Picnic Means Lynch a Black Slave?
Ragnar
Looks lilke picnic comes from a french word, and has been in use since the
1700's.
The sad part of this is that some people (apparently black people) think
that white people would enjoy a nice family meal outdoors while watching a
black person get hanged. Please! Ants and flies would ruin a nice picnic -
imagine how a black person hanging from a tree would ruin the meal.
Staffan Sjöberg
"Back Scatter" <thomas!@earth-west-.org> skrev i meddelandet
news:ANPna.30216$4P1.2...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> I was listening to KGO AM 810 and the black host was saying that picnic
was a
> get together of whitey to pick and lynch a n------. Anyone have any
vectors or
> information?
Snopes does:
http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/picnic.htm
Staffan S
M. J. Freeman
news:yORna.30326$4P1.2...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net:
> The sad part of this is that some people (apparently black people)
> think that white people would enjoy a nice family meal outdoors
> while watching a black person get hanged. Please! Ants and flies
> would ruin a nice picnic - imagine how a black person hanging from
> a tree would ruin the meal.
Lynchings were frequently seen as social events.
See: http://news.mpr.org/projects/2001/06/lynching/ and check out the
postcard made from a photo of a lynching.
You can google on "lynching" images and find some photos with women
present, too. Though, you don't see kids in general. (Which can
lead to some interesting, yet BOPpable, inferences.)
Remember that in the "good ol' days" blacks weren't really people, so
killing them could be seen as entertainment/social events in the same
way that pig slaughters could be.
"This is a fine day for a picnic, though a bit warm. Wait, is that a
breeze I feel comming up the hill?"
"Sure enough, sweetness. See how the nigra is swaying gently?"
--
Michael J. Freeman (a.k.a., Pi)
mike_f...@mac.com_noSpam Cincinnati, OH
"Insanity runs in the family; it practically gallops"
Ellison, H. Thompson, D. Parker, Prince, SRV, Led Zep
Patricia Burns
> Back Scatter <thomas!@earth-west-.org> wrote:
>
> > I was listening to KGO AM 810 and the black host was saying that picnic was a
> >get together of whitey to pick and lynch a n------. Anyone have any vectors or
> >information?
>
> http://www.barutiwa.com/cgi-bin/bns/publish/article_46.shtml
>
> More Information:
>
> Pick A "N-----" To Lynch
> By Baruti M. Kamau, BNS Contributing Writer
> Filed on Feb 11, 2003, at 16:07 hours
>
> Today I was searching through my e-mail archives dating back to 1997. While
> noting some very interesting comments from my readers worthy of debate, I
> noticed one particular e-mail that was forwarded to me in April of 1999 from a
> reader based in Nashville, Tennessee. This particular e-mail claim to have
> researched the origin of the word "picnic." According to the e-mail, the word
> "picnic" originated from 19th century Southern Whites who enjoyed witnessing
> the gradual execution of a Black American at the hands of a lynch mob. If
> there is validity in the content of the e-mail mentioned above, then the hope
> for improved race relations in the United States, in my opinion, is bleak at
> best. Below is an excerpt of the controversial electronic missive:
>
> "This e-mail is being sent to you as a public service announcement and as
> information in the form of a little known Black History Fact. This information
> can also be found in the African American Archives at the Smithsonian
> Institute. Although not taught in American learning institutions and
> literature, it is noted in most Black history professional circles and
> literature that the origin of the term "picnic" derives from the acts of
> lynching African-Americans. The word "picnic" is rooted from the whole theme
> of "Pick A N-----." This is where White Americans would "pic" a Black person
> to lynch and make this into a family gathering. There would be music and a
> "picnic." ("Nic" being the white acronym for "n-----.") Scenes of this were
> depicted in the movie "Rosewood." We should choose to use the word "barbecue"
> or "outing" instead of the word "picnic." Please forward this e-mail to all of
> your family and friends and let's educate our people."
>
> I'm hoping any one out there with a undergraduate degree or post-undergrad
> degree in African-American studies or American history can introduce hard
> evidence concerning the content of the above e-mail. Readers can read and post
> their comments concerning this subject by clicking relevant links below.
According to http://www.dictionary.com , picnic is based on the French word
"pique-nique". At http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr it translates the
same. I tried a translation of the individual words...
pique = prick
nique = screw
Sexual connotations?
