NY Times: "In Bid to Ban Racial Slur, Blacks Are on Both Sides"

[Wilson Gray]

I'd be willing to give up "nigger," if I could also get rid of
"African-American," except for naturalized immigrants from Africa.

BTW, did anyone else see the episode of the Colbert Report on which
Colbert maneuvered a black woman into referring to Barack Obama as as
"African African-American"?

-Wilson

On 2/25/07, Bapopik at aol.com <Bapopik at aol.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bapopik at AOL.COM
> Subject:      NY Times: "In Bid to Ban Racial Slur, Blacks Are on Both Sides"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> No one reads the OED? No reporter can call? Do high schools really have =20
> programs on the origins of just this one word?
> ...=20
> ...
> ...
> _http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/nyregion/25nword.html?pagewanted=3D1&ref=
> =3Dnyre
> gion_=20
> (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/nyregion/25nword.html?pagewanted=3D1&ref=
> =3Dnyregion)        =20
> In Bid to Ban Racial Slur, Blacks Are on Both Sides
> =20
> By _ANAHAD O=E2=80=99CONNOR_=20
> (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/anahad_oconnor=
> /index.html?inline=3Dnyt-per)=20
> Published: February 25, 2007
> (...)
>
> =20
> Web sites like _abolishthenword.com_ (http://abolishthenword.com/) , founded=
> =20
> by Brooklyn natives Jill  and Kovon Flowers, and _theunitedvoices.org_=20
> (http://theunitedvoices.org/)  are devoted to eliminating it, and  some high=
>  schools=20
> in New York and New Jersey have created programs to teach the  origins of th=
> e=20
> word and make students pledge not to say it. =20
> Most of these efforts explain that the word was coined by slave traders 400=20=
> =20
> years ago to degrade blacks. The programs also tell of its deep associations=
>  =20
> with violence, segregation laws and injustice. =20
> (...)
> The word, in all its variations, stems from =E2=80=9Cniger,=E2=80=9D which i=
> s Latin for =20
> black. One of the earliest recorded instances of its use in North America wa=
> s in =20
> 1619, when a Jamestown colonist, John Rolfe, noted in his diary the arrival=20
> of a  Dutch man-of-war with 20 African captives, or =E2=80=9Cnegars,=E2=80=
> =9D according to=20
> Jabari  Asim, author of a new book, =E2=80=9CThe N Word: Who Can Say It, Who=
>  Shouldn=E2=80=99t,=20
> and Why=E2=80=9D  (Houghton Mifflin). =20
> ...
> ...
> ...
> (OED)
> 1555 _R. EDEN_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-e.html#r-eden)   tr.=
> =20
> Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe  Worlde f. 239v, They are not=20
> accustomed to  eate such meates as doo the Ethiopians or Negros.
> 1568  _T. HACKET_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-h.html#t-hacket)=20=
>  =20
> tr. A. Thevet New Found Worlde xxiii. 38 Also ye Neigers eat these Lezards,=20
> so do the Indians  of America. =20
> =20
> 1574  _E. HELLOWES_=20
> (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-h2.html#e-hellowes)   tr. A. de Gue=
> vara Familiar Epist. (1584) 389 The Massgets  bordering=20
> upon the Indians, and the Nigers of Aethiop [Sp. los negros en  Ethiopia],=20
> bearing witnes. 1584  _R.  SCOT_=20
> (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-s.html#r-scot)  Discouerie Witchcra=
> ft  VII. xv.  153 A skin like a Niger. 1608  A.=20
> MARLOWE  Let. 22 June in E. India Co.  Factory Rec. (1896) I. 10 The King an=
> d=20
> People [of  =E2=80=98Serro Leona=E2=80=99] Niggers, simple and  harmless.
>
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-----
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