righteous

[Wilson Gray]

You make an excellent point!

With respect to your comment in  an response:

"Even in 'righteous moss,' the word can be easily construed to mean
'good' (cf. 'good hair')."

*Exactly* as in "righteous moss," I daresay! The only construction
that "righteous moss" has is "good hair." How could the hair be
righteous, if it wasn't "good'? Did I not specify that "'righteous
moss" refers to "a head of hair naturally like unto the hair of white
people"?

Wait a second! Are you saying that you don't already know that, in
Black America, "good" hair is specifically the hair of white people?

Damn, man! I'm sorry. I thought that everybody knew that! Every
American, that is. From my military service, I learned that Europeans
don't know that. But you really don't know that terms like "burr
head", "nappy head(ed)" "woolly hair(ed), even "tightly-curled," etc.
are regarded as extremely obnoxious insults only slightly less hurtful
than "nigger," and not as mere descriptives?

Well, I guess that explains what caused you to state the, to me,
obvious, WRT the meaning of "righteous." I'm going to have to tell my
partners about this! But don't get up tight, Jon. I won't tell anybody
your name. :-) You have to picture me and my boys crackin' up/nuttin'
up/knottin' up a la Sammy Davis, Jr.  :-)

BTW, here's an obscure bit of slang for you: "white-girl," v.,
unconsciously toss or shake one's head so as to get one's hair out of
one's face. I realize that white males do the same thing, but, of
course, that's less interesting. Besides, "white-stud," "white-boy,"
and other such possibilities don't have the same sonic resonance. We
used to imitate this motioon when I was a kid, but it was envy, not
mockery, that motivated us.

-Wilson

On 1/7/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: righteous
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dunno about black usage, but "brother" between white guys has been around a long time.  Like, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (Harburg & Gorney, 1932).
>
>   Surely you're not suggesting that publicity-crazed pop entertainers would make up a story like this, or endorse a publicist's, er, "white" lie ?
>
>   I yam mawtified !
>
>   JL
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: righteous
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 1/7/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: righteous
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Dan Burley's got it too, in 1944. Maybe Ben can dig an earlier one out of the _Defender_.
> >
> > Wilson : as you well know, they got their name from the cat who commented,
> > "Righteous, brother ! " after (or maybe during) a song. He meant "great, splendid, the real thing, deeply satisfying" rather than "of white people"...one hopes.
> >
> > Even in "righteous moss" the word can be easily construed to mean "good" (cf. "good hair").
> >
> > JL
> >
>
> You are correct, Jon. I do know the *story,* all too well, and I've
> been pissed off about it ever since I read the first version of this
> bullshit claim in the Los Angeles Times decades ago. I consider it to
> be so totally devoid of content as to constitute an insult to black
> Americans. I.e. At the time that the RB's put out this story, no black
> person would have referred to a white man as "brother." That usage was
> still totally in-group, in those days, and not necessarily by choice.
>
> I'm sorry. Perhaps I need to point out that, in the originaI version
> of the story, it was specifically stated that said cat was black. It's
> like Bill Haley of "and the Comets" fame claiming to have invented the
> phrase, "rock and roll." Utter balderdash, I say! Do you remember the
> time that black singer Irma Thomas, opening for the Stones in London,
> was nearly hooted off the stage for doing the Stones' "Time Is On My
> Side," despite the fact that Thomas's original recording of this song
> predates the British Invasion? Do you remember the Chordettes and
> their hit cover of the song, "Lollipop"? It became their hit when
> there turned out to no way that Ronald & Ruby, who wrote and recorded
> the original version, could be marketed to the white-American public
> of the '50's, given that Ronald was a black male and Ruby was a white
> female.
>
> To paraphrase Led Zeppelin, "Does anybody remember segregation?" At
> the time that the RB's put out this jive story, they had never played
> a venue that was open to blacks and I'm not certain that they ever
> did. Why would they have bothered? "If you white, you right," to coin
> ;-) a phrase. Changing the law doesn't change the custom. Of course,
> "time brings about a change," to borrow the title of an old song. Dave
> Chappelle regularly goes to what, a few years ago, would have been the
> once-unthinkable extreme of publicly referring to *anyone,"
> irregardless ;-) of race, creed, or color, as "nigger." (Oddly enough,
> I find this to be quite refreshing.)
>
> As for your second observation, let me paraphrase a quotation from the
> oeuvre of Ike Turner: "That was precisely my point from the verrih
> bigginnin!"
>
> -Wilson
>
> P.S. To speak ill of the dead, in L.A.'s black community, Lou Rawls
> was as well-known for his pimp-like physical abuse of women as he was
> for his singing. -W
>
>
> > Wilson Gray wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Wilson Gray
> > Subject: Re: righteous
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On 1/7/06, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > > Poster: Jesse Sheidlower
> > > Subject: Re: righteous
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > On Sat, Jan 07, 2006 at 12:40:38AM -0500, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Fritz, surely you haven't forgotten the BE slang use, dating back to
> > > > only God knows when, of "righteous" as a term meaning, "typical of
> > > > white people," as in "righteous moss," a head of hair naturally like
> > > > unto the hair of white people? ;-) When the Afro became hip, beauty
> > > > parlors that had formerly sustained themselves straighening
> > > > "naturally-curly" hair stayed in business curling the hair of chicks
> > > > thitherto "blessed" with righteous moss.
> > >
> > > OED cites this back to Zora Neale Hurston in 1942.
> > >
> > > Jesse Sheidlower
> > > OED
> > >
> >
> > It's nice that someone besides God knows. :-) Thanks, Jesse!
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> >
> >
> >
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