"shambo" (was " Charlie")

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated  Sun, 10 Oct 2004 15:58:09 -0500,  "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
<gcohen at UMR.EDU> writes

>  Just a guess: ["shambo"] Seems to be an alteration of "Sambo."

I hate to disappoint you, but "Little Black Sambo" was a Caucasian!

In the story little Sambo has to deal with a pride (?) of tigers.  Now tigers
are found only in Asia (any tigers in Africa, the limerick about the "young
lady from the Niger" to the contrary, are in zoos).  Hence Sambo lived in
India.  Now many Indians have very dark ("black") skins, but they are all
Caucasians.

As for "Charlie" in Vietnam War contexts, I was told (and find it quite
plausible) that the derivation was from "Viet Cong" abbreviated as "VC" and then
rendered, in the ICAO phonetic alphabet used by US armed forces, as "Victor
Charlie".  In my experience "Charlie" does NOT refer to a Vietnamese but rather
was specifically used for a member of either the Viet Cong or the NVA (North
Vietnamese army).

I read somewhere (I can't locate the source) that during Gulf War I US
soldiers had a derogatory term for Arabs: "Homers", after Homer Simpson.  I have
never encountered this claim elsewhere so I am somewhat dubious.

           - James A. Landau