[Ads-l] Copasetic notes

[Robin Hamilton]

There's also, of course, Scotch Passing.

As Rob Roy McGregor (for obvious reasons) used the passing name, "Robin Roy
Campbell".

Frankly, given the associations of Clan Campbell in some areas of Scotland
(where a MacDonald would refuse to sit beside a Campbell on a bus), choosing
Campbell as a passing name could have a downside to it.  But the MacGregors were
(are?) a Sept of the Campbells, which is why Rob Roy picked that version when he
was travelling under an alias.

The Other Robin

> 
>     On 10 March 2017 at 10:57 Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> 
>     ________________________________
>     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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>     The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 

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