McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]

Sat Jan 16 19:47:05 UTC 2010

"Broadly parodied"? "Ineptly set down"? "Burlesqued"? "Distorted"? "Made an
object of ridicule"? "Recast as minstrel-show/ music-hall patter"? "Turned
to low-comedic purpose"? "Force-fit into literary/ subliterary convention"?
"Simplified"?  "Stylized" ? "Stereotyped"?

Can't think of an existing technical term: even "put into blackface" is new
to me, though instantly comprehensible.  (Applied to "Larry," however, it's
misleading and even tendentious.)

JL

On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 2:24 PM, Robin Hamilton <
robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> Subject:      Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just before reading Joel's post below (which expressed my own reaction to
> Tom's initial statement), I was minded to look up and refresh my
> understanding of the term "pied noir", which to me as a Scottish speaker of
> English (rather than a French speaker in France) always struck me as sort
> of
> counter-intuitive.
>
> Apparently (quick and dirty check in WIKI), it may originally have referred
> to native Algerians, before being transferred to French descended settlers
> living in Algeria, which is how I'd now understand it.
>
> Which (provisionally accepting Wiki's observation without further
> confirmation) makes a weird kind of sense, especially as in my
> understanding, it was (is?) generally used pejoratively by native French
> speakers.
>
> [I have to say that when I first encountered the term many years ago, in
> reference to Albert Camus, I totally misunderstood it and assumed that
> Camus
> must have been a native Algerian rather than descended from French
> settlers -- (mis)reading "noir" as if it mapped directly onto English
> "black".]
>
> Which brings me to the wording of my (incredulous) reaction when I first
> encountered the authentic text of the 1870s Dublin song, 'The Night Before
> Larry Was Stretched' -- "Jeezus, someone's dressed the damn thing up in
> black-face!"
>
> I'd been familiar with:
>
> The night before Larry was stretch'd,
>  The boys they all paid him a visit;
> A bit in their sacks, too, they fetch'd-
>  They sweated their duds till they riz it;
> For Larry was always the lad,
>  When a friend was condemn'd to the squeezer,
> But he'd pawn, all the togs that he had,
>  Just to help the poor boy to a sneezer,
>    And moisten his gob 'fore he died.
>
> -- Text from Farmer's _Musa Pedestris_.
>
> Except that this wasn't what was actually sung in Dublin in the 1780s.  As
> first printed, the song actually read:
>
> De night afore Larry was stretch'd
> de Boys de all ped him a visit
> bait too in dir Sacs de all fetch'd
> de sweated dir duds till de ris it
> for Larry was ever de Lad.
> when a Boy was condemd to de squeezers
> he'd swet all de duds dat he had
> to help his poor friend to a sneezer
> and warm his Gob fore he died.
>
> As it turned out, my initial reaction was wrong -- the song isn't dressed
> in
> blackface, but reflects the use of an initial dental stop, where SE would
> have a fricative, in Dublin speech of the time, a use which apparently can
> still be found in some varieties of Dublin speech, both working-class and
> middle class, today.  As also in some varieties of AAVE.  Which is curious
> in itself.
>
> But I'm reluctant to use the term "dressed in blackface" to refer to the
> all
> too common phenomenon of written texts which reflect not living speech but
> a
> literary derivation that can be perhaps traced back ultimately to Joel
> Chandler Harris.  (Melissa ...
>
> At that point, I thought I'd look into Melissa Bellanta's blog, The Vapour
> Trail, and see what terminology she uses in this area, since among other
> things, she's concerned with Larrikin verse and the nineteenth century
> Australian music hall.
>
> Lo and behold, it seems as if Australia is currently also experiencing it's
> own version of A Harry "I mis-spoke" Reid Moment:
>
> "It is no longer widely remembered in Australia that audiences here once
> flocked to blackface minstrel shows back in the late nineteenth and early
> twentieth centuries. In these shows, black people were depicted as
> simpletons who thought of nothing but fried chicken and happy-go-lucky
> dancin'. Even though that racist caricature has not survived in popular
> memory here in the way that it has in the US,  where it originated (and
> even
> though there are obviously huge disparities with regard to the two
> countries'
> histories concerning race relations), it was still stupid for Australian
> television to air material that brought those demeaning depictions to mind.
> But as for the chorus of denunciations about these incidents mixed with a
> sneering air of superiority from some American commentators - well, that
> deserves a rant worthy of Joe Bageant in my view."
>
>    --  http://bellanta.wordpress.com/
>
> Hm ...  "blackface minstrel" rather than "nigger minstrel" show?
>
> This has wandered, but to conclude:  is there a succinct way of referring
> to
> texts which ineptly attempt to present African-American speech of whatever
> period by deploying a narrow range stereotypical linguistic markers other
> than saying they're dressed in blackface?
>
> Robin Hamilton
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 12:49 PM
> Subject: Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail
> > header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 1/16/2010 11:55 AM, Salikoko Mufwene wrote:
> >>Tom Zurinskas wrote:
> >>>The word "colorful" has nice connotations.  And black has some
> >>>negative connotations.  The word "black" doesn't really describe
> >>>Negro skin color.  Too extreme.  How about "black" in an African
> >>>language that would sound nice?   Watusi?
> >>>
> >>How about using "Scot" or "Irish" or "German" in reference to all Whites
> >>in North America?
> >
> > I wonder if Salikoko Mufwene has misunderstood Tom Zurinskas in the
> > last part above.  Was he suggesting that some word from the Watusi
> > language be adopted into English to refer to the alleged "black"
> > race?  Not that English should use the word "Watusi" to refer to all
> > "black" people?
> >
> > But there's more that's objectionable and distasteful in Mr.
> > Zurinskas's message -- not just in the first part above but also in
> > his other paragraph, which was
> >>I've always thought the term "colored" was a nice term for Negro
> >>people and that Negro was a neutral scientific kind of term, like
> >>Caucasian (awe-droppers are forbidden to say cockasian).  Darkies is
> >>not so bad.  It's even in my FL state song.
> >
> > (Unless he was being ironic here.)  But I personally don't feel
> > sufficiently competent to speak up.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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