Confusion, even at the highest level

[Wilson Gray]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 7:32 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> 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).
>

The several name changes of African peoples since their arrival in the
United States reflect shifting psychological and power relations between
blacks with respect to the power of names and naming.

However, they have usually reflected little change in terms of the actual
material conditions [and social standing] of the black community [i.e. it
does not matter, "under real-world conditions," to coin a phrase-W]

because, as DuBois wrote in a 1928 Crisis essay "The Name, 'Negro,' " one
should not make the error of mistaking names for things: "It is not the
name - it's the thing that counts."

http://goo.gl/TZnDlV

-- 
-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