PB
R H Draney
>
>Back Scatter wrote:
>
>> There would be music and a
>> "picnic." ("Nic" being the white acronym for "n-----.")
I think the first question is are you going to take a story like this from
someone who doesn't know what an acronym is....
>According to http://www.dictionary.com , picnic is based on the French word
>"pique-nique". At http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr it translates the
>same. I tried a translation of the individual words...
>pique = prick
>nique = screw
>Sexual connotations?
It's certainly going to make watching Andy Griffith Show reruns more
entertaining....r
Charles A Lieberman
Back Scatter <thomas!@earth-west-.org> wrote:
> I was listening to KGO AM 810 and the black host was saying that picnic was a
> get together of whitey to pick and lynch a n------.
What is the format of KGO? Was this in the course of a talk show or was
it DJ chatter between concertos?
--
Charles A. Lieberman | "I guess you can't guarantee supernatural
Brooklyn, New York, USA | phenomena." --Rian from Newfoundland
http://calieber.tripod.com/index.html cali...@bigfoot.com
Lon Stowell
> Ragnar scribed in
> news:yORna.30326$4P1.2...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net:
>
>
>>The sad part of this is that some people (apparently black people)
>>think that white people would enjoy a nice family meal outdoors
>>while watching a black person get hanged. Please! Ants and flies
>>would ruin a nice picnic - imagine how a black person hanging from
>>a tree would ruin the meal.
>
>
> Lynchings were frequently seen as social events.
>
> See: http://news.mpr.org/projects/2001/06/lynching/ and check out the
> postcard made from a photo of a lynching.
>
> You can google on "lynching" images and find some photos with women
> present, too. Though, you don't see kids in general. (Which can
> lead to some interesting, yet BOPpable, inferences.)
>
> Remember that in the "good ol' days" blacks weren't really people, so
> killing them could be seen as entertainment/social events in the same
> way that pig slaughters could be.
Gonna try to avoid touchy subjects, but not sure your reason is
correct although your conclusion probably may be somewhat. [1]
Hangings in the old west were also public holiday type events,
and could swear that burning the local heretic has been for
quite some time.
[1] Lon "precision statements R us" Stowell
Lon Stowell
>
> According to http://www.dictionary.com , picnic is based on the French word
> "pique-nique". At http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr it translates the
> same. I tried a translation of the individual words...
> pique = prick
> nique = screw
> Sexual connotations?
>
If this were more modern, would suspect highly personal
personal adornment and decoration instead.
However, haven't picnics long been of sexual connotation,
pretty much along the lines of inviting the vivacious
other on a picnic... much like inviting to a drive in
movie in the '50's.
Lars Eighner
<3EA0A6FA...@attbi.com>,
the lovely and talented Lon Stowell
broadcast on alt.folklore.urban:
You know, it seems to me that if you really wanted to a job on "picnic,"
you would come at it from it resemblence to "pickaninny," a word with
a well atested racist pedigree.
--
Lars Eighner -finger for geek code- eig...@io.com http://www.io.com/~eighner/
I am from Belgium, and believe me, it is an UL --Giedo Custers
David Hare-Scott
"Back Scatter" <thomas!@earth-west-.org> wrote in message
news:ANPna.30216$4P1.2...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> I was listening to KGO AM 810 and the black host was saying that
picnic was a
vectors or
> information?
>
TOWFI, two of the more professional etymologists on the web, say it aint
so. They generally quote their sources and reasons for any
controversial views so I have some faith in their opinion.
http://www.takeourword.com/Issue032.html
David
Lon Stowell
>
> You know, it seems to me that if you really wanted to a job on "picnic,"
> you would come at it from it resemblence to "pickaninny," a word with
> a well atested racist pedigree.
First, I would probably start by checking for useage in cultures
where that particular expression did NOT exist, and see if
picnic was in use in that culture more or less oriented at
any of the common meanings involving food, sex, group food,
group sex, or a bunch of geeks welcoming a new intel chipset.
Deborah Stevenson,,,
>You know, it seems to me that if you really wanted to a job on "picnic,"
>you would come at it from it resemblence to "pickaninny," a word with
>a well atested racist pedigree.
