McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]

Margaret Lee mlee303 at YAHOO.COM
Tue Jan 19 10:20:13 UTC 2010


And WEB DuBois's 1903 book is entitled The Souls of Black Folk.
 
M argaret Lee

________________________________________

--- On Tue, 1/19/10, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

I'm starting to recall that Malcolm X called for the use of _Black_ in his
autobiography in 1964, some years before Carmichael's _Black Power_.  It
didn't become media mainstream until after MLK's assassination.


JL

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:19 PM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> They should have told Dr King, who in his famous "I have a dream" speech
> said "Negro" 15 times, "Black" 4 times and "citizens of color" once.
>
> If race truly means nothing, we ought to turn to flavors; chocolate,
> vanilla, strawberry, almond and banana.  Anything else is rocky road.
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
> see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------
> > Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:13:08 -0500
> > From: wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
> > Subject: Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > One reason that "Negro" got discarded was the claim, publicized by
> > Carmichael and/or Brown but dating back to at least 1914, that "Nee-gro"
> > [often pronounced with contemptuous inflexion] is just a "polite form of
> > 'nigger.'" The source was a belief that the "polite form" was used
> > cynically as a code-word in the presence of the victims who, of course,
> > could not "reasonably" object even if they caught on.
> >
> > The southern white pronunciation /nIgr@/, often deliberately equivocal,
> > didn't help.
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 7:55 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
> >> Subject: Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> At 1/18/2010 12:20 PM, Bill Palmer wrote:
> >>>When I was growing up in Virginia in the 1950's, the few blacks I had
> >>>conversations with, routinely used "colored".
> >>
> >> Was this because there "Negro" sounded to much like "Nigger"? So
> >> "colored" was the term of choice among the other possibilities?
> >>
> >> Joel
> >>
> >>
> >>>The local newspapers in all news stories involving blacks had the word
> >>>"negro" following the name. This practice ended sometime in the 60's I
> >>>believe.
> >>>
> >>>My great aunt and uncle (natives of KY, born in late 1800's) routinely
> >> used
> >>>"darky", and my wife's aunt, native of SW Georgia, born around 1890
> >>>routinely used the term even when in the presence of blacks. Other than
> >>>those examples, Stephen Foster was the only person I ever heard use that
> >>>term.
> >>>
> >>>Bill Palmer
> >>
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> > --
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> truth."
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