"Notes About Negroes"

[Wilson Gray]

Very likely, no one else here is familiar with The Thunderbolt, the
pamphlet of the American Nazi Party. The rag has a couple of "gossip
columns": "News About Jews" and "Notes ABout Niggers." My subject line
references these columns as a (sick) joke.

But, seriously, folks ...

Re: hair, etc. > hurr, etc. in Saint Louis BE

I've had occasion to listen closely to the speech of BE speakers from
both Chicago and Kansas City, the two cities most likely to influence
the speech of Saint Louis. Neither group of speakers prounounced
"hair," etc. as "hurr," etc.

Re: "stayed" > "stood" in (Southern) Louisiana BE.

Some may remember my tale of hearing a black GI from Louisiana say,
ca.1965, "When I was stationed at Fort Polk, man, I _STOOD_ [emphasis
in the original] in New Orleans!" Many, many working-class blacks from
all over the greater New Orleans metropolitan area were interviewed in
the wake of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. They likewise
uniformly used "stood." "If I had knowed what was comin', I wouldn't
never have _stood_ here!" etc.

-Wilson
--
-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.

--Sam Clemens

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