Youneverknow: "half-black"

[Joel S. Berson]

I did not write "pretty common"; Laurence Horn did.

Joel

At 12/9/2011 07:57 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

>On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 3:27 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > Isn't that pretty common to say?
>
>If those people who commonly say that a white individual is
>"half-black," "half-African-American," or whatever accept such a
>person as wholly white to the same extent that those people who
>commonly say that a black individual is "half-white" accept such a
>person as wholly black, then, clearly, a difference that makes no
>difference is no difference and my previous remarks on this point are
>nothing but reverse-racist nonsense and I apologize.
>
>The claim that the girl had had sex with both half-black twins at the
>same time struck me as being a cutting remark made by an angry
>boyfriend - after all, he had just denied that he had ever dallied
>with the darker sister and *wouldn't* do so, unless she met a certain
>criterion, or should that be "criteria"? - and not a statement of
>fact.
>
>And, IMO, the girlfriend was *denying* ever having had sex with a
>black guy and not *affirming* it. That is, if you define _black guy_
>as "Wesley Snipes" or "Tyrese," then admitting to having had sex with
>a set of  Barack Obama-looking, "*half*-black" twins is clearly *not*
>equivalent to admitting to having had sex with a single _black guy_.
>
>Close, but no cigar.
>
>Gnome sane?
>--
>
>-Wilson
>-----
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-Mark Twain
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org