Re: Asian-ness (was Re: "Whiteness" Re: Obseneties)

> From: John Cowan
>
> On Fri, 1 Sep 2000, SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY wrote:
>
> > >     -"banana" => utterly Americanized Asians (in the tragic
> sense of "they
> > > have lost their marbles and their heritage and gone too gung
> ho on American
> > > values of the lowest common denominator")
> >
> > That's a new one on me.
>
> I believe "banana" is an imitation of "Oreo", meaning "a person black on
> the outside, white on the inside".  This originally meant someone who
> identified themselves with the oppressive elements in society, but
> now can (alas) refer to anyone of education whatsoever.
Among African-Americans, the term "Oreo" or "Oreo Cookie" still carries its
pejorative connotations and continues to be applied regardless of the
education level of the accused.  If education ever had anything to do with
the term, I suspect it was an accidental characteristic of class.  Better
educated blacks have always had more facile access to white society and were
therefore more suspect in their identification.  If anything, however, this
is less the case now than formerly.

David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
    dbell@graywizard.net
    www.graywizard.net

"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates