ETHNICITY IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR HATE AND STUPIDITY!

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Adan Salazar, PoliceCrims.Com, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I was interested and so I looked it up, the number of slur words that can be used to describe a black person, and surprise, surprise, I found 40 different ways to identify our black brothers. Some were humorous; others will stupid, while a few were just plain dumb, and a couple made in sense at all…..possibly because they had their origins in long-ago foreign lands.

 

I thought you might be interested in the list and where they came from, interestingly of the five pages that listed ethnic slurs,  two pages were used to describe the names that people used to call a black person…..an obvious point that people must be scared, intimidated, and hold black people in some kind of awe. Maybe it’s because black people can dunk a basketball easier than a white man, and can run circles around almost everybody.

 

Af, (Rhodesia) or a Rhodie

Ann, a black woman who acts like a white woman

Ape, a black person, where else, the United States

Aunt Jemima Aunt June, Aunt Mary, Aunt Sally, Aunt Thomasina, slur towards black women, U.S.A.

Bluegum, a southern United States slur for a black person who is lazy and refuses to work

Boogie, United States

Buck, United States, also used to describe a Native American

Buffie, a black person

Burr Head, United States used to describe a black person

Colored, used to describe a black person, it came from where else, the United States

Coon, United States and the United Kingdom

Crow, describes a black women

Eggplant, actually a movie slang used in The Jerk in reference to a black person

Fuzzie, United Kingdom

Gable, United Kingdom

Golliwogg, United Kingdom Commonwealth, used in children books

Jigoboo, Jiggabo, Jijiiboo, Zigabo, Jig, Jigg, Jiggy, Jigga, United States, United Kingdom

Jim Crow, United States, segregation laws in the U.S. in the 1950’s, 1960’s and early 70’s

Jim Fish, South Africa

Kaffir, Kaffer, Kafir, Kaffre, South Africa

Macaca, North African, or U.S. Senator George Allen use in reference to a black person

Mammy, United States, an overweight servant

Mosshead, United States

Munt, South African, Zimbabwe and Zambia

Nig-nog, United States, United Kingdom

Nigger, Nigg, Nigz, Nigga, Niggaz, United States, United Kingdom

Niglet, of course…..a black child, United States

Nigra, United States

Pickaninny, used in many lands as well as the United States

Porch Monkey, a Southern black person, United States

Powder burn,

Quashie,

Sambo, United States

Smoked Irish, Smoked Irishman, United States, 19^th. century used to denigrate both Irish and blacks

Sooty, United States, 1950’s

Spade, United States

Spook,

Tar baby, United States, New Zealand, United Kingdom

Teapot, British

Thicklips,

Uncle Tom, United States

 

Of course there are other slang names that are used as a way to describe black people, but of the 40 listed words used in a derogatory way to address blacks, 19 can be traced directly to the United States, and 13 to the United Kingdom. Maybe we should asses how we address people of color, or ethnicity, after all…..we are all ethnics, our ancestors, with little exception were born on foreign soil.

 

THE BURDEN OF BEING BLACK

I can’t really imagine being a person of color, unless you count anglo saxon…..wait, I never really thought about that, Anglo saxon is a color, it’s either pink or white, and it’s funny, us whites spend as much time as we can during the summer to darken ourselves, huh, is there a correlation there, do whites really want to be black?

 

I’ve written before about the attitudes of my father in the past, he was a racist, hell he didn’t even like the television show, Sanford & Son, he said he didn’t want to watch a television show that was based on a worthless black person and his son. Of course he didn’t use the word black, I believe it was colored bum.

 

I grew up in the northern part of Lower Michigan, in a town that was Lily white, a black person stuck out like a sore thumb. When we played Benton Harbor, Muskegon, or Grand Rapids, Michigan in football, or basketball, I didn’t play basketball; we referred to their players as Niggers, Jiggs, Niggies. I said the slang terms without even thinking about what was being said. We were all laughing and having fun at somebody else’s expense.

 

I look back now, and remember those days, remember that I never played sports with a black person until I was 19 years old. I never had a black person as a friend until I was 21, and I never fully understood the trials and tribulations of a black person until I was well past my 25^th year.

 

Along the way, I used all the hurtful slurs, and some that aren’t listed, and ethnic jokes that I heard and passed on possibly in an effort to be accepted by my peer group. During my journey through life there are two lessons that I have learned above all others, (1) to treat people fairly and honestly, and (2) to treat everybody as equals, no matter the color, creed, religion, or mental capacity.

 

Black people, people of color have a difficult path to trod, made hard by just two facts, they are (1) colored, and (2) white people don’t like colored people. The first reason people of color I understand, nobody really has a choice when it comes to your ethnicity.

 

The second reason, white people not liking people of color, I really don’t get. Looking back at how I was raised, I can’t understand why my dad was a racist, he never related to me a bad experience that he had, wasn’t cheated, and was never bumped out of a job by a black. When I was growing up, Indians, Mexicans and Asians weren’t an issue, of course Japanese, Communists and Koreans were war mongers, and weren’t to be trusted, but they weren’t around…..it was just the blacks.

 

Did you know it was illegal in some states into the 1970’s for a black and white to marry, it’s true, and now they say that prejudice and racial problems are becoming a thing of the past…..ya right, how would you like to be colored for just one week…..I’ll bet not.

 

I’m not going to bore you with statistics, suffice it to say that the ugly activity of racial equality ain’t workin yet, just check with any white women you know, they feel the pinch of in equality each and every day of their work life.

 

HOW BLACKS ARE KEPT DOWN EACH AND EVERY DAY

Everybody respects the law for all kinds of different reasons, fear, a genuine respect for the laws of the land, an entity to be circumvented, fooled or fought with whatever weapons are handy. Whatever the reason people abide by laws, they usually do so to stay on the right side of the power that can be brought down on individuals that break laws.

 

For blacks the burden of staying on that right side of the law is tougher because of their color, the reputation, and the history. I will say this, at times black people are their own worst enemy, they prickle-up whenever the law confronts them. Diplomacy should be the watchword when some big bellied red-necked cops stop a black. In a baseball game, 3 strikes and you’re out, when a white cop pulls over a black person; he’s already got two strikes on him.

 

It’s an attitude that is present between white authority and blacks, and the authority can be as inconsequential as a convenient store clerk. Do black people have to be more tolerant of whites…..if that I feel a sense of loss.

 

I decided many years ago that I wasn’t going to waste my time on the color of a person’s skin, oh sure, I still have relapses, and fall back into the old ways, and question whether I should say something to a black that is to loud, or pushes into a line, and I usually say something, it is, after all a form of respect, I’d say something to a white person if he was to loud or cut in line, guess I gotta do the same to a black.

 

EVER VIGILANT

We all need to be watchful of each other; after all, we share almost the same space, black, white Hispanic, Asian, Native American and whoever else one might want to add into the melting pot. Authority needs to be spread universally, by that I mean each person needs to be under the same set of rules and regulations as another.

 

Police are by far the visible and, for whatever reason, seem to weld the biggest stick of injustice against people of color. From rape, to beatings, to falsifying evidence to downright circumventing the law, people of color are hit with the full weight of the law every day of the year.

 

Until we understand that we are all from the same place, have the same red blood flowing through us, and share the same needs, wants and desires, we, as a people will suffer. When a black person commits an offense against another person, he is an embarrassment to his race, when a white person commits an offense against another person, he too is an embarrassment to his race…..exactly what is the difference?

 

HAVE A NICE DAY