"_Cut_ the fool" and "_cut_ the slave" (not really interesting)

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 7:26 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> My feeling is that _cut_ is pretty much the same in both cases. It's like
> "act."  But I could be persuaded otherwise.    (I'm familiar with "cut the
> fool" from reading, and I'm doubtful concerning the part that says,
> _"esp...White people...tricks."_)

What I had in mind was the road traveled by _cut_ on its way to
meaning something like "act (like), do like."

As for "esp...White people…tricks," I agree completely. I didn't
mention it because of the problem inherent in contradicting The
World's Second-Greatest Authority, and so foerh and so on.

The fact of the matter is that, until *very* recently, there wasn't
enough contact between blacks and whites to justify a claim of "esp."
But I must confess that I sometimes forget this, myself. Back when
y'all were putting down the The Closer for her poor command of the
(upper-)middle-class Southern-white-female dialect, I came close to
interjecting a "Y'all crazy! She good!" Then I caught myself. Wait a
minute! How in the world could *I* be knowing anything about that
dialect?

--
-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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