Race/racism and the late Prof. Frederic G. Cassidy

[Wilson Gray]

Somewhen, somewhere, I was reading the published papers from a round
table on BE. The included commentary contained a brief discussion
between the moderator and a black, female member of the audience.

The black woman asked something to the following effect: "How is it
that you white people dare convene this round table on the language of
Black America and include not even a single black participant on the
panel?"

The moderator responded somewhat as follows: "You are laboring under a
misapprehension. Indeed, the most eminent member of our panel, Prof.
Cassidy, is black."

I'm fairly certain that I was familiar with Prof. Cassidy's name, but,
beyond that, I knew nothing personal about him. This being the United
States of America, I had made the default assumption that a full
professor of linguistics at a major American university [OT brag: the
father of your humble correspondent received his law degree from the
University of Wisconsin in 1936, later becoming the first black person
to be admitted to the Texas bar] must be white. So, I was quite
surprised to read this assertion, so much so that I found it hard to
believe, though there was nothing to indicate that Prof. Cassidy
denied the assertion.

As fate would have it, some time later, in the early 'Seventies, I
became acquainted with M, who had once been a teacher (rank unknoown
to me) of linguistics at Wisconsin. We became, I thought, close
friends. So, I eventually felt free to ask her The Question: "Is it
true that Prof. Frederic Cassidy is black?"

M went up in smoke, virtually exploding with righteous indignation,
replying somewhat as follows: "How in the HELL did you ever get the
impression that Prof. Cassidy is not white?! Where did you get that
shit from?! That is absolutely a damned lie! He is as purely white as
the driven snow! He is NOT black!"

Given that a simple "No" would have sufficed, I felt forced to make an
agonizing reappraisal of what I had surmised to be M's attitude toward
black people in general, as opposed to her attitude toward your humble
correspondent in particular, which was revealed to be nothing more
than a variation of the old apartheid move of designating non-white
VIP's as honorary whites as necessary.

 But, IAC, was he black or was he white?

-Wilson

--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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