"little joe from kokomo" and "african billiards"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 14, 2005, at 10:36 AM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "little joe from kokomo" and "african billiards"
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>
> One of the many little things I have learned while going
> through newspapers of the last hundred and fifty years is
> how creative man can be in coming up with ways to insult.
>
> I don't mean in the least to imply that race relations in this
> country are perfect, but periodicals of even fifty years ago
> would print, with no sense of irony or shame at all, stuff that
> would get them into serious trouble today.
>
>
>> Okay. I've long been familiar with " ,,, dominoes" from
>> literature, but " ... billiards" I've neither read nor heard
>> before today. Given that actual dominoes is an *extremely*
>> popular game amongst the colored, I can assume only that
>> "African ... " term must have been thought up by some member
>> of the other group with nothing better to do than to heap
>> further opprobrium onto the backs of the members of an
>> already much-maligned minority. ;-)
>>
>> -Wilson
>

I'm just pulling your buns, Bill! That''s why I added the emoticon. I
read the part of the intro to this listserv that warned that it may not
be the board for people who wear their sensitivities on their sleeves.

-Wilson