Etymology of picnic
thom...@my-deja.com
want to send them this. It’s from Issue 32 (March 15 1999) of “Take Our
Word: The Only Weekly Word-Origin Webzine” by Melanie Jeanes and Mike
Crowley, and can be found at www.takeourword.com/Issue032.html.
> A friend sent the following to me, which he got from a local
> New York City bulletin board. Can you verify this, or debunk
> it? I have read your archive history of the word
> (which is what I had always known since I first studied French
> as a child), but I have never heard of the origin cited below.
>
> Subject: NEVER USE THE WORD PICNIC
> Date: 02/17/99 08:39 AM
>
> 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 Nigger”. This is where white
> individuals would “pic” a black person to lynch and
> make this into a family gathering. There would be food
> and music and a “picnic” (“nic” being the white acronym
> [sic] for“nigger”). Scenes of this were depicted in the
> movie “Rosewood”. We should choose to use the word
> barbecue or outing instead of the word picnic.
>
>We knew immediately upon receipt of [this] query regarding picnic that
>it was ridiculous,
>but when we received several similar emails in the space of a week,
>our curiosity was piqued.
>For one thing, we had already covered the history of picnic and knew
>that the word was in use
>in Britain long before the era of lynchings in the USA. What is more,
>the above email bears
>one of the classic signs of an urban legend: a reference to
>the “Smithsonian Institute” instead
>of “Smithsonian Institution”.
>
>Just in case the Smithsonian Institution actually was spreading this
>story, we contacted Dr.
>Alonzo Smith, a research fellow in African-American Studies at the
>Institution. Dr. Smith
>graciously provided us with the following reply:
>
> I have several points to make about this allegation.
>
> 1) There are several archival collections that pertain to
> African Americans within the
> Smithsonian Institution; the most extensive ones being the
> Anacostia Museum, and the
> National Museum of American History. While I do not profess an
> exhaustive knowledge
> of these archival materials, I have never heard of this
> information in any of them.
> However, I am virtually certain that if it did exist, someone
> would have published it by
> now, and I know that this has not been the case.
>
> 2) It is not generally agreed in professional academic circles
> that the origin of the word
> “picnic” comes from the selection of an African American for a
> lynching.
>
> 3) To attempt to tie lynchings to family outings, where food
> was served, is to
> misunderstand the real nature of these events. Rather they were
> outbreaks of mass white
> hysteria, and attempts by groups of Whites to terrorize and
> brutalize the entire Black
> communities where they occurred. Often, they were motivated by
> alleged acts of violence
> by Blacks against Whites, alleged disrespect and other breaches
> of Southern racial
> “etiquette”, and on many occasions, victims were chosen at
> random. Although women
> and children were frequently present, it is more accurate to
> view these events as
> collective psychotic behavior, rather than family outings.
>
> 4) In many instances, the victims were tortured and burned to
> death, hence the obscene
> humor referring to “barbecuing”.
>
> 5) I have read several accounts and analyses of lynching, and
> have not ever found
> reference to this alleged origin of the word picnic. I refer
> you to one of the most recent
> studies, Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South, by W.
> Fitzhugh Brundage,
> Chapel Hill, University of South [should read North] Carolina
> Press, 1997.
>
> 6) Those who raise this question are correct in one vital
> aspect: it was a barbaric, and
> sometimes random act, that served to forge racial solidarity
> among Southern white people
> whose identities and psyches were unstable because of rapid
> social and technological changes.
>
> Alonzo Smith, Ph.D.
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