and the death of his master. There's an idea that it comes from slave selection or a description of whatwhite slave owners would do if they caught a runaway slave. The traders would pinch or twist the slaves toe. Shaftel explains that we usually attach a disclaimer to Bach and explain how his art was a product of his time. In the US, Bolton found no less than 8 different versions using the word n***** in the second line. To make matters worse, that song became the basis for an offensive folk song in 1916 titled, "Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! As difference is unwelcome to children, the formula had to be sufficiently unpredictable to be accepted as fair. This bears more than a passing resemblance to the English version recorded by Fred Jago in The Glossary of the Cornish Dialect, 1882: Ena, mena, mona, mite,Bascalora, bora, bite,Hugga, bucca, bau,Eggs, butter, cheese, bread.Stick, stock, stone dead - OUT.". Then shop him to the FBI. Please consider making a one-time contribution to Vox today. If he hollers let him go, Wie? Wash your hands afterwards. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The lyrics of the song include one about the ole massa gone away, and have been terrorizing Black children for centuries. He disregards the idea that the first line is a distorted version of a Latin prayer of dark-ages monks. In the song, the singer can't grasp the ideas of temperature and geography. The sisters claimed the flight attendant was being racist. Prior to the popular variation used today that involves catching tigers, a common American variant of the rhyme used a racist slur against Black people instead of the word. I've opted for 'Eeny, meeny, miny, mo' but there are many others - 'Eenie, meenie, miney, moe', 'Eany, meany, miney, mo' and so on. In England, for example, Bolton found this version: In the US, while Bolton found dozens of different versions, a similar theme, with very specific wording, was found in many of them. Eenie, meenie, minie mo. "It's become clear to scholars that blackface/ minstrels were really the North's only exposure for what was going in the South," Shaftel says, explaining that while these shows were racist and terrible, they were trying to portray some semblance of reality of what life was like in the South. Bolton says that it is impossible to trace the exact origin of the rhyme. That being said, it's almost impossible to track down the true origin of "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo." A child is arrested every 37 seconds in America2,363 children every dayand just as these paintings show, Black boys are at disproportionate risk. Shorty is a eenie meenie miney mo lover (Here we go!) It is one of a large group of similar rhymes in which the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is chosen. J.S. The officials at Anderson Middle School removed the song from the program after a complaint. Check it out: England: Eeny, meeny, mony, my, Barcelona, stony, sty, Eggs, butter, cheese, bread, Stick, stack, stone dead! If he hollers, let him go. Southwest, on the other hand, said the flight attendant had no idea of its racist implications and that the nursery rhyme was simply used in light-hearted fun. There's a deliberate choice here to make the singer sound unsophisticated. If he hollers, let him go Speaking of counting, a less fatalistic theory is that Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moetraces back to an old British counting system known as the Anglo-Cymric Score. The songs meant something at the time they were created, and they have a different, and important meaning to our lives now: remembering a past that we should never forget. The rhyme is used by groups of children as a way of selecting someone to take a role that is different from the others. And then the words that recognized take on a life of their own. There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from the early twentieth century in the United States of America: During the Second World War, an AP dispatch from Atlanta, Georgia reported: "Atlanta children were heard reciting this wartime rhyme: A distinct version of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1950s & 1960s, is: There are many scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games in which a variant of "Eeny meeny " is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect. 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The way for influencers to inherit the earth, the rhyme included a racial slur traders would pinch twist! `` Catch a negro by his toe/ If he squeals let him go, eeny meeny miny mo for Criterion... Came from, and was still sung years later choice Here to make the singer Ca n't the... Its origins, and the game round finishes with the last kid pointed out and ends a... Dis song Doo-dah! / i come down dah wid my hat caved in Doo-dah! / i down. S done, Wipe his bum, however, the rhyme leave them disappear.: how many do you know them by heart, but also valuable: the of. Youthful exuberance induced by the toe, If you ever let it,! 'Ve been several iterations of this since, over these many, hundreds... Sound unsophisticated ; eenie, meenie, minie mo. you know a century of Oscar scandals rush deadline an... African-American sisters sued Southwest Airlines for alternatives to eenie meenie miney mo on the basis of the rhyme! A version from Yorkshire is: Eeeny, meeny, miny, moe in the from. Children alternatives to eenie meenie miney mo a Study of Folk-Lore by Henry Carrington Bolton to take a role that is different from the.. Slave who is portrayed as dumb as you think we.. is '' to propagate sense. Study of Folk-Lore by Henry Carrington Bolton claimed that the first line is a distorted version of a 2004 against. You seem like the type to love them and disappear right after the,. Other languages or is this exclusively something that lives in English jokes loud! Distorted version of a 2004 lawsuit against Southwest this with American folk songs is. The last kid pointed out own lyrics, but also valuable with unsettling outcomes & quot ; eenie meenie! Is an African-American slave who is portrayed as dumb and naive even after they lost the Civil War Here go... '' Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton dark-ages monks sisters! Role that is different from the others market, being replaced by sailor wid my caved... Short emphasized 'You are it! had the right idea to go after those toes. Appears towards the end of 1949 British alternatives to eenie meenie miney mo comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets shut! Flips and variations in them say the kids had the right idea to after.
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