Request for member withdrawal

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Jan 20, 2010, at 7:45 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

> I also said the term "black" has some negative connotations and that possibly another word could be found that was better.  How about an African term, Watusi, which I assume means "black people" in Swahili, a popular language in Southern Africa.  And then I said that term has other uses, so "black" seems to be best.

That did not happen. TZ's last posting on this topic is provided below my signature, and there is no mention that his suggested term be rejected for "black."

----->As in the past, he is using misleading statements and half-truths to obfuscate the issue. This is trollish behavior.

> On the other hand it appears to me that the offensiveness taking place is against me and everyone on this list.  Is everyone going to be in fear of discussing this issue or any other because of sensitivities.  This is not right.  It's language we are talking about here in an honest way with maliciousness to no one.


Pleading that you are the attackee is also a trollish strategy (this is not in the list below).

> Please find for me one racially offensive remark, which I assure you was totally unintentional and I will apologize for it.  The trend of the posts was that someone said the words "Negro" and "colored" were offensive terms.  I said I did not think so.  Dr. King said the word "Negro" 15 times durig his "I have a dream" speech and "the NAACP has the word Colored in it.  Why would they be offensive.  And "darkies" was in the FL state song.  Was it offensive too considering the times back then.

Perhaps an apology, but not really. He makes it clear that although he "apologizes," there was nothing offensive, completely ignoring the fact that we all know that the NAACP was formed decades before the sixties, etc., ad nauseam.

> I apologize if anything I said was taken as offensive.  It certainly was not meant to be.  This is America.  360,000 white folks died to make black folk free and equal.  We owe a debt to them to be free and thnk freely and honestly.

Again, an apology...? Ahh, not so. It is qualified in an obfuscating manner, using logical contortions and jumps that leave the reader thinking, "Maybe there is some truth in there, but I'm just not quick enough to pick it out."

> That's it folks.  Now I hate racism as much as anyone.  In my last job my section chief was black, my branch chief was black, my division chief was black and my coworker beside me was black.  They were among the best I've had and if you want references ask them.  My son's best man was black.

So a male manager who was birthed by a mother would never hire a woman for 75 cents for every dollar his male employees get?


Here are some characteristics of trolls edited from http://www.jfo.org.uk/info/new/troll.htm

gaining credence for false and invidious ideas
driving bona fide list members, and/or particular groups, out of the mailing list
getting reprimanded by individuals, list managers or internet authorities
distracting list members from their own bona fide discussions or objectives
a lack of buy-in to the list philosophy or values
generally low level of activity, with sudden spurts of interaction - or perhaps a new persona that has strong opinions on controversial subjects
a mixture of friendly posts with a confrontational style of interaction
the use of provocative language and sweeping generalisations about certain topics or categories of people
a lack of in-depth understanding of the topic


His disruptive, trollish behavior and even so-called apology are behind the pale. I repeat my assertion many months ago that he is a troll and iterate my agreement for his withdrawal from the list.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Jan 19, 2010, at 6:45 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> 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"] (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In Swahili, the most popular language of Africa, the word for
>
> black is -eusi (suffix?)
> people is watu
>
> Put together you got watu-eusi or in short watusi?  ~waattuesee
> This is the name of a tall slender African tribe, an African long-horned cow, and a dance in the 60's.
> I think we can watusi off as a nice name for black people.  Watusi's the dance made for romance.
>
> from  http://africanlanguages.com/swahili/
>
> -eusi adjective
> 1 black
> 2 dark
> nyeusi See -eusi
> weusi cl. 11 Root -eusi
> 1 blackness
> 2 darkness
>
> Number of results found for 'person': 1
> mtu noun 1/2
> 1 person, human being, individual
> 2 someone, somebody
> jitu noun 5/6, animate Stem mtu
> giant
> watu pl noun 1/2 See singular mtu
> people, population
>
>
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
> see truespel.com phonetic spelling

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