refugee, IDP, evacuee

[Jonathan Lighter]

Margaret, I didn't write that.

Anyway, except for fugitive slaves and the like, black people haven't been "refugees" in America since 1619. People brought and held forcibly against their will may be slaves, or captives, or prisoners, or other things, but hardly "refugees."  Refugees leave, or are tossed out of, an intolerable place to seek refuge elsewhere.

At least that's my understanding of the word "refugee."

JL

Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Margaret Lee
Subject: Re: refugee, IDP, evacuee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jonathan Lighter wrote:
I always thought it a bit odd to hear Lauryn Hill singing about
being a "refugee" when she (like me) grew up in comfortable South Orange,
NJ.

--Ben Zimmer

Black people in America have been "refugees" from Africa since 1619.


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