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 ...
"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!
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.
"Several years ago a TV show titled "Mr. Sunshine" had as its main character a blind professor." who knows where this might have led?
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.
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]
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!
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
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?
Funny this topic should come up today, since last night I saw 'bamboozled' written by Spike Lee. It's about a modern day version of a minstrel show set on a watermelon patch as a parody of the stereotypes created by ol' theatrical shows and early television programmes. Lo and/or behold, the name of the sidekick in this programme was Night 'n Day. So yes, coupled with the information above, there seems to be a definite, if abstract link to the disparaging ways in which blacks were light-heartedly dubbed.
It was a really sad film actually. The last 10-15 mins was outakes of various progammes (right up to modern television) where black americans where always the butt of the jokes, or just saying 'Yes sir' or 'No sir'.
Hey, Aunt mav--
Sylvia's mother said to tell you thanks for sharing that story. It described a cultural interaction that is quite literally foreign to me, and I found it fascinating.
Your loving niece
Like mav, I also associate the term "sunshine" with London slang, albeit a matey form of address that was quite unknown in West London, where I was raised (the matey form of address, to someone whose name was unknown to you, in those parts, was "John.")
But at no time did I ever hear it used as a form of racial abuse - or any other sort of abuse, actually. It always came across as matey; or at least, neutral.
Turn off the sun - we don't want no "shine" in here.
From the musical Chess, the singer rebuffs a prostitute's advances:
I get my kicks above the waistline, Sunshine.
Might well have been just for the sake of the rhyme, but this discussion put me in a mind of its sassy tone.
There's a musical called
Chess? Who
played in it?
You don't wanna know, Marianna! It is set in a pawn shop, and the characters are all upper class in reduced circumstances; Bishops, Kings, Knights - all that sort of thing. Strictly a musical for squares. There - that,s putting it in black and white for you!
"Strictly a musical for squares. There - that's putting it in black and white for you!"
I deplore the concept of "square" having been made subject of derision. I try to be square, and despise the "street wise" anal orifices who have debased the term. Present company not included, of course.
And I always liked a chessboard with red and black squares.I used to have a lot of fun playing chess on the computer, but had to give it up because I kept making the same dumb moves. My smarts aren't what they used to be.
I used to have a lot of fun playing chess on the computer, but had to give it up because I kept making the same dumb moves.
I don't like the computer chess games because they beat me even faster than Scott does, and I'm able to win against Scott every hundred games or so. I like reading about how they made these games though.
