― Carl Sagan
How was Kate Smith- American songstress, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom largely for her selling of war bonds during W.W. II which raised some $600 million (over $10 billion in today's currency) for the war effort- outed as a vile racist? As it turns out, with remarkable ease: it merely took one social justice warrior digging through the hundreds of songs that Smith sang over her 50+ year career to find two which were "problematic". One of these was "Why The Darkies Were Born", an edgy title to be sure. Of course, the song was meant to be a satirical mockery of slavery, and was also sung by Paul Robeson, that notoriously (checks notes) black racist, but why bother with context or nuance when there's a reputation to destroy.
The pusillanimous Flyers organization put out this whingeing statement: "Several songs by the late Kate Smith contain offensive lyrics that do not reflect our values." Wow- I sure am glad they cleared that up; I've been under the impression that anyone who plays an artist's song is tacitly supporting everything said, sung and done by that singer. This is why all radio stations which play rap should be castigated for approving of rape and murder- the subjects of many a rap song- and any movie theater which has ever showed a Roman Polanski film is obviously A-OK with statutory rape and sodomy. And don't even get me started on Michael Jackson.
I suspect that Smith becoming a target for the social justice warriors was more about knocking down someone who was a staunch and patriotic American than because of a little known song she performed almost 90 years ago. I suspect that what really set them off was her song which is still widely played and loved... that in reality, these people are actually offended by Kate Smith singing "God Bless America". Thanks to the craven, cowardly behaviour of the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Flyers organizations, the regressives have achieved their aim of having it memory holed.