Youneverknow: "half-black"

[Wilson Gray]

"A Kansas Tea Party group is saying “pee-eww” to President Obama.
Patriot Freedom Alliance, a Tea Party group in Hutchinson, Kansas,
depicted Obama as a “half-white, half-black” skunk on its website
recently."

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

--
-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



On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 8:30 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Youneverknow: "half-black"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Dec 12, 2011, at 7:27 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>> I did not write "pretty common"; Laurence Horn did.
>>=20
>> Joel
>
> Not exactly. Â Here's the relevant exchange:
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> Â  Â  Â  Â From: Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Â  Â  Â  Â Subject: Â  Â  Â  Â Re: Youneverknow: "half-black"
> Â  Â  Â  Â Date: Â  December 7, 2011 3:47:45 AM EST
> Â  Â  Â  Â To: Â  Â  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.
>>=20
>
> *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
>>=20
>> On Dec 6, 2011, at 10:34 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>=20
>>> Tosh of the Comedy Central trash-TV show, "Tosh.0." interviews a =
> white couple.
>>>=20
>>> 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!
>>=20
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>>=20
>> At 12/9/2011 07:57 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>=20
>>> On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 3:27 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> =
> wrote:
>>> > Isn't that pretty common to say?
>>>=20
>>> 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.
>>>=20
>>> 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.
>>>=20
>>> 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_.
>>>=20
>>> Close, but no cigar.
>>>=20
>>> Gnome sane?
>>> --
>>>=20
>>> -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
>>>=20
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>=20
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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