Stu Bykofsky Assumes the Identity of Kate Smith in Letter to Flyers
Former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Stu Bykofsky, who won a defamation lawsuit against Inga Saffron about a year ago, is running his own website now.
Recent articles cover Philly-centric political and cultural topics.
But the top entry is titled “Open letter to the Philadelphia Flyers from Kate Smith,” and it’s written from Smith’s perspective, which is kind of strange. Dunno. Imagine if Pagan wrote an entire story as if he was Nick Sirianni, and the premise was explaining to Jeffrey Lurie why he shouldn’t be shit canned. Or if I assumed the identity of Shady McCoy and wrote a letter to Dak Prescott, laying out the reasons for why he’s “ass.”
DAK IS ASS pic.twitter.com/BOwhldyEHj
— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) January 14, 2024
Anyway, here’s some of it:
I’m humbly asking you to correct the mistake you made about me.
In 2019, I believe the Philadelphia Flyers management panicked and banned their good-luck charm — me — on the tissue-thin accusation that I was “racist.”
Even though I died in 1986, fellas, that hurt. How would you feel to be called a racist and turned into an outcast? Betrayed and canceled by your friends.
What was the evidence against me?
Ninety years earlier I sang two songs — two out of 3,000 I recorded — that were racist. I admit it now, although I didn’t see it then. The songs were “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” and “Pickaninny Heaven.”
After someone emailed the New York Yankees that I had recorded the songs, the Yankees immediately banned my 1939 rendition of “God Bless America” that had been played during the 7th inning stretch, starting after 9/11. Using my song that way gave this country girl a thrill because everyone knows how patriotic I was, how I loved our great country.
…
The Yankees and the Flyers convicted me without a fair trial.
I am asking the new Flyers leadership to now listen to the defense.
The rest of the story lays out evidence for why the Flyers made the wrong decision here, which I think is the strongest part of the article. Stu talks about the satirical angle of “Why Darkies Were Born” and notes that Kate Smith worked with a “long list” of black artists. He shares quotes dating back to the 40s, when Smith criticized racism and bigotry.
What’s funny is to read the replies to various stories and social media postings about Kate Smith in 2024, because there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. There’s a lot of “who the fuck cares” and “I’ll never forgive the Flyers for this.” It’s like we’re riding both extremes of the spectrum and nobody has a measured take, maybe because they’re too busy watching a relatively young Flyers team overachieve on the ice. It’s a “New Era of Orange” for them, not a “new era of drudging up tired shit from several years ago.”
But regardless of where you stand on the Kate Smith issue, you can’t argue that the previous administration did not rush this. Four years ago, we were at the height of cancel culture in the U.S. The Yankees took the lead and the Flyers panicked and threw the black tarp over Kate almost immediately, because if you didn’t capitulate to the woke mob right away, then you yourself were complicit in whatever accusation was currently being flung around. Racism, misogyny, etc. Everything was problematic and everyone was responsible.
What the Flyers should have done was issue a statement saying “we take these concerns seriously, and we’re going to exercise due diligence here and do some proper research before making a quick decision.” Instead, they sped through the whole thing and pissed off half of the fan base in the process.
If they had taken their time before ultimately choosing to remove the statue anyway, the decision would have been less controversial because it would have at least showed they weren’t going to be pressured into a knee-jerk choice by outsiders.
A few years back, in 2022, Val Camillo told fans at a Q/A session that the organization would not be revisiting the Kate Smith topic. Do you think a new regime would change their stance on that? It’s an interesting question. What does Dan Hilferty think about Kate Smith? Do we get the statue out of the storage unit, or leave it in there to collect dust? Some people want to know! Others don’t give one iota of a shit.
Go Flyers.