Not seeing any keywords here--perhaps you were playing with the word
"pedigree"? There's certainly a similar myth about the racist origins of
"pickaninny," but it's a myth that's easily debunkable by looking at any
reasonably sized dic. If you meant that despite its innocuous origins it
became a phrase of racist usage, sure, but I don't think that would be
enough to base an argument for "picnic" on; more likely the argument would
have them both sharing the same false etymology.
Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)
Ralph Jones
wrote:
...as in "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe"...
rj
John Francis
I thought that was French^WFreedomSpeak for 'the munchies'
--
As evil plans go, it doesn't suck -- Wesley offers a critique on "Angel"
Marc Reeve
> In article <ANPna.30216$4P1.2...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,
> Back Scatter <thomas!@earth-west-.org> wrote:
>
> > I was listening to KGO AM 810 and the black host was saying that picnic
> > was a get together of whitey to pick and lynch a n------.
>
> What is the format of KGO? Was this in the course of a talk show or was
> it DJ chatter between concertos?
KGO is a "News-Talk" station and has been for at least 20 years.
I'm guessing that the spreader of this misinformation was Brian
Copeland, as he's been caught up by ULs before. I frequently wrote him
corrective letters when he appeared on KTVU 2's "Mornings On 2" news/
entertainment filler.
Marc "doesn't miss Bay Area radio" Reeve
--
Marc Reeve
actual email address after removal of 4s & spaces is
c4m4r4a4m4a4n a4t c4r4u4z4i4o d4o4t c4o4m
Lars Eighner
<C7ioa.5246$6P6....@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>,
the lovely and talented Deborah Stevenson , , ,
broadcast on alt.folklore.urban:
> Lars Eighner <eig...@io.com> writes:
> Not seeing any keywords here--perhaps you were playing with the word
> "pedigree"? There's certainly a similar myth about the racist origins of
> "pickaninny," but it's a myth that's easily debunkable by looking at any
> reasonably sized dic.
Well, it certainly isn't debunkable with MWCD10th. According to it,
"pickaninny" entered the language in 1653, which is entirely consistent
with it being a term in use in the slave trade, and it never meant anything
other than a small black child. If there is evidence that it is *not*
a racist term, that evidence doesn't exactly jump off the page at one.
> If you meant that despite its innocuous origins it became a phrase
> of racist usage, sure, but I don't think that would be enough to
> base an argument for "picnic" on; more likely the argument would
> have them both sharing the same false etymology.
I don't see what you might mean by "pickaninny" having innocuous origins
or sharing a false etymology with "picnic."
The false etymology of "picnic" is that it is really "pick a nig."
There is no evidence of that whatsoever. The are no accounts of
lynchings that were "picnics," no intermediate forms like "picanig,"
and there are plenty examples of innocent uses of "picnic" long
before the lynch era (the early 20th century) and in places lynchings
never occurred.
Every indication is that "pickaninny" entered the English language
as a racist term. It always referred to a black child. There
are no examples of the word being used without a racial reference.
If "pickaninny" has an innocuous origin, then so does "nigger" (which
also can be traced to a Romance word older than racism).
Now it is probably a fairly silly thing to compare false etymologies,
but all I was saying is that if you want to question "picnic," you
would probably be more convincing by arguing from its similarity
to a known racist word like "pickaninny" than with the "pick a nig"
claim, which is so far-fetched that it ought to set off bullshit
detectors immediately.
--
Lars Eighner -finger for geek code- eig...@io.com http://www.io.com/~eighner/
Another Internym Moment: R H "crouching hamster hidden gerbil" Draney
Donna Richoux
> In our last episode,
> <C7ioa.5246$6P6....@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>,
> the lovely and talented Deborah Stevenson , , ,
> broadcast on alt.folklore.urban:
>
> > Lars Eighner <eig...@io.com> writes:
>
>
> > Not seeing any keywords here--perhaps you were playing with the word
> > "pedigree"? There's certainly a similar myth about the racist origins of
> > "pickaninny," but it's a myth that's easily debunkable by looking at any
> > reasonably sized dic.
>
> Well, it certainly isn't debunkable with MWCD10th. According to it,
> "pickaninny" entered the language in 1653, which is entirely consistent
> with it being a term in use in the slave trade, and it never meant anything
> other than a small black child. If there is evidence that it is *not*
> a racist term, that evidence doesn't exactly jump off the page at one.
