[Ads-l] Copasetic notes

[Stephen Goranson]

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of Wilson Gray <...>
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 12:26 AM
To: ...
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Copasetic notes

On Thu, Mar 9, 2017 at 6:19 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> to (literarily) "pass."


What does that mean?


--
-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

Wilson, I don't recommend this book, but here's a paragraph (p. 289, yuck) that may answer your question:

So McKay tries, and almost succeeds, in making his talent a white talent--white as leprosy is white. It would be absurd to single him out for especial blame. he reflects a part of his literary material, even if more often than not the worst part--"pink-chasers" who try to "pass." It is not kopasettee. But it is inevitable that prominence, or even any sign of promise, should expose the coloured artist to-day to an excess of blond influence, and natural, I suppose, that the worse should prove more infectious than the better. Perhaps McKay will yet learn to shame the devil and exploit the true McKay vein. Let us hope so."

Stephen



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