[Ads-l] Antedating of the Radical Spelling "Amerika" / "Amerikkka"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The earliest occurrence I can find for the satirical spelling "Amerika" is in the Berkeley Barb, June 21-27 1968, page 11 (JSTOR).

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 10:29 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of the Radical Spelling "Amerika" / "Amerikkka"

Here is an instance of "Amerika" (with a single k) in the desired
sense, I think. This antedates the November-December 1969 citation in
the OED.

Date: July 18, 1969
Newspaper: The Militant
Newspaper Location: New York, New York
Article: Black steel workers organize
Author: Derrick Morrison
Quote Page 3, Column 4
Database: ProQuest

[Begin excerpt]
Upon receiving this information, the police chief, Donald Pomerleau,
met with the militants and told them that they would be arrested and
charged with inciting to riot if they used a bull-horn to publicize
the dog attack.
So goes justice in Amerika.
[End excerpt]

Garson


On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 5:31 PM Shapiro, Fred
<00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> In the 1960s and early 1970s, American leftist radicals often spelled "America" as "Amerika" or "Amerikkka."  "Amerika" was a reference to the German spelling, "Amerikkka" was a reference to the Ku Klux Klan.. It is difficult to search disambiguously for the English-language "Amerika" in online databases.
>
> The OED's citations for "Amerika" begin with Tom Hayden in November-December 1969.  The earliest cite for the spelling "Amerikkka" is dated 1970.  The OED's definition is "American society viewed as racist, fascist, or oppressive, esp. by African Americans."
>
> A search in JSTOR yields an 1969 occurrence of "Amerikkka" in the Berkeley Barb, in an article about Black Panther leader Bobby Seale:
>
> 1969 Berkeley Barb 7-13 Mar. 6/2  Seale's statement to the press contained a lot of heavy ideological rap.  He claimed that the larger issue in the strike at Cal is the University's role of "developing the technical tools to sustain and defend AmeriKKKa, the haven of oppressive capitalism and imperialist exploitation throughout the world."
>
> A search in Newspapers.com pulls up a strange early usage.  The World-News newspaper (Roanoke, Va.) ran a small item in its 21 Nov. 1923 issue (page 6, column 8).  In its entirety it consisted of the following:
>
> REVISING SPELLING.
> AmeriKKKa.
> Konstitution.
> Okkklahoma.
> KKKansas.
> KKKanada.
>
> It is not clear whether the newspaper item is mocking the Klan or supporting it.  Elsewhere in the issue the paper does not seem to be anti-Klan.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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