NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/soc/bi/17239

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-23 | 4.9 KB

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Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!reed!spdcc!joe
From: [e-mail] (Joseph Francis)
Newsgroups: soc.bi,soc.motss
Subject: Wot! Language again?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 23 Dec 92 14:22:26 GMT
Article-I.D.: spdcc.1992Dec23.142226.3320
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 85

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jess Anderson) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>
>[e-mail] (the Crisco Kid) writes:
>
>>In article <[e-mail]>
>>[e-mail] (eleanor.j.evans) writes:
>
>>>Does that mean I should strike "denigrate" from my vocabulary?  Or that
>>>it's an excellent example of (1) above.  Or both?
>
>>Neither.
>
>This is not academic.  One of my good-Karma days just having
>passed, the one before this arose, I had that word down in a
>posting-to-be.  I've used it my whole life, nearly, without
>ever having thought about its root meaning.  But this time I
>saw it and edited it out.
>
>It's in a class with "white lies" and "gypped" and "black
>marks" against you, and innumerable other examples.  It's a
>personal choice, but mine is to get rid of it.  One can
>certainly say what one means, I think, without using it.

I'm sorry, but when silver tarnishes, it becomes black. When brass
tarnishes, it becomes black. When wood carbonizes, it becomes black.
When the lights go out, it becomes dark and hard to see. Anthracite is
black. Graphite is black. Red Ink is used for debit, black ink for
credits on balance sheets ("in the black" is a very, very good thing).
The styx is 'black', Ebony, Onyx, Obsidian, Peacock Anthracite are
black. Black leather symbolizes sexual outlawness and potency, black
velvet is used in photography to absorb reflections, in clothing
because it highlights form remarkably. Black sand beaches are rarer
(on Maui, for instance), and more beautiful than almost any white sand
beach. Where would shoes be without bootblack. Matte Black is
virtually synonymous with high-tech in design and style. A Black Book
is certainly something very interesting to have, and very important.
Blackouts were essential to London during WWII to survive. Black holes
are cosmic singularities of tremendous debate, as well as being
something one would supposedly find in Calcutta, where people live in
squalor. Black mark. Black eye. Virtually all printing is done with
black ink on white paper - "in black and white". Good guys wear white,
except when they wear black (Batman, most Clint Eastwood films). The
rarest and most sought-after flowers are black. Blackbean soup.
Blackeyed peas.  Blackened redfish. And so on.

Lily white isn't a positive description, hair turns white with age or
'fright', white night describes rioting, 'working like a white woman'
doesn't describe an easy life, "white lie" describes a form of
hypocricy, white elephant isn't something you treasure, there aren't
any precious or semiprecious stones minerals that are 'white' (perhaps
sometimes onyx), whitewash isn't about telling the truth, the more
horrible parasites are usually described as 'white worms', snow white
can describe both extreme (and clearly now ecologically-unacceptable
chlorine-based) cleanliness or unattractively pale skin, whiteheads
are infections, china white is a type of heroin (in fact quite a bit
of slang for drugs has variations on white 'things'), whiteout
corrects mistakes, varieties of whitefish are delicious, "Jaws" was a
Great White Shark. Wedding dresses are white to symbolize an
unperforated hymen in the bride. I hate Blancmange, and white sauce is
about the simplest and least tasty sauce you can make for food. White
meat has fewer blood vessels than dark eat. Whitebread isn't a
complimentary term. And so on.

So. Are we to strike out adjectives and metaphors which use black? In
my opinion, you flush as much positive as negative. I could make a
case for flushing out adjectives and metaphors which use white too. In
any case, we can't rename Nigeria, Niger, the substantia nigra,
silver, platinum, and other salts are definitely black black black
unless you want to change the name of the tint that comes from
tarnish, ink will remain black for the forseeable future so whether
we're in the black or have a black mark that ain't gonna change,
blackheads aren't going to turn purple, etc. There is a confusion
about the usage of black as a metaphor; it good or bad depending
entirely on intent.

'denigrate' has the same conceptual basis for metaphor as 'tarnish'.
Shall we remove 'tarnish', 'sully', 'besmirch', and other similar
words too? Smacks of 'whitewashing' to me.

This is a case where the test of 'substantial injustice' for political
incorrectness fails because contrapositive cases exist on several
parallel axes.

--
US Jojo; damp, slighly soiled, but tasty nonetheless.