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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Since I remember the '60s, I obviously wasn't there. However, Carmichael and
Brown and the Black Panthers vilified King as an "Uncle Tom," and they took
the famous speech, which didn't call for violent revolution, as proof.

I'm starting to recall that Malcolm X called for the use of _Black_ in his
autobiography in 1964, some years before Carmichael's _Black Power_.  It
didn't become media mainstream until after MLK's assassination.


JL

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:19 PM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> They should have told Dr King, who in his famous "I have a dream" speech
> said "Negro" 15 times, "Black" 4 times and "citizens of color" once.
>
> If race truly means nothing, we ought to turn to flavors; chocolate,
> vanilla, strawberry, almond and banana.  Anything else is rocky road.
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
> see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------
> > Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:13:08 -0500
> > From: wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
> > Subject: Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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 wrote:
> >
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> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
> >> 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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