Rock-paper-scissors redux

[Wilson Gray]

The time line seems about right. The article on the trials and
tribulations of being black or worse, part-black and part-Japanese, in
which I found the word was published in Ebony about fifty years ago.
The first Japanese person that I've ever known and whom I met about
fifty years ago, Masashi Yamada, was a flaming asshole. However, I
can't say for certain whether he was a flaming asshole because he was
a racist or because flaming-assholery was simply his natural
personality or because flaming-assholery is the way that racism is
expressed by the Japanese. IAC, Mas was unique in my experience. So, I
conclude that I've no evidence to indicate that either the Japanese or
Japanese-Americans are more likely than any other group to be racist
WRT black Americans. Besides, as was once noted on the old Chappelle's
Show, sometimes, you think that other people are being racist, but
it's really just you. That is, the perception of racism is all in your
mind.

-Wilson


On 5/19/07, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote :
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Rock-paper-scissors redux
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >The jury is out whether Jim Breen's first definition is derogatory or
> >not. I've gotten one response so far on it.
>
> I have inquired of a native-Japanese correspondent in Japan. He says
> "kuronbo[u]" = "Negro" is/was considered insulting/derogatory. He says
> Japanese used this word "when he was a child" (i.e., 40-50 years ago), but
> "now nobody uses it." Of course this cannot be strictly true since a word
> cannot disappear completely so quickly, but at least it would seem that
> maybe the term is not routinely encountered now.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.7.4/811 - Release Date: 5/18/2007 3:50 PM
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "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'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org