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If you know me, you know that I love the Kentucky Derby. It is my High Holy Day. Even the virtual race with Secretariat this past Spring was much watch television. It’s my version of the Super Bowl. This year, the Derby ran four months late, with no spectators, appropriately woke commentary and a special appearance by protesters going by the name NFAC.
It was a warm, dry day at Churchill Downs, really quite beautiful. There was big drama in the paddock when Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s horse, A Thousand Words, reared and fell in the paddock. The horse was automatically scratched, and Baffert’s assistant went to the hospital with a broken arm.
The poobahs at Churchill Downs tried to make this Covid-19 Derby seem normal. Missing the crowds, the hats and the talk of food, there was nothing normal. And, the Kentucky Derby was as woke as you can make a 146 year old Southern event. There is the problematic “My Old Kentucky Home”. The song was rewritten in 1986 to remove a racial slur, but that doesn’t cut it today. Rather than having the song played by the University of Louisville Marching Band, with the crowd singing along, Churchill Downs bugler Steve Buttleman called the horses to the post and played “My Old Kentucky Home”. It was okay.
Before the song was played, the announcer read a statement about reflecting on racism and, actually, I didn’t hear the rest. My mouth was on the floor. You cannot pray to God for guidance, but you can reflect on your white privilege. The folks that run the Kentucky Derby contextualized “My Old Kentucky Home”:
After careful consideration, My Old Kentucky Home will be played this year prior to the @KentuckyDerby; however, the 100-year tradition of singing the state song of Kentucky has been thoughtfully & appropriately modified & will be preceded by a moment of silence and reflection.
— Churchill Downs PR (@DerbyMedia) September 4, 2020
Yes, y’all are supposed to reflect on social injustice, but not the injustice for the people whose lives and businesses have been destroyed by rioters and looters. They don’t matter. And, what would any event be without a protest. Enter the NFAC. Never heard of the NFAC? Pshaw. That stands for “Not F**king Around Coalition”. They are calling for justice for Breonna Taylor, an EMT who was killed in her own apartment by police with a no-knock warrant.
“When they start the race, ain’t nobody going to be enjoying themselves,” NFAC leader John “Grandmaster Jay” Johnson said. “You see, they’re looking at us right now. They really don’t give a damn about no race. Louisville, y’all brought this on yourself.”
Johnson then led the group back to G.G. Moore Park, where the NFAC’s march began, shortly before the running of the Derby.
“Grandmaster Jay” had threatened to burn down Louisville, but clarified his remarks:
I hate to bring this up. Derby fashions are normally about the hats. Have you noticed that these protesters outfits are coordinated? That’s not cheap to do. Oh well, I am sure they get together in the weeks before and sew the outfits themselves. Like Mickey and Judy putting on a show in the barn.
Nothing really happened, so far. The Kentucky Derby was run. Authentic beat Tiz the Law. Bob Baffert won his sixth Derby. Wow. I suspect the changes made this year are just the beginning. We’ll see. Every tradition. Everything American, must have the fun sucked out of it to appease the mob. As we know, the mob cannot be appeased.
Featured Image: Banamine/Flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Scott says: “The Mob” needs to be destroyed… not ignored, not arrested, burned to the ground, just as they would do to us if given the chance. Only then can we celebrate what makes America great, and remember those times where we fell short, so as to not repeat them. Communists / racists cannot be appeased, they can only be eradicated.
Ampleforth says: NBC tried hard to drag the dead opossum of politics into the Kentucky Derby. The media has to scourge all sports with the stain of politics, and they feel like sport has to advance their own slant of the disease.
NBC’s message prior to the playing of My Old Kentucky Home was ignorant and patronizing — two qualities that the left has mastered. At the start of the week, the leftists started rumbling about the racist nature of the song. People outside of Kentucky may not realize that it is our state’s song. We stand when it is played. It is played at many sporting events, and for years blacks and whites have stood together to robustly sing our beautiful state’s beautiful song.
I grew up in Louisville. My elementary school celebrated the Kentucky Derby with kids racing around the parking lot like horses. My fifth grade teacher taught us ratios by using the odds in programs from Churchill Downs. We sang My Old Kentucky Home with the original words. It was a positive thing when the words were changed (I have old Kentucky Derby programs with the original words printed in them).
Because of the work I do on Derby Day, I’m usually standing across the track from the grandstand lined up right between the Twin Spires. The singing of My Old Kentucky Home at the Derby is beautiful and moving to a Louisville kid, who grew up loving the Derby. I’ve been to too many Kentucky Derbys to count, but the depth of the emotion of the blast of 160,000 people singing that song and me literally being right in the middle of it is overwhelming and too deep to describe. It has to be experienced.
Now, the sniveling voices from NBC feel the need to drag politics into OUR tradition. Part of the national (world) attraction is that the Kentucky Derby is more than just a horse race. It is a pageant. Part of that pageant is the massive chorus of My Old Kentucky Home. NBC has capitalized on the pageantry since they stole the Derby away from ABC (and denied us Dave Johnson’s extraordinary race calling of “…AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME!”) in 2001.
Within a week, the producers of NBC decide to patronize our state’s song and the state that has long hosted them. A few years ago, I helped Bob Costas and the hot chick he was with get under the rail. I’ll never do that again.
Ms. Williams, I hope that you have been to the Kentucky Derby. If you haven’t, I hope that you get the chance on a regular year. I hope you can spend the week in Louisville to watch the pageantry unfold. In the words of one of Kentucky’s many humorists and sages, Irvin Cobb, “If you ain’t been to the Kentucky Derby, you ain’t seen nothin.” I would invite you to be my family’s guest, but I work at the Derby and cannot take guests.
When I was young I used to work as a chauffeur during Derby Week. I made a lot of money from tips. I addressed my customers as “sir” and “ma’am,” which shocked some of them. Some thought I was putting on a show. Nope! My momma and daddy taught me to be a proper gentleman at all times. The cool thing was that my boss expected his drivers to wear tuxedos every night. When I took someone to a large, fancy Derby party and was told to wait on-site I would slip into the party and no one knew if I was some millionaire or the limousine driver. Those were some great evenings.
[…] Victory Girls Blog: Kentucky Woke Derby Of The Pandemic With Protest. […]
rbj1 says: Breonna Taylor should not have been killed. I oppose no knock raids. You know who else opposes (or would oppose them?) Randy Weaver and the Branch Davidians.
It’s not a black-white issue, it’s a bad police tactic issue.
And then there are the early morning raids on Roger Stone and LTG Michael Flynn.
Ampleforth says: It was a no-knock warrant but not executed as that. The police knocked — several times. It wasn’t a black-white issue until the end of May. It still isn’t in Louisville. People aren’t going to like justice in the Taylor case.
Still no reason to politicize the Kentucky Derby. At least the athletes at the Derby won’t support marxist organizations.
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