Guido x 2

[Charles Doyle]

And how about that casual use of the word "greaser"? Has it been reclamated? In Texas in the 1950s, the g-word (applied to Chicanos and Mexicans) was just short of the n-word in its degree of derogatoriness.

--Charlie



---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:20:29 -0500
>From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> (on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>)
>Subject: Guido x 2
>
>===============
>As New York State Senator Diane J. Savino, a Democrat who represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, explained, "Guido was never a pejorative." It grew out of the 1950s greaser look, she said, and became a way for Italian-Americans who did not fit the larger culture's definition of beauty to take pride in their own heritage and define "cool" for themselves.

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