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

[Jonathan Lighter]

One reason that "Negro" got discarded was the claim, publicized by
Carmichael and/or Brown but dating back to at least 1914,  that  "Nee-gro"
[often pronounced with contemptuous inflexion] is just a "polite form of
'nigger.'"  The source was a belief that the "polite form" was used
cynically as a code-word in the presence of the victims who, of course,
could not "reasonably" object even if they caught on.

The southern white pronunciation /nIgr@/, often deliberately equivocal,
didn't help.

JL



On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 7:55 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> 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 1/18/2010 12:20 PM, Bill Palmer wrote:
> >When I was growing up in Virginia in the 1950's, the few blacks I had
> >conversations with, routinely used "colored".
>
> Was this because there "Negro" sounded to much like "Nigger"?  So
> "colored" was the term of choice among the other possibilities?
>
> Joel
>
>
> >The local newspapers in all news stories involving blacks had the word
> >"negro" following the name.  This practice ended sometime in the 60's I
> >believe.
> >
> >My great aunt and uncle (natives of KY, born in late 1800's) routinely
> used
> >"darky", and my wife's aunt, native of SW Georgia, born around 1890
> >routinely used  the term even when in the presence of blacks.  Other than
> >those examples, Stephen Foster was the only person I ever heard use that
> >term.
> >
> >Bill Palmer
>
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