Wikipedia Unsure Whether African-American Should Be A A, A-A, A-a

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Oct 20 22:24:50 UTC 2008


Over the course of time, starting in 1957, I've had Muslim friends,
some who tried to convert me and others - usually Turks and Berbers -
who were happy to leave well-enough alone. On the other hand, I've
known only one Sikh and he had converted to blackism. That is to say,
though he dressed exactly as any other Sikh that I've seen on the
street, in movies, in class, etc.: wearing the bangles, carrying the
ritual sword (in gold, on a chain around his neck), wearing the
turban, the beard, ordinary "Indian" clothing, etc., he had otherwise
changed his entire affect to black American. He walked the walk and
talked the talk. As Chevy Chase, in the guise of Ronald Reagan once
put it, Satpal liked to "get down with the colored people."

You really had to have been there. He was something other.

-Wilson

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 1:46 PM, Ann Burlingham <ann at burlinghambooks.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ann Burlingham <ann at BURLINGHAMBOOKS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Wikipedia Unsure Whether African-American Should Be A A, A-A,
>              A-a
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 9:42 PM, Doug_Harris <cats22 at stny.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> Colin Powell, in his endorsement of BO today, made a similar point, about
>> how certain Americans are vilified because they have Arab-sounding names,
>> or happen to be Moslem, or Sikh, or whatever.
>
> Or Muslim.
>
> -Ann Burlingham
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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-----
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