Confusion, even at the highest level

[Joel S. Berson]

Wilson,

I've recently returned to Patrick Rael's "Black Identity & Black 
Protest in the Antebellum North" (2002).  You might find his  Chapter 
3, "The Sign of Things: The 'Names Controversy' and Black Identity" 
interesting on the historical evolution of names used or promoted for 
self-identification (he covers a period from around the Revolution to 
the end of the 19th century).

Joel

At 7/28/2014 06:56 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

>"[Name], played by _African-American_ actor Isaac C. Singleton, Jr., and
>[Name], played by the _black_ English actor, Treva Etienne."
>
>- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
>
>I'd have expected "African-English" or "African-British," if the prefix,
>_African-_, had any real, independent use other than as a sad, depressing
>calque on "Irish-American" et sim.
>
>--
>-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

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org