The baaad nigger as archetype.

what many of today's youth ironically share with yesterday's slave is a need for myths and images that compensate for a sense of alienation and ineffectuality.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 18, 2001

Answers

An etymology of "nigger".

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 18, 2001.

From the above etymology--

The Name "Negro," Its Origins and Evil Use, Richard B. Moore wrote, "[T]he first use of the word 'negro' as a noun or name in relation to African people is to be traced back to the period after 1441, when the Portuguese explorers went down the African coast. ... [A]s soon as the area south of the Senegal River has been reached, where the modern slave trade was begun by the Portuguese, the designation of the native Africans is changed from Moors or Azenegues to 'negros.' "

For some reason, this author didn't say that the word "negro" in Portuguese (and Spanish and Italian) simply means "black".

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 18, 2001.

How do you urge a culture back from "existenial idifference"?

Livin off the mailbox doesn't seem to work.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), August 19, 2001.

That was good historical information, Lars. Have you ever heard of Tracy Chapman? She's a black artist [who came from the ghetto, much like the hip-hop/gangsa rap crowd], but she does a "folk" form of protest singing. My kids grew up listening to her music.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), August 19, 2001.

Yes, I like Tracy. I think she's a Lesbo too. I doubt if that explains her musical preferences but I do wonder how she became a folkie.

-- Lars (larsguy@indy.net), August 19, 2001.

Lyndon Johnson always pronounced "negro" as "nigra". Must have been some kind of Texas variant.

-- Miserable SOB (misery@misery.com), August 19, 2001.

Heh. Was it her shoes that led you to that conclusion, Lars?

Here's more on music's influence.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), August 22, 2001.

Anita--

No, my foot fetish is under control since I joined the 12-step group. If Tracy wears Birks, I don't even know it. A Lesbo friend (a Republican) told me she was Lesbo.

What intrigues me is that you say she has a ghetto background. If she had a middle class background, I could see her becoming folk-rocker, which I think of as "white" music. If she has a ghetto backround, then something unlikely influenced her music. Maybe it was purely a business decision----obviously there was a market niche for a black folkie.

I could make the same speculation on Eminem or Vanilla Ice. My guess is that those guys are suburban white breads who began rapping as a gimmick. Likewise, I wonder how Charley Pride got into country/western.

Anyway, crossover is good. I await a black singer of Norwegian folk music.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 22, 2001.