Re: Maya Angelou died (28-5-2014)

On 2024-05-30 20:33:29 +0000, Antonio Marques said:

Athel Cornish-Bowden <me@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 2024-05-30 12:03:08 +0000, Antonio Marques said:
 

Athel Cornish-Bowden <me@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 2024-05-29 10:59:23 +0000, Ross Clark said:
 

African-American writer and activist.

 African American? She was born in the USA of American parents, lived in
the USA, worked in the USA, and died in the USA. She was American. She
may have had some ancestors from Africa, but that doesn't make her
African. I have very recent ancestors from Ireland (including my
mother), but I am not Irish.

 And here I was, thinking you came from Kernow.

 No. "Cornish" is not a Cornish name: what would be the point of callig
someone Cornish if everyone around is Cornish.

 ? One would think it even less of a point of calling someone Cornish if
they were not, well, Cornish in some way.

The name originated in Devon in the 15th century and was applied to people who had moved from Cornwall to Devon. So, if you don't mind going back to the 15th century then yes, I am Cornish "in some way".

 

The name is much more
common in Devon, just as "Devenish" is more common in Somerset than it
is in Devon.

Tread carefully, sir.
 An unabashedly racist* relative of mine (an older generation, Archie Bunker
type, still a great guy), whenever he wanted to indicate a black person's
race respectfully*, said 'who has african blood'.
 (*) The subtype who knows a number of blacks, talks about 'them', but also
enjoys having meals with 'them' and would stand for 'them' where needed. I
guess the other subtype is worse.
 (**) We don't have a word for that in portuguese. While in english 'black'
is neutral, in portuguese (preto) it can be construed as derogatory. We
have fiddled with 'negro', sounds too stilted and hence is a problem.
Incredible as it may seem, I've heard people refer to black people who are
portuguese and have remote ancestors in eastern Africa as
'african-american'...

--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly in England until 1987.