[78-L] OT^ re: various posts, an answer to Mr Zwarg's (sorry for delay), and please a plea for civility

[yves francois]

To Chris and all of us at 78L regarding the whole race matter,a thank you note, our behavior on this list et all ...

hello this is my post to the varied subjects in the last few days:
first a note for Chris Zwarg (who i also am writing to him personally, seeing that he may of left this list by now)


  I want to thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my letter, please accept my apology for not writing earlier. First I would have never thought you were not an anglophone first ,judging by your facility in the English language, your English is excellent. Your responses (for me at least)are more than sufficient, indeed I have an much better understanding on what you were trying to get at, I will further correspond off list, if you are interested

second:

To the people still giving Chris problems from what he said a couple of days ago, Mr Zwarg apologized, I believe that to err is human and the gentleman did apologize for the word he used (see below). I have kept his part of the apology in this letter, the writing is of a fertile mind, even if one needs not agree with his position, and one perhaps using shock to get a reaction. Personally, I am not interested in changing how a person thinks, a person has every right to his/her point of view - like Voltaire - even if I disagree with it. However, while I (and some others may of pointed this out with intellect to me in private posts, I thank you for noticing) was upset by  another N* word being thrown around, and I deliberately listed the heading as N*, and the one I was also offended by is only 4 letters long. 
    All I can say, at least Mr Zwarg spoke to us in this open forum, explained himself to great detail AND apologized. If one noticed in my rather long essay (I know ... LOL), I mentioned the difference in that time changes what a perceived meaning of a word or image means to an audience who is reading and/or listening to it. To put it another way, if I named my band The Cotton Pickers in 2009 I would get a lot of flack (and rightfully so), yet 2 of my all time favorite bands have that name, McKinney's (1920's/last band was as late as 1941)and the very under rated Argentine jazz band led by Ahmed Ratip (recorded for Victor 1946/50, TK 51/3, featuring Booker Pittman the grandson of Booker T Washington)*. 
   The other word was quite easily hinted and thrown around, all I can say, as the son of a man used as slave labor by the aforementioned Nazi's (4.5 years to be precise) PLEASE don't use the term lightly. I was deeply irritated and saddened by that (I have had people write to me off list regarding this and noticed in my writing that I was equally offended by their words as well). As a son of someone who was a slave, I am sensitive to such accusations, as I am to racial pejoratives. We all have very different points of view, and experiences, and much differences in opinion as well as different knowledge of the language used in this forum, political leanings AND age (we are, after all to some degree the product of our schooling), what we do with it afterward is ours in the freedom of choice we as human beings have and our responsibility to our choices (as well as our ability to learn current parlance and norms of behavior), life is, after all, a learning
 expirence
 
 let's just be civil about it, and get back to records
(my final post regarding this matter unless I am asked a specific question, I will be blogging some of my thoughts on the election at some point in time, needless to say, I see some common circumstances to the early days of the Chilean Eduardo Frei's administration circa 1964/5...)
  
Yves Fernand Francois Smierciak

* I did not mention that Dave Wilborn lead a "New McKinney's Cotton pickers" in the 70's playing excellent music (including other African Amercian musicians like Ted Buckner and Louis Stephens who played with ex McKinney's pianist Todd Rhodes combo, as well as jazzman - and Motown session man - Tate Houston), as well as a 1920's studio jazz band led by Phil Napoleon

finally Mr Zwarg's apology follows:

--- On Thu, 1/22/09, Chris Zwarg <doctordisc at truesoundtransfers.de> wrote:

> From: Chris Zwarg <doctordisc at truesoundtransfers.de>
> Subject: [78-L] ^^An apology to hopefully end the N-word discussion Re: Goodbye (from Michael), re: racist remarks (one person's opinions et  all)
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Date: Thursday, January 22, 2009, 9:40 AM
> Dear all,
> 
> although I repeatedly promised to not lose another word on
> the subject, Yves Francois' thoughtful post seems to
> require an answer, and
> 
> I HEREWITH APOLOGIZE FOR MY APPARENTLY OFFENDING USAGE OF
> EITHER OF TWO WORDS STARTING WITH THE LETTER "N"
> (which I will not repeat în full to avoid another round of
> blows). I also promise to add the definition
> "taboo" to the relevant entry in my 1990 edition
> of Collins' English Dictionary which I used while
> studying the language, which does list "N***o" as
> a general-usage term to describe members of various peoples
> with dark skin colour, current since the 16th century.
> "N****r" OTOH is listed as derogatory in several
> written sources I have consulted, and I have already
> apologized for using that slang expression rather than the
> other. Therefore, sorry also for my ignoring that usage has
> apparently changed so radically in less than 20 years - too
> much surrounding myself with more-than-80-year-old records
> and documents maybe.
> 
> Yves wrote:
> >my problem is more than just the word itself, but the
> INTENT behind the word, as Tom so well put in a recent e
> mail. 
> 
> My intent was certainly not to smear Mr. B.O. as a person,
> nor as a member of his people, but rather to express my
> annoyance at the ubiquitous discussions about him and his
> skin colour. Why do professed anti-racists lose even ONE
> word about this?! I do not know the man except from media
> coverage - what can I seriously say about him, good or bad?
> I sincerely hope he will prove a better President of the US
> than some of his predecessors. I also hope that he will be
> able to show that he has no need to be singled out as the
> "first Afro-American US President" because he has
> more useful qualifications than his ethnicity and his
> outward appearance to stand on. Right now, the only
> interesting and laudable property about him seems to be his
> being non-white (that's why I sarcastically called him
> what I did), and I do feel that glorifying the man already
> before he has done *anything* in office is also a perverted
> kind of racism: "He is Afro-American, therefore he
> *must* be better than (white and inept) G.W.B." -
> that's all I hear and read in the media, and if that is
> an acceptable statement, the opposite should be also.
>