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To: "'H-OIEAHC@H-NET.MSU.EDU '" <H-OIEAHC@H-NET.MSU.EDU> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Delivered-to: H-OIEAHC@H-NET.MSU.EDU Original-recipient: rfc822;john.saillant@vmh.cc.wmich.edu Had I known that a sincere, well-meaning query about the use of historical terminology would lead to a personal attack rather than an objective academic discussion I would never have brought it up. I asked because in several textbooks (recent, very good textbooks) the term is used by some of the best social historians of our day. I assumed (probably my first mistake) that it must therefore have been an accepted term among historians (used in the proper context, of course) but was unsure based upon recent discussions on this list. So I thought I'd ask my "colleagues" to get help. For the record: 1. I never said that "all planters" referred to "all non-planter whites" as "poor white trash." I do, in fact, in my lectures differentiate between yeomen planters, gentlemen planters, and poorer whites. My students and teaching assistants can testify to this. 2. I never meant to imply (and I don't think I did) that the South was a dichotomous society consisting only of rich and poor -- how that came across in such a narrow question is beyond me. I believe I used the term "lessers" by which I meant anyone the planters considered below them -- in their definition. 3. I've been teaching history long enough (in fact I went over this just last week with my students) to know about the racist consensus that existed in Southern society since the late 17th century (i.e. all whites regardless of class vs. African Americans off all ranks). 3. As an African American woman, would I be offended if a professor said that slave owners referred to their slaves (or for that matter, free Blacks) as "niggers?" No. Truth is truth. Used in it's proper historical context that term is a vivid illustration of the racism inherent in the institution of slavery. Or, used properly, a vivid illustration of the racism of the Jim Crow South. Definitions, as Toni Morrison says, belong to the definers. Words don't offend me -- their usage does. However, point taken and duly noted. No, I would not personally use the term "nigger" in class discussions of slavery. There are better and easier ways to discuss the horrors and ills of that institution. And so now I think it's probably just as fair to not use the term "poor white trash." Vikki J. Vickers
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