antedating banjo (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 4:38 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> Lumumba, Mobutu, and Kasavubu

Used by Germans as terms of opprobrium for black GI's, back in the
day. This kind of demonstration of antipathy was rare, though. The
typical reaction of the German _strasse_ to black people was one of
"really intense curiosity*, as though we were some kind of life-form
so totally alien that they couldn't quite wrap their minds around what
they were seeing. And I'm talking about the streets of Frankfurt,
Stuttgart, Koeln, and Berlin and not those of some tiny, Black Forest
village.

It was this kind of reaction that caused the former expatriate black
author, James Baldwin, to return to The World and to comment that he
had more in common with the most ignorant, racist "Mississippi
wool-hat" than he had with any European. Of course, Baldwin, like
Steve Buscemi, was "kinda funny-lookin'." But, still...

> 'Isn't Kennedy a funny name?'

Especially when you consider that its literal translation is "ugly
head." Some have speculated that, perhaps, the ancestor was a warrior
known for wearing an impressive helmet. But that's only a WAG
motivated by the fact that, to modern sensibilities, it seems unlikely
that the literal meaning could have been meant. Of course,

Youneverknow.

And then there's the name, "Dick Butkus." In high school, the most
that I had to deal with were names like Hoogstraet, Schwendemann,
Hickenlooper - I nearly lost it! - Griesedieck, and Eisenhauer. Of
course, I'd long been familiar with Ike's surname. But he was
essentially a mythological creature. My fellow-student bore that name
and was real!

--
-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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