Well, I'm not sure what this argument is really about, but I thought I'd
throw in a few facts. Thorndike-Barnhart goes out of its way to say that
"pickaninny" and variants thereof were adopted into African languages
and linga francas to mean "a small child" with *no* derogatory
overtones. The original meaning, after all, was "small" in Portuguese
(similar in Spanish). Merriam-Webster:
Etymology: probably ultimately from Portuguese
pequenino, diminutive of pequeno small
>
> > If you meant that despite its innocuous origins it became a phrase
> > of racist usage, sure, but I don't think that would be enough to
> > base an argument for "picnic" on; more likely the argument would
> > have them both sharing the same false etymology.
>
> I don't see what you might mean by "pickaninny" having innocuous origins
> or sharing a false etymology with "picnic."
>
> The false etymology of "picnic" is that it is really "pick a nig."
> There is no evidence of that whatsoever. The are no accounts of
> lynchings that were "picnics," no intermediate forms like "picanig,"
> and there are plenty examples of innocent uses of "picnic" long
> before the lynch era (the early 20th century) and in places lynchings
> never occurred.
>
> Every indication is that "pickaninny" entered the English language
> as a racist term. It always referred to a black child.
Merriam-Webster labels it as "often offensive" but that's not the same
as plain "offensive." Surely it can't be that to state that black
children existed at all or were somewhere present, is to be racist and
derogatory.
Take this, for example, from the Dictionary of American English:
1883 Harper's Magazine. I remember when I was a baby
sitting with the black pickaninnies on the ground
playing with frogs.
It seems clear enough to me that that "black pickaninnies" there simply
means "black children." No insult is implied.
Maybe what we're seeing here is the retroactive sort of perceived
offense that drove out "darky" and "colored" and "Negro."
>There
> are no examples of the word being used without a racial reference.
The only one I can find that doesn't imply race is the first one in DAE:
1800 Boucher Glossary. A Pickaninny; a male infant;
probably from the Spanish picado nino, pequeno nino.
> If "pickaninny" has an innocuous origin, then so does "nigger" (which
> also can be traced to a Romance word older than racism).
>
> Now it is probably a fairly silly thing to compare false etymologies,
> but all I was saying is that if you want to question "picnic," you
> would probably be more convincing by arguing from its similarity
> to a known racist word like "pickaninny" than with the "pick a nig"
> claim, which is so far-fetched that it ought to set off bullshit
> detectors immediately.
--
Donna "pick, pick, pick, talk a lot, pick a little more" Richoux
Marc Reeve
> In article <dgc3avoe597p9nrel...@4ax.com>,
> Ralph Jones <ra...@nomeking.com> wrote:
> >
> >...as in "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe"...
>
> I thought that was French^WFreedomSpeak for 'the munchies'
Nah, that would be "Dejeuner apres l'Herbe".
Marc "actually, according to babelfish, it's 'Le Munchies' - i guess
that one isn't high on L'Academie's list..." Reeve
Deborah Stevenson,,,
>In our last episode,
><C7ioa.5246$6P6....@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>,
>the lovely and talented Deborah Stevenson , , ,
>broadcast on alt.folklore.urban:
>> Lars Eighner <eig...@io.com> writes:
>> Not seeing any keywords here--perhaps you were playing with the word
>> "pedigree"? There's certainly a similar myth about the racist origins of
>> "pickaninny," but it's a myth that's easily debunkable by looking at any
>> reasonably sized dic.
>Well, it certainly isn't debunkable with MWCD10th. According to it,
>"pickaninny" entered the language in 1653, which is entirely consistent
>with it being a term in use in the slave trade,
I'm holding out for a higher standard than "entirely consistent with."
Does MW fail to mention that it derives from the Spanish or Portuguese for
"small child," and that p. itself seems to have been the West Indian
blacks' own evolution? That's the OED's stance, and it suggests that it
was Europeans who borrowed the converted phrase back and then converted
its meaning to the one you're positing.
and it never meant anything
>other than a small black child. If there is evidence that it is *not*
>a racist term, that evidence doesn't exactly jump off the page at one.
Thus confirming my opinion that MWC isn't a reasonably sized D.
