use of "sunshine" as a racial slur against blacks

Tue Mar 3 22:48:15 UTC 2009

Was Frankie Laine a racist because he was a white man who sang "Shine," or
was he a bold progressive because he was a white man who sang "Shine" and
applied the lyrics to himself?

(I'm just yanking chains here. The real question is whether pop culture used
to be a lot more racist than it is now, and we know the answer to that one.)

JL
On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 5:01 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: use of "sunshine" as a racial slur against blacks
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ditto "Wow," George. I thought that you were around my age. "Shine" is
> the song with which Frankie Laine initially gained his fame. That's
> news to you? Clearly, you're much younger than I had hoped, uh,
> thought. OTOH, I had long been under the impression that the song
> wasn't new, since it seemed to be unpleasantly familiar to the 'rents.
> I had no idea, though, that it went back to the days when mother was a
> girl. It was similar to the way that they were somehow pissed off by
> the fact that Paul Whiteman, snidely referred to by, IIRC, Nat Hentoff
> as "the aptly-named," was billed as The King of Jazz on his TV show. I
> was still young enough, at the time, that I had never heard of
> Whiteman before he got his TV show. As Stan Kenton once pointed out,
> he maintained an all-white orchestra because the colored were simply
> incapable of playing jazz. Given that assumption, it naturally
> followed that the aptly-named one should be the crown-ed king of the
> genre. It made perfect sense to me and I didn't get the point that
> Hentoff was trying to make. (Again, IIRC, Hentoff used the phrase in
> his Downbeat review of Whiteman's show.)
>
> These days, of course, the fact that that once made complete sense to
> me tends to give me the jaws.
>
> -Wilson
> â€“â€“â€“
> 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.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 9:56 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Â  Â  Â  George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: use of "sunshine" as a racial slur against blacks
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Frankie Laine recorded this? Â Wow.
> >
> > The version I know is by Louis Armstrong, ca. 1930. Â I see that the song
> is credited to Ford Dabney, Cecil Mack and Lew Brown. Â Mack and Brown I
> don't know, off hand, but Dabney was black, a band leader prominent in the
> Hrlem music scene of the 1910s. Â No doubt he wrote the music.
>  >
> > GAT
> >
> > George A. Thompson
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>
> > Date: Monday, March 2, 2009 8:32 pm
> > Subject: Re: use of "sunshine" as a racial slur against blacks
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >> "Sunshine" as a slur is more commonly used in its short form, "shine."
> >> As a WAG, it may be the case that the popularity of "boot," from
> >> _bootblack_, who *shines* boots, and "shoe," from _shoeshine boy_ gave
> >> the the shortened form its impetus.
> >>
> >> As a child, I used to wonder why my parents disliked one of my
> >> favorite songs, Shine, by Frankie Laine:
> >>
> >> Hey now, just because my hair is curly
> >> Just because my teeth are pearly
> >> Just because I always wear a smile
> >> That is why they call me
> >> "SHINE"!
> >>
> >> Just because I'm glad I'm living
> >> And take my troubles all with a smile
> >> Just because my color's shady
> >> That's the difference, maybe
> >> That is why they call me
> >> "SHINE"!
> >>
> >> Etc.
> >>
> >> -Wilson
> >>
> >> I was, well, unaware of the subtext.
> >> â€“â€“â€“
>  >> 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.
> >> -----
> >> -Mark Twain
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 7:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> >> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >> > Sender: ?? ?? ?? American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> > Poster: ?? ?? ?? Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> > Subject: ?? ?? ??Re: use of "sunshine" as a racial slur against blacks
> >> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >
> >> > I've never heard it so used, but I *have* heard it once or twice as
> >> a
> >> > playful form of address (as by older waitresses to male diners in
> downscale
> >> > Southern eateries), i.e., "How are you today, sunshine?"
> >> >
> >> > The earliest ex. I know of is in James Forbes's play "The Show Shop"
> >> > (1914) in _The Famous Mrs. Fair and Other Plays_ (N.Y.: George H.
> Doran,
> >> > 1919), p. 99:
> >> >
> >> > "ROSENBAUM: Hello, Sadie. [To TOMPKINS] Hello, Sunshine. We've got
> >> to slam
> >> > this show through."
> >> >
> >> > Tompkins's first name is given as "Wilbur."
> >> >
> >> > JL
> >> >
> >> > On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 7:02 PM, Jocelyn Limpert
> >> > <jocelyn.limpert at gmail.com>wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> >> -----------------------
> >> >> Sender: ?? ?? ?? American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> >> Poster: ?? ?? ?? Jocelyn Limpert <jocelyn.limpert at GMAIL.COM>
> >> >> Subject: ?? ?? ??use of "sunshine" as a racial slur against blacks
> >> >>
> >> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >>
> >> >> Does anyone have any information as to the origins of or current
> >> usage of
> >> >> "sunshine" being used in speech today in a derrogatory way as a
> >> racial slur
> >> >> against blacks/African-Americans?
> >> >>
> >> >> A friend asked me for information concerning this and I could find
> >> little
> >> >> in
> >> >> the online searches that I did. Usually I'm much more successful,
> >> so I
> >> >> would
> >> >> appreciate any help that you can give me.
> >> >>
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> >
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