|
|
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4 |
I recently had an associate accused of uttering a racial slur.. the slur being Mr. Sunshine.. I have searched the net and can not find any reference either confirming or refuting said working, can you disabuse me regarding this phrase? If it is then someone here must be able to shed some light of the issue.. Thanks for taking the time to read this ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
"Mr. Sunshine" is a new one on me... but I'll quickly divert the topic to the broader furrow of racial slurs in general. I was listening to an uncharacteristically socially-aware morning radio show just a couple of days ago, and they went into great detail soliciting explanations of various ethnic put-downs... "Kike" being a derivation of the German "kiko", meaning circle, being that Christian immigrants to Ellis Island were marked with crosses, and Jews were marked with circles. The one I knew was "gook", and my experience as a tall, pale redhead in South Korea elucidated the derivation of that one... The Korean word for "American" (That's "US'n" on this board) is "mee-gook". I understood instantly that the epithet had to have originated during the Korean War - when an insular, homogenous society is suddenly exposed to a new culture, there's a lot of pointing and staring (which still predominates in Korea today). I can't even tell you how many times I walked down the street and was pointed out as a "mee-gook" ~ clearly the troops stationed in Korea chose to interpret "Me Gook", and thus a slur is born. One of the points made by the Jewish host of the radio show was that understanding the origins of intended insults pulls the power right out from under the insulters. I'll be watching this thread to see if anything materializes about Mr. Sunshine... Thanks for the evocative post, and welcome aBoard, Dotman! 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4
stranger
|
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Welcome aBoard, Dotman. I was unaware of this being a racial slur, so I tried Google, and got so many hits I got tired of looking. There are a lot of music sites relating to it, and a movie called Mr. Sunshine that by the description would not be a racial slur. There was a TV show in the 80's called that, but the site had no description. Good luck. Um--perhaps there used to be a minstrel performer called that? I wouldn't know--I'm a little young to have seen a minstrel show.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
"Several years ago a TV show titled "Mr. Sunshine" had as its main character a blind professor." who knows where this might have led?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I see no way "Mr. Sunshine" can be a racial slur. Of course anything can be insulting if pronounced with that intent. The only way I have heard "Sunshine" used is as a term of endearment when speaking to small children.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
upon reconsideration, I'm reminded that 'shine' has been used as an abusive term; to wit: His voice said bitterly: ‘Shines. Another shine killing. That's what I rate after eighteen years in this man's police department.’ [Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely]
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
I, too, Jackie, thought it might have to do with a sideman character in a minstrel show. But one of the most famous sideman monickers is "Mr. Bones" and I've never heard of anyone associating that term with racial disparagement. And, then, I think, perhaps, there was a time when the term "sunshine" was used as a sort of inverted slur for Negroes because they were dark. As when someone is glum and you say, "How's it goin', happy?" It was definitely an insult in that context...but in those days they were just supposed to grin and bear it, as if it were a joke or friendly chide. In fact, I seem to recall Bing Crosby, of all people, saying this to a black character in a movie somewhere circa the 1940's...something akin to "How ya doin' today, sunshine!" So you can imagine how foolishly tame it was considered then. Does this trigger anybody else's memories along these lines? 'Cause, now, I'm pretty sure that's it. Welcome Dotman_ga! For all that I've said, "Mr. Sunshine" sounds like it has a lot of ambiguity attached to it. And that someone is really digging to start trouble over this one. Now, I'm afraid, it's become a tool to a means in many cases, rather than genuine injury. Stick around! An intriguing post!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
I do associate sunshine as a vaguely threatening term of address used by East End gangster types -- think Dinsdale. I don't think he actually said "I'll nail your head to the floor, sunshine" but that's the sort of context.
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Well, I have a context from personal experience that crosses two speech community boundaries that I now recognise, for the sunshine component at least. The term was in fairly common use in a jokey way by us kids in Kent and Sarf Lunnen - "oi, sunshine, whatcher doin' ternight?" Then, when I was going to a gig at the Hammersmith Empire (Dr Hook & the Medicine Men, great gig fwiw) we got stuck in a queue of people without tickets, despite already having tickets ourselves, which was being held back by a big black bouncer on the door. We all tried to get his attention to explain, to no avail. At one point, entirely unconsciously I called out that phrase which amongst our group was a badge of matey solidarity - "Hey, Sunshine, we've GOT tickets...!"
The whole crowd in front of us went silent. He stopped chatting up the girl at the front of the queue and swung around with a look that could kill at ten paces. Putting on his best Jamaican accent he enquired who wanted to talk to him... I 'fessed it was me, with a nervous grin suddenly realising how small and pale I must be against this giant as he came through the crowd. What a nice day to die! I guess he could see from my demeanor that there was no threat or challenge involved, which made him just reconsider for a moment. Then he asked me if we'd driven up to the gig - "well, you prob'ly heard we just love love you' white cars in Brixton, mahn!" as the previous week there had been major riots in that district. When our gang and the crowd around us laughed with him, the tension drained away, and we got talking.
Point is, I was left in no doubt at all that 'sunshine' meant one thing to a white kid using London patois and quite a different thing to a black kid using West Indies patois. I assume the slur element is taken from racists having insulted darker-skinned people about having been out in the sun too long and all that sort of offensive crap. I'll be interested to hear if anyone has anything that corresponds to elements of this, or adds anything about the 'Mr' part of the original question. Does that have specific connotations?
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,322
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
501
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
