Now Mammy?

[Wilson Gray]

Duane, it's been one to the colored for far longer than I've been
living, nearly seven decades, now, at least. Unless you're talking
about Li'l Abner's mom, Mammy Yokum, of course. BTW, do you recall the
children's-song hit by Frank Luther, "Beloved [two syllables] Belindy,
My *Black* [emphasis in the original] Mammy Doll"? That was like
fingernails on a blackboard to me.

Different strokes for different folks. Right, D?

-Wilson Gray



On 5/29/05, Duane Campbell <dcamp at chilitech.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Duane Campbell <dcamp at CHILITECH.NET>
> Subject:      Now Mammy?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Garrison Keillor just did an audience singalong of the Gershwin standard
> :"Summertime." Toward the end he sang, " ... with Daddy and Mommy standin'
> by," and it was like fingernails on a blackboard for me.
>
> Has "Mammy" now become one of the racially proscribed words? (Incidentally
> he did this right after a lengthy series of fart jokes.)
>
> D
>


--
-Wilson Gray