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

[Wilson Gray]

sThanks, guys. A really weird aspect of the American variety of racism
is that *anyone* can become black merely by saying, "I'm black," and
be believed, regardless of what he looks like. A case in point is the
late, great, rhythm-&-blues musician and bandleader, Johnny Otis, born
to Greek-American parents as Yannis Veliotis, who lived nearly his
entire life, from the 'teens on, as a black man. Those who are fans of
obscure jazz musicians may be aware of his son, the guitarist, Johnny,
Jr., better known as "Shug" Otis, though I can remember when he was
still an infant nicknamed "Sugar Boy."

As my "friend," M's, blow-up - you'd have that I had asked whether it
was true that Prof. Cassidy was pimping out his wife and daughters and
hustling his own butt as a gay pross - demonstrated, there is
sufficient latent racism that, basically, only an insane person or
someone actually of black ancestry would be damned fool enough not to
go for white, if he could, despite how things look from the other side
of the color bar.

Remember Jennifer Beals, of "Flashdance" fame? In an interview
published in the Boston Globe, she was quoted to the effect that, were
her father still alive, he would want her to call herself black, but
her mother preferred the term, "mixed."

While browsing through Google, I came acrosss the claim that there are
about 7,000,000 people of multiracial ancestry and this number, which
includes people of mixed Asian, South-Asian,  Native American, and
Hispanic-American and European ancestry, as well as people of mixed
African and European ancestry is growing. This is a statement that is
beyond silly, given that there is no doubt that there have been people
of mixed European, African. and / or Native-American ancestry since
colonial times. The number of people of mixed European and African
ancestry alone probably tops 7,000,000. Indeed, your humble
correspondent, the darkest-skinned member of his own immediate family,
descends from a white great-grandfather.

BTW, Fred, have you ever seen the movie, _The Harder They Come_? If
not, you should rent it. It'll give you a clearer picture of how race
and skin tone work in Jamaica than the UW faculty's memorial
resolution does.

-Wilson

On 11/1/06, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Race/racism and the late Prof. Frederic G. Cassidy
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On the web I find a memorial resolution of the University of Wisconsin
> faculty containing the following information:
>
> "Cassidy's interest in Creole English came naturally enough -- he was born
> in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1907, to a Canadian father and a Jamaican mother.
> He grew up hearing their two varieties of standard British English and the
> Creole variety of the Black majority as well."
>
> I'm not certain how to interpret this, but it sounds like his mother was
> Jamaican but not a member of the Black majority.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-----
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