>> If you meant that despite its innocuous origins it became a phrase
>> of racist usage, sure, but I don't think that would be enough to
>> base an argument for "picnic" on; more likely the argument would
>> have them both sharing the same false etymology.
>I don't see what you might mean by "pickaninny" having innocuous origins
That it initially meant "small child."
>or sharing a false etymology with "picnic."
>The false etymology of "picnic" is that it is really "pick a nig."
And the false etymology of "pickaninny" is that it is really "pick a
[slave] ninny."
See why I'm saying it'd just lead to confusion?
Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)
Alan Follett
<big snip>
> Take this, for example, from the Dictionary of > American English:
> 1883 Harper's Magazine. I remember
> when I was a baby sitting with the black
> pickaninnies on the ground playing with
> frogs.
> It seems clear enough to me that that "black
> pickaninnies" there simply means "black
> children." No insult is implied.
It's apparently not a malicious and intentional insult in the cited
text; but perhaps one need not be pathologically PC to suggest that the
existence of a specific term for black children may reflect underlying
racism, however innocent the author's intentions in its use.
En passant, je déplore profondément le canard tacite contre les
français.
Alan "Nope, not my ox; it was Belgium that the ancestral Follett
departed from; family legend claims that the anniversary is still
celebrated with street dancing and public thanksgiving in two Walloon
villages" Follett
Charles A Lieberman
tr...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:
> Take this, for example, from the Dictionary of American English:
>
> 1883 Harper's Magazine. I remember when I was a baby
> sitting with the black pickaninnies on the ground
> playing with frogs.
>
> It seems clear enough to me that that "black pickaninnies" there simply
> means "black children." No insult is implied.
But what about those French people they were playing with?
Staffan Sjöberg
"Back Scatter" <thomas!@earth-west-.org> skrev i meddelandet
> Back Scatter <thomas!@earth-west-.org> wrote:
> ("Nic" being the white acronym for "n-----.")
Note to future ULwriters: This sentence doesn't work very well. Why? First,
you have to get your supporting facts right. An acronym is aword formed from
the initial letters of a phrase (e.g. radar). This kind of obvious mistake
will make the reader suspicious.
Second, "nic". Really, nobody will have heard "nic" used in that way. It's
just not believable enough. If you had used "nig" it would have sounded more
believable, and you could have added some linguistic mumble about how soft
consonants in the end of words tend to become hard. There might even be some
real terminology for it, use that if possible.
I look forward to seeing your creative writing in an inbox near me!
Staffan S
The EH Man
wrote:
Internet lore (and perhaps folklore prior to the internet) has the
origin of this word as lynching party for blacks in the American
South, originally deriving from the phrase pick an nigger. This is
absolutely incorrect. The word's origins have no racial overtones
whatsoever.
In actuality, the word derives from the French pique-nique, meaning
the same thing as it does in English--an outing that includes food.
Pique is either a reference to a leisurely style of eating (as in
"pick at your food") or it's a reference to selective delicacies
chosen for the outing. Nique is a nonsense syllable chosen to rhyme.
The word appears in English as early as 1748 in reference to picnics
in Germany. The word did not gain widespread use in Britain until c.
1800.
My wife found this somewhere on the Web.
Ron Neely II
The EH Man
Electro-Harmonix info and schematics at:
http://electroharmonix.ronsound.com
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Kai Henningsen
> text; but perhaps one need not be pathologically PC to suggest that the
> existence of a specific term for black children may reflect underlying
> racism, however innocent the author's intentions in its use.
Or perhaps one is in fact pathologically PC to suggest that omeone can be
racist just for using a certain word, regardless of what (s)he thought
about that.
I'll stop here to avoid the BOP.
Kai
--
http://www.westfalen.de/private/khms/
"... by God I *KNOW* what this network is for, and you can't have it."
- Russ Allbery (r...@stanford.edu)
Charles A Lieberman
kaih=8kHEo...@khms.westfalen.de (Kai Henningsen) wrote:
> > text; but perhaps one need not be pathologically PC to suggest that the
> > existence of a specific term for black children may reflect underlying
> > racism, however innocent the author's intentions in its use.
>
> Or perhaps one is in fact pathologically PC to suggest that omeone can be
> racist just for using a certain word, regardless of what (s)he thought
> about that.
