Potential racism of "auction block"

[Baker, John]

Since almost all of the earliest uses (at least the first two decades) of "auction block" are to refer to the block on which slaves were sold (although the examples I've seen are by those opposed to slavery, rather than those actually buying, selling, auctioneering, etc.), and since the initial extensions of the term's meaning thereafter are pejorative, it does seem likely that this was the initial meaning.  Moving on to your thesis:  The obvious reason why "auction block" is not a disfavored term is that almost nobody knows of the apparent origin. 
 
A second reason that "auction block" is not a taboo term is that its use does not necessarily have racist overtones.  If you say "We're going on a picnic," and it's understood that "picnic" can be a synonym for "lynching," the problems are self-evident.  "Spade" is a well-known racial insult, as is the supposed root of "niggardly."  "The company has been put on the auction block" does not necessarily share these overtones, although it could if the company in question were perceived to be a primarily African-American institution.
 
John Baker

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: Jesse Sheidlower [mailto:jester at PANIX.COM] 
	Sent: Tue 7/30/2002 10:01 PM 
	To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
	Cc: 
	Subject: Potential racism of "auction block"
	
	

	The expression "auction block" originally refers to the block on
	which slaves stood when they were sold. This sense dates back to
	the mid-nineteenth century, at least. The earliest example I've
	seen of the figurative sense 'the open market' or some such, as
	in "MegaCorp is putting their Foobar division on the auction
	block," is from the 1940s or so.
	
	I've never heard any objection to the free use of this phrase,
	and I'm wondering if I've missed this, or if no one has
	objected to it. As we know, there are periodic objections to
	words or expressions of innocent origin--"picnic",
	"niggardly", "nitty-gritty", "call a spade a spade"--because
	of their incorrectly assumed racial origins. But here we have
	something that is genuinely a slave term, but has passed
	largely unnoticed.
	
	Thoughts?
	
	Jesse Sheidlower