_Splib_ redux (UNCLASSIFIED)

Mon Dec 13 16:22:49 UTC 2010

The words for pot in there make me believe that either someone confused "splib" with "spliff", or the two words fused together at some point for some speakers.

Paul Johnston
On Dec 13, 2010, at 11:13 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:

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> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: _Splib_ redux (UNCLASSIFIED)
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> The only hit for "splib" in the online Time archives:
>
> "Funky, jive, dawn, high, the Man, hawk, cool, hot, copped-out, cats,
> caps, kicked, reefer, Johns, juke, ofay, goofed, wing, hip, dig, soul,
> honkies, splib (spook as in Negro), grass and skag are just a few of the
> words appearing in black poetry that often have multiple meanings
> elusive to the white reader."
>
> http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,944004,00.html
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of
>> Jonathan Lighter
>> Sent: Monday, December 13, 2010 10:03 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: _Splib_ redux
>>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: _Splib_ redux
>>
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>> -
>>
>> Wilson's flypaper memory does it again. HDAS could trace "splib" only
> to
>> 1966, with no indication that it was likely to be much older.
>>
>> Origin unknown, natch, but Herbert Simmons's 1962 novel, _Man Walking
> on
>> Eggshells_ (set in St. Louis) has the unique "splibbed" meaning
> "stoned."
>>
>> In fact, Simmons also says, "They started calling him Splib because he
>> stayed laid [i.e., high] all the time."  The novel, by an
> African-American
>> author, is set in St. Louis.
>>
>> I don't even try to figure these things out any more.
>>
>> JL
>> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 12:56 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      _Splib_ redux
>>>
>>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -=
>> ------
>>>
>>> Back in the day, there was a brief discussion of _splib_, an old
> slang
>>> term that I recall from the late '40's on. The first time that I saw
>>> in it print was in TIME, in an article having something to do with
>>> black college students. The reporter asked a random black student
> what
>>> the meaning of _splib_ and was told by him that it stood for
> "Society
>>> for Protection & Liberation of Blacks" or some such bullshit, which
>>> the reporter, knowing no better, included in his article as fact. A
>>> lot of the bruz & cuz got a big laugh ought of this.
>>>
>>> After coming across in iTunes a side entitled, "Splib's Groove,"
> from,
>>> unfortunately, 1995, I thought, "WTF? Why not?"
>>>
>>> A quick look in GB gave
>>>
>>> Jet. Feb 9, !967. p.49
>>>
>>> Which word is most out of place here?
>>> (a) _Splib_ (b) Blood (c) Grey (d) Spook (e) Black.
>>>
>>>
>>> For the unhip, the word that is most out of place is _grey_ "white
> person=
>> ."
>>>
>>>
>>> slang-dictionary.com has the following nonsense.
>>>
>>> splib
>>>
>>> Definition
>>> noun American
>>> an Afro-Caribbean person. A racist epithet heard since the 1980s, of
>>> uncertain origin, although it is claimed unconvincingly to be a
> blend
>>> of spade and =91liberal=92. It is more likely to be a nonsense bebop
> or
>>> jive-talk coinage.
>>>
>>>
>>> The UD, astoundingly much less racist than I've come to expect, has,
>>> posted in '06:
>>>
>>> splib   43 up, 7 down
>>> At North Texas State University, 1964, splib was the common word for
>>> black African Americans used by the jazz crowd. Gray, or gray dude,
>>> referred to whites on a similar level. These were in common usage
>>> among many civil rights activists as well.
>>>
>>>
>>> IME, _splib_ had died out in Saint Louis by the '60's, though _grey_
>>> was still being used as late as 1962, the last time, for all
> practical
>>> purposes, that I was there while I was still young enough to be
>>> interested in hitting the street with my potnaz, checking out all
> the
>>> former We-Reserve-The-Right-To-Refuse-Service-To-Anyone clubs that
> had
>>> changed their signage to read "Interracial."
>>>
>>> I didn't hear _splib_ used at all while I was in the military,
>>> _hamburger_ "black" vs. _cheeseburger_ "white" being the preferred
>>> neutral terms among us "Bimbos," as black GI's were called by the
>>> local B-girl population. The "real," so to speak, indigenous
> personnel
>>> *very* occasionally used _Neger_, the stressed /e/ being so tense
> that
>>> it was extremely difficult for the untrained hamburger ear to
>>> distinguish "Neger" [neg@] from "nigger" [nIg@].
>>>
>>> For some reason, the "real" Germans that I came across while boppin'
>>> the stross or waiting in a Bahnhof always asked me, "Sind Sie
>>> Afrikaner?" Given that there were tens of thousands of black GI's
>>> serving in the United Staes Army-Europe, why would the Germans
>>> immediately assume that any black man *not* in a USAREUR uniform was
>>> an African?
>>>
>>> Back in the day, the semantic basis of the distinctions, ham- vs.
>>> cheese- was glaringly obvious. Nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised to
>>> discover that it needs explanation, even among blacks of military
> age.
>>>
>>> --
>>> -Wilson
>>> =96=96=96
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange
> complaint t=
>> o
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> =96Mark Twain
>>>
>>> Once that we recognize that we do not err out of laziness,
> stupidity,
>>> or evil intent, we can uncumber ourselves of the impossible burden
> of
>>> trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the
> proposition
>>> that we could be in error, without necessarily deeming ourselves
>>> idiotic or unworthy.
>>> =96Kathryn Schulz
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --=20
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
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