"uppity"

paul johnson paulzjoh at MTNHOME.COM
Mon Nov 28 02:51:52 UTC 2011


paul johnson
     I've lived in North Central Arkansas for the past 18 years, this is
a lily white area not far from the HQ of the Klan.  I've never heard
uppity with out it being joined to the N word.  Much the same as Damn +Y
word.
Around here the uppity whites would be known as Trailer Trash.

On 11/27/2011 8:21 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
> On Nov 25, 2011, at 5:25 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> Not to disagree, but I don't think it's the issue of the /word/ being
>> racist. The word is what it is--although, of course, some words may
>> include that aspect in and of themselves. But, in this case, it is the
>> /use/ of the word that would be racist--precisely because the idea of
>> "kept in his/her place" is not as eradicated as you seem to believe.
>> And, when the comment is made by someone who is /known/ to push the
>> boundaries on such issues quite deliberately, all bets are off. (Just
>> recall the total denial following the flap over the comments about
>> McNabb, for example.)
>>
>>      VS-)
>>
>> On 11/25/2011 7:59 PM, James A. Landau<JJJRLandau at netscape.com>  wrote:
>>> ...
>>> One can claim "uppity" is a "racist" word, but I think not. What
>>> happens is that "uppity" has such a specific meaning that it rarely
>>> occurs outside a race-relations context, which means that the text
>>> surrounding the word can easily be racist, but not the word itself.
>>> ...
> we went through "uppity" here in September 2008.
>
> arnold
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

--
What's the past tense of "forgo"?

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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