"icon"

[Laurence Horn]

On May 5, 2013, at 7:54 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> In today's version, it's "_slain_ Civil Rights icon Emmett Till."  Usually
> the phrase you hear is "slain Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King,"
> but since Till wasn't a "leader," the only alternative in media Inglish is
> "icon."
>
> It would take too long - apparently - to tell millennials-on-brain-support
> just who Emmett Till  was. You know, "a young black teenager kidnaped,
> beaten, and murdered by white racists in 1955."

Or if they have 4:53 to spare you could have them listen to Emmylou Harris singing "My name is Emmett Till".

LH
>
> "Civil Rights icon" is just cooler.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 1:42 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "icon"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 7:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>>> wrote:
>>
>>> Honestly, I don't think "martyr" or "idol" has anything to do with it.
>>
>>
>> *Especially* not in the case cited. Victim? Yes. "Icon"?! No!
>>
>> --
>> -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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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