... woodpile

[Natalie Maynor]

Derrick Chapman wrote:

>   I don't know if the Brit lady was
> attempting to "speak Southern" to me, assuming (wrongly) that I wouldn't be
> offended.

This reminds me of something in my own experience.  The only time I've
ever heard the word "nigger" used (i.e., used as a normal part of
conversation, as opposed to being discussed as a word) was by a taxi
driver in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1969.  After preliminary introductions
like where I wanted to go and where I was from, she started into a long
rant about "niggers."  When she had asked me where I was from, I had
said something like "the US, Mississippi" or "Mississippi, in the US."
I wondered later if she launched into her appalling, racist harangue
because she had heard or read that Mississippi was supposedly full of
racists.  I'll never forget that experience.  My ears are still ringing
from it over thirty years later.
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)