[78-L] Racially Offensive Language/Robeson.

[Tom]

I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that the term African American is a fairly recent artifact of our (American English) language.
 
You might be able to find its usage somewhere prior to 20 years ago, though I don't remember having heard the term before that.
 


--- On Sun, 1/25/09, Spats <spats47 at ntlworld.com> wrote:

From: Spats <spats47 at ntlworld.com>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Racially Offensive Language/Robeson.
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009, 7:24 AM

Hi!

It's interesting to hear Paul Robeson gradually alter the lyric of 
Old Man River over over the years. Without going through all of them, 
he first recorded the words 'niggers all work', than changed it to 
'darkies all work' which, I suppose was one grade less offensive and 
later on 'here we all work'.

(Actually, he recorded quite a few songs with the word 'darky' in 
them, as I remember).

Of-course, he also made other more political changes in that lyric, 
but that's a whole other discussion. Unlike in the USA, he was loved 
and worshipped in the UK and his was the first ever live concert that 
I ever attended. I thought then and think still that he was just 
wonderful! I must have a couple of hundred of his recordings on 78rpm.

The grandchild of slaves, and highly intelligent, his qualification 
as a black rights fighter are impeccable. He lived long enough to see 
the raising of the fist at the Olympic games by black athletes on the 
medal podium. He would have loved to see a semi-black man like Obama 
elected as president, I'm sure.

I wonder what he would have through about the politically correct 
terms like 'Afro-American'.
I'm trying to remember if he used that term or not.

Can anyone remember?

Earl.
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