Youneverknow: "half-black"

[Laurence Horn]

On Dec 12, 2011, at 7:27 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

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

Not exactly.  Here's the relevant exchange:
========================
        From:   Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
        Subject:        Re: Youneverknow: "half-black"
        Date:   December 7, 2011 3:47:45 AM EST
        To:     American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>

On Dec 7, 2011, at 9:28 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:

> Isn't that pretty common to say? I guess a lot of people call President Obama black, but (when I mention it at all) I try to say he's half-black or half-black, half-white.
> 

*That's* common enough, but being able to answer a question about ever having had sex with a black guy in the affirmative by coming up with an occasion in which one had had simultaneous sex with two half-black guys, that takes some advance planning.

LH

> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
> 
> On Dec 6, 2011, at 10:34 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> 
>> Tosh of the Comedy Central trash-TV show, "Tosh.0." interviews a white couple.
>> 
>> Tosh: Would you ever have sex with a black girl?
>> He: Hm. Maybe, if she was light-skinned.
>> Tosh: How about you? Have you ever had sex with a black guy?
>> She: Well, I had sex with these guy-twins who were _half-black_, once.
>> He: Yeah! Both of 'em at the same time!
> 
========================
> 
> 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
>> 
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> 
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