Doo-dah!/ I go back home wid a pocket full of tin -- Oh! It goes something like this: Eenie, meenie, miney, moe, The traders would pinch or twist the slaves toe. The meaning: The meaning of this rhyme is rooted in the slave trade. The category was "Rhyme Time," and the answer was later revealed as "EENIE MEENIE MINY MOE CATCH A TIGER BY THE TOE," which didn't sit well with viewers. , wipe his bum: Eeny meeny miny mo." Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.28.150.22 (talk) 11:20, 23 February 2013 (UTC . Which Is The Correct Spelling? Sean Kingston - Eenie Meenie Lyrics | AZLyrics.com In the nineteenth century, for instance, the historian John Bellender Ker strung together several arbitrary strings of Dutch words that sounded like English counting-out rhymes, claiming these ditties originated as corruptions of stupid Dutch. Versions of the rhyme have existed since before 1820. But studying these songs within the proper context suggests the songs represent more than may appear at first listen. 4 common phrases with racist origins that you should stop using right Furthermore, another theory describes how slave traders would pinch or pull a slave's toe before purchasing them (via An Injustice). Notably, the rhyme has been used by killers to choose victims in the 1994 films Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers,[24][25] the 2003 film Elephant,[26] and the sixth-season finale of the television series The Walking Dead. Many poor southern White people were not able to meet such expectations, so seven states passed laws that made men eligible to vote if they had been granted the right to vote before 1867 or were lineal descendants of voters back then. Adrienne Raphel is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and is currently a Ph.D. student at Harvard, where she writes about poetics and plays word games. Rolf later apologised for the lyrics, which shamed Aboriginal people for their misfortune in Australia. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Eeny meeny miny mo: Sit the baby on the po: When he's done, . There isnt any evidence to back up this theory, which basically means that a term used by African slaves was used by white children in a racist song mocking them. Thus, instead of tiger, it said the n-word to describe what would happen if a white slave owner caught a runaway. If he hollers, let him go. This is how to make your kid fall in love with reading. Eeny Meeny Miny NO: How You Can Rid Your Storytime Songs of Unintended Wie? 10 Disturbing Nursery Rhyme Origin Stories to Celebrate Nursery Rhyme Week Stop singing them? The tune was brought to America's colonies by Scots-Irish immigrants who settled along the Appalachian Trail and added lyrics that mirrored their new lifestyle.". But these songs, can teach us about our past. It was accompanied by images of big-lipped, black-faced African Americans. These classic kids' books are actually a bit disturbing.