[Ads-l] Alligator Bait

[Andy Bach]

As always, way off but, at least British, in Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany
Aching book “The Wee Free Men” Tiffany uses her (“always sticky”) little
brother, Wentworth, as bait for a river creature (“Jenny Green-teeth”) by
leashing him to a post riverside and wait, armed with an iron frying pan,
for the monster to appear.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/children/2017/the-wee-free-men-extract-by-terry-pratchett/

Ah, actually she just ties a bag of sweets to a stake and Wentworth latches
on to those of his own free will.

On Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 5:30 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> https://www.yahoo.com/sports/florida-will-no-longer-use-gator-bait-cheer-due-to-its-horrific-racist-imagery-182106196.html
>
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 10:55 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Yet another very impressive article. Great work, Peter. Thanks for
> sharing.
> > Garson
> >
> > On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 7:51 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > There is an old racist slur, "alligator bait," used to refer to black
> > > people, especially black children.
> > >
> > > There are numerous memes and articles that get circulated around the
> > > internet suggesting that the expression was derived from the actual
> > > practice of using children as bait in hunting alligators; placing them
> > > in shallow water, or sometimes tying them to a post or tree, luring the
> > > alligators in close, and then shooting them in the eye at the last
> > > possible second.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
-- 
Andy Bach
Afbach at gmail.com
Not at my desk

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