History Channel: Origin of gang name, "Crips"

[Gerald Cohen]

Wilson is too modest to mention that his information on "Crips" appeared
formally in the Festschrift to names-scholar Ed Lawson.  We are listed as
co-authors, but although I wrote up the article, I rely entirely on Wilson's
material (ads-l plus follow-up information) and clarify that the substantive
contributions are all his.

The item is:

Wilson Gray and Gerald Cohen: ŒOrigin of the Gang Name ³Crips.²¹
Names (Journal of the American Name Society), vol. 55, no. 4, 2007,
pp. 455-456.

Gerald Cohen



On 7/9/10 11:13 PM, "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

According to the History Channel, the true origin of the gang name,
_Crips_, is lost to history. <har! har!> However, the HC does offer 2
theories:

1. The original Crip[ple]s walked about their territory carrying
standard, crook-necked walking-canes (as the old blues song has it:
"Look [...] wall / Hand me down my _walking-cane_") as their standard,
i.e. essentially, the claim posted here by your humble correspondent

2. A Korean store-owner reported to the police that the robbers were
"the crippled boys," consonant with my claim, i.e. they probably were
carrying their canes, causing the propritor to refer to them as
"crippled"

½. The Crips have a special way of walking, shown in the HC's doc.


IMO, the Crip-walk is derived from the manner in which a person
crippled in one leg walks, though they no longer carry canes.
Naturally, that would be my opinion, given that my claim is not only
that the Crips *carried* canes, but also that they also walked in such
away as to mimic the walk of a genuinely-crippled man. Furthermore,
the HC was not presenting anyone's theory, but was merely showing a
Crip walkinng the walk. (Y'all didn't know that phrase had a referent
in reality.)  Hence, merely "half." YMMV

FWIW, 'fo' I got hip to sE, the tool was a "walking-cane." Simple
"cane" was only a useful material normally used for making
fishing-poles and such.
--
-Wilson
–––

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