[Ads-l] banana

[Jonathan Lighter]

Besides "Oreo," cf.Native American  "apple": "red on the outside...."

JL

On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 5:04 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> [Begin excerpt]
> When I asked him about the effect of having another Asian-American,
> Dr. S. I. Hayakawa, as president of the college, Mr. Woo smiled
> bleakly and said, "He's a banana, if you know what I mean. He is
> yellow on the outside and white on the inside."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Re S. I. Hayakawa, truer words were never spoken.
>
> On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 5:31 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Thanks Jim, Ben, and Stanton. Here is a January 1970 citation for
> > "banana" with the desired sense a few months before the OED citation
> >
> > Date: January 4, 1970
> > Newspaper: The Los Angeles Times
> > Newspaper Location: Los Angeles, California
> > Section: WEST Magazine
> > Article: The Awakening of Chinatown
> > Author: Kenneth Lamott
> > Start Page 6, Quote Page 14, Column 1
> > Database: Newspapers.com
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > When I asked him about the effect of having another Asian-American,
> > Dr. S. I. Hayakawa, as president of the college, Mr. Woo smiled
> > bleakly and said, "He's a banana, if you know what I mean. He is
> > yellow on the outside and white on the inside."
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 3:14 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > This sense of "banana" was added to the OED in a Sept. 2013 draft
> > addition,
> > > with cites back to 1970.
> > >
> > > ----
> > >   North American (chiefly Canadian) slang (depreciative). A person of
> > Asian
> > > birth or descent who subscribes to typically western values and
> > attitudes;
> > > an oriental person regarded, esp. by other orientals, as adopting or
> > > identifying with white culture. Cf. Oreo n.1 2.
> > > 1970   Seattle Times Mag. 5 July 9/3   These Filipinos may not be
> 'oreos'
> > > or 'bananas', as blacks and other Asians depict their colleagues having
> > > dark skins outside and a white mentality inside.
> > > [etc.]
> > > ----
> > >
> > > (The OED's use of "oriental" in the definition is... unfortunate.)
> > >
> > > HDAS starts with the same 1970 cite. See also GDoS, with cites back to
> > 1972.
> > >
> > > https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/ag4nw3a
> > >
> > > --bgz
> > >
> > > On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 2:54 PM James A. Landau <
> JJJRLandau at netscape.com
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > A variation on the metaphor "Oreo cookie" = "black on the outside,
> > white
> > > > on the inside"
> > > >
> > > > Kevin Kwan _China Rich Girlfriend_  (Kwan's inferior seqeul to _Craxy
> > Rich
> > > > Asians_) New York: Doubleday, 2015, ISBN 978-0-385-53908-1
> (hardcover)
> > page
> > > > 169
> > > >
> > > > referring to "Rachel", born in China but raised in the US:  "Rachel
> is
> > > > cool, there's no bullshit with her.  And she's a total banana
> > [footnote],
> > > > isn't she?  Just look at how she dresses [page 170] in those  no-name
> > > > brands, her painful lack of jewelry---she's not like any Chinese girl
> > I've
> > > > ever met."
> > > >
> > > > footnote reads "Yellow on the outside, white on the inside"
> > > >
> > > > - Jim Landau
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> -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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