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

Tue Jan 19 15:19:30 UTC 2010

It seems like this song is from a "darkie" singing to his fellow darkies.  It was written by a whitie.

Official Song of the State of Florida
The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)

Stephen Foster, 1851

Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away
That's where my heart is turning ever
That's where the old folks stay
All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam
Still longing for the old plantation
And for the old folks at home

Chorus:
All the world is sad and dreary everywhere I roam
Oh darkies, how my heart grows weary
Far from the old folks at home

2. All 'round the little farm I wandered,
When I was young
Then many happy days I squandered,
Many the songs I sung
When I was playing with my brother,
Happy was I
Oh, take me to my kind old mother,
There let me live and die
Chorus:

2. One little hut among the bushes,
One that I love
Still sadly to my mem'ry rushes,
No matter where I rove
When shall I see the bees a humming,
All 'round the comb
When shall I hear the banjo strumming,
Down by my good old home
Chorus:

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
see truespel.com phonetic spelling

> Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:20:13 -0800
> From: mlee303 at YAHOO.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 <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject: Re: McWhorter on "Negro" [Was: on "Negro English"]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And WEB DuBois's 1903 book is entitled The Souls of Black Folk.
> =A0
> M argaret Lee
>
> ________________________________________
>
> --- On Tue, 1/19/10, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> 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_.=A0 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=
> :
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:=A0 =A0 =A0=A0=A0American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:=A0 =A0 =A0=A0=A0Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:=A0 =A0 =A0 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.=A0 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 o=
> f
>>> '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:
>>>
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> 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 tha=
> n
>>>>>those examples, Stephen Foster was the only person I ever heard use th=
> at
>>>>>term.
>>>>>
>>>>>Bill Palmer
>>>>
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>>>> 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."
>>>
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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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