The idea being expressed, I believe, is that simply feeling the need to
use a specific term for black children is indicative of a specific view
of black children. I don't think the PCness is pathological.
--
Charles A. Lieberman | "Granted, the animals without heads, bones, or
Brooklyn, NY, USA | limbs need a lot of assistance to breed, but so
cali...@bigfoot.com | what?" Nathan Tenny teaches AFU animal husbandry
Deborah Stevenson,,,
>In article <8kHEo...@khms.westfalen.de>,
> kaih=8kHEo...@khms.westfalen.de (Kai Henningsen) wrote:
>> > text; but perhaps one need not be pathologically PC to suggest that the
>> > existence of a specific term for black children may reflect underlying
>> > racism, however innocent the author's intentions in its use.
>>
>> Or perhaps one is in fact pathologically PC to suggest that omeone can be
>> racist just for using a certain word, regardless of what (s)he thought
>> about that.
>The idea being expressed, I believe, is that simply feeling the need to
>use a specific term for black children is indicative of a specific view
>of black children. I don't think the PCness is pathological.
I'd agree with your point, but I think it's worth clarifying the situation
a bit. In its original West Indian usage, it wasn't a term for black
children, it was a term for children; it was applied to black children
only because that was the color of children people had there. Many
language's terms for children were initially applied only to children of
one color, for similar reasons; I imagine "children" itself is an example.
The fact that it was then borrowed out of that speaker group to mean a
specific kind of child doesn't make its initial meaning racially specific.
Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)
Crashj
> AFol...@webtv.net (Alan Follett) wrote on 20.04.03 in <21537-3EA...@storefull-2177.public.lawson.webtv.net>:
>
> > text; but perhaps one need not be pathologically PC to suggest that the
> > existence of a specific term for black children may reflect underlying
> > racism, however innocent the author's intentions in its use.
>
> Or perhaps one is in fact pathologically PC to suggest that omeone can be
> racist just for using a certain word, regardless of what (s)he thought
> about that.
>
> I'll stop here to avoid the BOP.
We will not be niggardly with the BoP just for picking any.
Crashj 'full stop' Johnson
Ed Kaulakis
"Charles A Lieberman" <cali...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:calieber-C00D05...@news.fu-berlin.de...
> In article <8kHEo...@khms.westfalen.de>,
> kaih=8kHEo...@khms.westfalen.de (Kai Henningsen) wrote:
>
> > > text; but perhaps one need not be pathologically PC to suggest
that the
> > > existence of a specific term for black children may reflect
underlying
> > > racism, however innocent the author's intentions in its use.
> >
> > Or perhaps one is in fact pathologically PC to suggest that omeone
can be
> > racist just for using a certain word, regardless of what (s)he
thought
> > about that.
>
> The idea being expressed, I believe, is that simply feeling the need
to
> use a specific term for black children is indicative of a specific
view
> of black children. I don't think the PCness is pathological.
In a non-pathologically PC view should we then treat diversity rather
like nakedness in Japan - "often seen, never noticed"?
It's making my brain itch to conceive of the category "groups I should
not conceptualize, except for the purposes of this provision".
Conceptualization is the mother of vocabulary, and we can't have _that_.
Ed "fnord. Really." Kaulakis
qsw...@passagen.se
> kaih=8kHEo...@khms.westfalen.de (Kai Henningsen) wrote:
>
> The idea being expressed, I believe, is that simply feeling the need to
> use a specific term for black children is indicative of a specific view
> of black children. I don't think the PCness is pathological.
Ahem... Does the use of a specific term for children of the male or
female gender indicate a "specific view" of those children, i.e. are
the words "boy" and "girl" now considered sexist?
Staffan S
Andrew McMichael
BoP.
Andrew
Lee Rudolph
>qsw...@passagen.se wrote:
>>
>> Ahem... Does the use of a specific term for children of the male or
>> female gender indicate a "specific view" of those children, i.e. are
>> the words "boy" and "girl" now considered sexist?
>
>BoP.
That's the least successful attempt at a portmanteau neologism
I've ever seen.
Lee "not that either `BoG' or `GoB' would be *much* better" Rudolph
Rick Tyler
>Ahem... Does the use of a specific term for children of the male or
>female gender indicate a "specific view" of those children, i.e. are
>the words "boy" and "girl" now considered sexist?
