USA Africa Dialogue Series - Worldly?

Here's some worldy background:

" It's right here for you; if you don't get it, taint no fault of
mine.
I'm gonna see you when your troubles are just like mine.
If I let you get away with it once, you'll do it all the time."

( Page 265 " Double meaning in the Popular Negro Blues.")

" As often as not the stories of the backfire of Jim Crow attitudes
contain a sort of double bitterness toward the attitudes of the
whites who impose such restrictions. When such attitudes and such
restrictions both react against the the white, the story is doubly
appreciated. For example, in an Eastern college city torrid romance
between a light-skinned coloured boy and a white girl was
interrupted by the draft. A year later he was back on furlough: to
his surprise she had become a mother.

" Why didn't you write me you were married?"
"I'm not; and this is your child."
" Why didn't you tell me; I would have come home and married you."
" I know, but I talked it over with my family and they decided they'd
rather have an illegitimate child in the family than a nigger."

(Page 626 of " Humour as a Technique in Race Conflict")

" A Negro went to court for kicking a white man's behind.
The judge asked, " John, what is this about you kicking someone?"
" Well, Capum, what would you do if someone called you a black son of
a bitch?"
" Well, John," said the judge smiling, " nobody will ever call me
that."
"Well, Capum, spouse they call you the kind of a son of bitch you
is?"
" Give him 30 days!"

( Page 631 of " Humour as a Technique in Race Conflict")

All quotes from "Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel " Edited by Alan
Dundes.....

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com