redshirt

[Peter Richardson]

The exchange of ideas about redshirting (and I'll vote with Natalie on
this one) reminds me of a faux pas produced by my grandmother in Penn
Station in the early 1900s. She was looking for someone to carry her
luggage and spied a man in the appropriate uniform--a "redcap" to those of
us who remember them. Trouble was, she called out, "Oh, redskin!" -- and
he, like most of that profession at that time, was black. Immediate
ignominy for Grandmother. Since that time our clan has used redskin to
refer to anyone (including ourselves) who has to carry anything.

Peter Richardson