New racist etymology

Fri Mar 15 18:08:26 UTC 2013

>...ironically...?

You bet. Notice that the word isn't "African-American," which is a
straightforward, literal descriptor. It is instead the pseudo-archaic,
therefore humorous and mock-dignified, "Africk-American."

On the origins of "African-American," see especially Joel's
contributions in the Archives.

 JL

On 3/15/13, Nathaniel Sharpe <nts at bethlehembooks.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Nathaniel Sharpe <nts at BETHLEHEMBOOKS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: New racist etymology
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That being the case, isn't it odd that the author used a term similar to
> today's politically correct one? Do you think he was using it
> ironically, or does our modern "African American" really have such
> biased origins? Maybe we'd better drop that term too, along with "buck."
>
> Nat
>
> On 3/15/2013 11:57 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: New racist etymology
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>> ...blatantly-racist...
>> Given the time and place, that was not only normal; it would have gone
>> quite unnoticed by 99% of non-abolitionist readers. (And there weren't
>> many
>> fans of abolition in Richmond.)
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Nathaniel Sharpe
>> <nts at bethlehembooks.com>wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Nathaniel Sharpe <nts at BETHLEHEMBOOKS.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: New racist etymology
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> While looking at early examples of "buck negro" I came across this
>>> blatantly-racist article from 1866 that uses the term "Africk-American."
>>>
>>> Date: Friday, April 20, 1866  Paper: Richmond Examiner (Richmond, VA)
>>> Volume: I  Issue: 102  Page: 3
>>>
>>> [begin excerpt]
>>> Miss Griffith had eloped with a buck negro, who was employed by her
>>> father.
>>> ....
>>> The Civil Rights bill will give the maiden her buck nigger, despite all
>>> the efforts of her parent to the contrary. The only thing she has to
>>> fear is the constancy of her gay Lothario. If her darling
>>> Africk-American citizen remains true during the weary hours of his
>>> imprisonment, she will have him...
>>> [end excerpt]
>>>
>>> On 3/14/2013 11:36 PM, Jocelyn Limpert wrote:
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>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Jocelyn Limpert <jocelyn.limpert at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject:      Re: New racist etymology
>>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> For some time now publications like The New York Times and the
>>>> Washington
>>>> Post have been on the fence about using "African American" or "black"
>>>> editorially. Articles just switch back and forth between the two,
>>> settling
>>>> on neither. And there is also a preference for the nonhyphenated
>>>> "African
>>>> American," the reason being that other such designations, such as
>>> "Japanese
>>>> American," are not hyphenated.
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 12:30 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
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>>>>> -----------------------
>>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>>>> Subject:      Re: New racist etymology
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>>>> ------
>>>>> On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>>>>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> I guar-on-tee you that "buck Negro" is a "literary" confection.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I never heard "buck (nigger)" in NY, but I've read them many, many
>>> time=
>>>> s
>>>>> in
>>>>>> stories about the South and, to a lesser degree, West.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There's an old sea shanty verse from the 19th C. that goes,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Who's been here since I been gone?
>>>>>> Big buck nigger with his sea boots on.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> When sung nowadays by (99 44/100 % white) harmonizin' folkies, it's
>>>>> altered
>>>>>> to the culturally-insipid-but-not-offending-anybody "Arkansas farmer
>>> wi=
>>>> th
>>>>>> his sea boots on."
>>>>> I think, as also in the case of Huckleberry Finn and such very
>>>>> enjoyable writings, the un-Bowdlerized original is the way to go. The
>>>>> truth leads to more breakthroughs than the lie. One of the reasons
>>>>> that I consider =C4frican-American"as a replacement for "black" is
>>>>> that
>>>>> I *clearly* remember when the absolute, very worst thing that you
>>>>> could do to a black American was to call him "black."Sure, on a
>>>>> drive-by insulting, you could upset a any colored fellow by shouting
>>>>> "Nigger!", if you really wanted to tear the the heart right out of his
>>>>> bosom, then the way to go was to call him simply "Black!" My first
>>>>> letter-to-the-editor was motivated by the common practice of using
>>>>> "African *blacks*" and not "African *Negroes*." What a gratuitous,
>>>>> entirely uncalled-for, unnecessary, embarrassing "racist" insult!!
>>>>>
>>>>> That _black_ is no longer regarded as the most degrading, humiliating
>>>>> epithet that anyone, regardless of his own race, creed, color, sexual
>>>>> orientation, or previous condition of servitude can apply to a person
>>>>> of any degree of sub-Saharan ancestry and has become simply another
>>>>> word, as innocuous as "white" as a racial denominator, is no less than
>>>>> a there-is-really-no-possible-way-to-characterize-it, phenomenal
>>>>> sea-change in the psychology of Black America.
>>>>>
>>>>> That _black_ is now being rendered "insulting" all over again by the
>>>>> loud mouths of random "African-American" assholes and their p.c.
>>>>> running dogs for the sheer assholery of it and "Negro" and "colored"
>>>>> are deemed even more insulting than "darky"and "coon," as though the
>>>>> history of the use of _black_ were empty of content and despite the
>>>>> emergence of large number of *genuine* Americans of immediate African
>>>>> ancestry into all aspects of American life - cf. e.g. the lical law
>>>>> firm of Krasno, Krasno & Onwudinjo - well, what can I say?
>>>>>
>>>>> EBONY and Jet went from "Negro" to "Black" - because "Negro" has a
>>>>> capital? - and from "white" to "White" - because "Black" has a
>>>>> capital? - but, as the oldsters retire, more and more
>>>>> "African-American" is beginning to creep into their pages.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sigh!
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> -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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>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
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