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Joined: Dec 2000
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where Sambo fits in?

The Sambo of Little Black Sambo was (sub-continental) Indian, if memory serves.


#54548 02/02/02 11:16 AM
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Faldage, I looked it up and you are correct, sir.
Doc, I don't know about Sambo's parents, but their names were Black Mumbo and Black Jumbo.
My children always loved it when I read them that story. The illustrations in the copy that we had were marvelous.


#54549 02/02/02 03:05 PM
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But you never gave them any ghee on their toast.


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theatre/theater For some reason, I've always used the -re for this as a sign of respect and integrity for the art, or to indicate the legitimate theatre...as in "The Theatre". Don't now how or why I was steered into that habit of usage, though. Center is always center for me.

Mark Twain PBS is currently airing a magnificient Ken Burns' documentary, Mark Twain,
in which both black and white historians vindicate the author and Huckleberry Finn from erroneous racist labeling, and, in fact, point out that Twain's intentions and effect were quite the opposite.


#54551 02/02/02 04:46 PM
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> will someone tell me what the prefered appelation is now

I'm pleased a thread about skin colour has come up.

For quite some time I've noticed the free and easy use by the US members of the Board of black or white to describe themselves and others. Laugh you may (considering my comments in I&A about xenophobia), but I feel really uncomfortable with both. Not that I'm asking you to change or that I am offended, I am merely interested at our relative sensitivities to the matter of one's skin colour.

I guess seven years in an executive recruitment role (where ONLY the candidate's qualifications and experience can be discusssed without courting accusations of discrimination) and more than twenty years in and around the mining industry (where aboriginal interests play a big part these days) has made me hypersensitive to these terms. Frinstance, I would never describe myself as "white" (even though I am) - I'd prefer to say 5'10", blonde and medium build. Similarly I wouldn't "black, average height" to describe an aboriginal - I'd say "of aboriginal appearance".

I wonder if others share my sensitivity on this and if any others have felt uncomfortable around these terms when they pop up on the Board. I'd hate to think we'd drive anybody away from a place where words matter.

stales




#54552 02/02/02 05:45 PM
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#54553 02/02/02 07:22 PM
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Well askually...I've always contended that black, white, yellow, and red are all wrong and inaccurate, anyway, because it's all the same pigmentation...we're all really just different shades of brown.


#54554 02/02/02 07:54 PM
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It ain't what you say about ancestry, so much as how you say it. The police have a genuine need for such distinctions, though "profiling" can become vicious. I have been called "WASP" in an unfriendly way. In a population shift, now that we're in the minority or soon will be, that could become painfully pejorative.


#54555 02/03/02 07:14 AM
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Well, I LIU'd...

"Classification", Parentage, Fraction of Black Blood
Mulatto, Black and White, 1/2
Quadroon, Mulatto and White, 1/4
Octoroon, Quadroon and White, 1/8
Mustifee, Octoroon and White, 1/16
Mustifino, Mustifee and White, 1/32
Cascos, Mulatto and Mulatto, 1/2
Sambo, Mulatto and Black, 3/4
Mango, Sambo and Black, 7/8


#54556 02/03/02 02:33 PM
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I did not know before that "Sambo" was used to quantify miscegenation. I guess that explains why there was such potent boycott of a fast food chain called "Sambos". I think "Jumbo" was coined by Barnum for his huge African elephant.


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