[conspire] Correction

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

On Mar 26, 2020, at 13:24, Tony Godshall <tony at of.net> wrote:
> 
> > Ebonics is a racist term, fwiw...
> 
> I don't know if Ebonics was a racist word when it was invented in Oakland, but the way texx uses it perjoratitively, it certainly is.

Correct: it wasn’t, but it is now. That said, not everyone knows that, so I can’t assume that a person is necessarily aware of same.

I also spent time learning the history of American music of the 20th century that I *wasn’t* that knowledgeable about the interrelationships about, and basically, here’s how it evolved:

Jazz (AA form) -> Swing (white people form)
Funk (AA form) -> Disco (white people form)
Fusion (AA form) -> Prog Rock (white people form)

…you get the drift. Oversimplification, obviously.

It kind of boggled me that there was a sanitized white form for pretty much *every* black movement in music, though. You can even see this in the wikipedia notes to Diana Ross’s song Upside Down, where she paid to have the whole album remixed after the producers funked it up too much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upside_Down_(Diana_Ross_song)

Here’s the song as released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIAtE6ywgwA

I’ve always loved it *because* it was funky, but now I really want to hear what the album was intended to sound like. Grrr.

I think she made the right call because she knew her audience. Unfortunately.

> English, and American English in particular, has a proud tradition of adopting foreign words, is what makes it so good at shades of meaning, such a writerly language.

It really is, and I’ve been amazed at how some phrasing has evolved. Hanging out on reddit has sometimes amused (or frustrated, depending on where on reddit I am) me to no end.

Deirdre