Who cares? Anyone who believes that gender roles are completely
imposed by "society" has never spent time around actual children.
- Rick "I spit on the BoP, pTOO" Tyler
--
"Ignorant voracity -- a wingless vulture -- can soar only into the
depths of ignominy." Patrick O'Brian
User
> I was listening to KGO AM 810 and the black host was saying that picnic was a
> information?
>
Pick a N****r
Don't know it's origins, but I was told as a child the it's quite an old
saying.
M. J. Freeman
Well then, if it's something you were told as a child, it *must* be
true. Parents *never* pass along misinformation to kids.
Oh, and for all the folks playing along at home, the word the
previous posters seem so frightened of is NIGGER. As in SPOOK,
DARKIE, JIGABOO, SPEAR-CHUCKER, JUNGLE-BUNNY, SPADE, PICKANINNY,
COON, COLORED, or SAMBO.[1]
The word is also used as a modifier, as in "to nigger-lip"[2] or
"nigger-pool"[3].
However, it has nothing to do with "niggardly."
Or "picnic," for that matter.
--
Michael J. Freeman (a.k.a., Pi)
mike_f...@mac.com_noSpam Cincinnati, OH
"Insanity runs in the family; it practically gallops"
Ellison, H. Thompson, D. Parker, Prince, SRV, Led Zep
[1] I'm fascinated by the variety of derogatory words for blacks in
America. Anyone got any more?
[2] To put one's lips completely around the mouth of a bottle when
drinking.[4]
[3] To use one's shot in pool to screw the other player -- e.g., by
wedging the cue ball in the corner -- instead of trying to sink a
ball.[4]
[4] My father's family was from the hills of Kentucky. In my
childhood I was exposed to more than few moments of... let's call
them "racial insensitivity."
Sara Moffat Lorimer
> [1] I'm fascinated by the variety of derogatory words for blacks in
> America. Anyone got any more?
No. You've covered it. On to the next thread, everyone -- it's full of
candy!
TdN
> M. J. Freeman wrote, in part:
>
> > [1] I'm fascinated by the variety of derogatory words for blacks in
> > America. Anyone got any more?
>
> No. You've covered it. On to the next thread, everyone -- it's full of
> candy!
That is the best answer ever.
However, just in case someone has an actual sociological or linguistic
interest in this phenomenon, there are plenty of books on this topic,
like Randall Kennedy's recent best-seller. Or you could just look at
the lyrics from the show "Hair".
Asking people to list racial slurs on a newsgroup, though, is merely
an invitation to the grepping lo*ns.
T "candy! candy! candy!" dN
Bob Beck
> I'd agree with your point, but I think it's worth clarifying the situation
> a bit. In its original West Indian usage, it wasn't a term for black
> children, it was a term for children; it was applied to black children
> only because that was the color of children people had there. Many
> language's terms for children were initially applied only to children of
> one color, for similar reasons; I imagine "children" itself is an example.
> The fact that it was then borrowed out of that speaker group to mean a
> specific kind of child doesn't make its initial meaning racially specific.
I may be coming in late here, but the West Indian usage, or a form of it,
apparently made it to Britain intact. In "White Teeth," by Zadie Smith,
slightly older Caribbean women address the young Irie Jones as "pickney."
bob "Babylon North" beck
Bill Heyman
news:b8aaoe$rnt$1...@luna.vcn.bc.ca...
Pickanniny. "I Am Thinking Of My Pickanniny Days." Scott Joplin, 1902.
"Like many other Joplin songs this sentimental tune was typical of many but
musically superior to others of its kind."
Joe Littrell
<thomas!@earth-west-.org> wrote:
> I was listening to KGO AM 810 and the black host was saying that picnic was a
>get together of whitey to pick and lynch a n------. Anyone have any vectors or
>information?
http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?displayValue=day&todayDate=09/06/2000
Crowfoot
there in the early sixties, I was often addressed by Nigerian women in
this way: "Where you pickin?" I'd have to explain that somehow or other
I hadn't yet had any, which they found either regretable or downright
unbelieveable, to judge by reactions (I was 21).
SMC
In article <b8aaoe$rnt$1...@luna.vcn.bc.ca>, Bob Beck <rb...@vcn.bc.ca>
wrote:
--
Crowfoot