Adam, I guess Google is Too Hard for some?
Re: evocative nature of terms. "Box the gnat", "hey", "chain", etc all aren't evocative, either. Swing may be. I love how "right shoulder round" is self explanatory. I want to underline the excellent point you made about rhyming. "Oh, we can't SAY that word, but we'll think it. Wink." Best, Ron On Wed, Oct 9, 2019, 9:57 AM Adam Carlson <adam_carl...@pobox.com> wrote: > Ron, > > I was halfway through a long, researched response explaining why it is a > slur, why just because a particular caller hasn't been personally > confronted at one of their dances they shouldn't assume it's not, and why > the origins of the term, while pertinent are not the whole story on how we > should approach it today when Isaac, in one short paragraph, provided a > much more effective response than mine would ever be. In researching I was > pleasantly surprised by number of good references in the wikipedia article > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Romani_people. I found it by > googling "gypsy usage as a slur" which also turned up a lot of useful > material. > > I'd love to see your article when you're done. > > BTW, I'm really saddened that the term "right shoulder round" has become > the standard replacement for gypsy. It's about as evocative as "modified > ballroom position paired rotation" is for swing and takes too long to say. > I really liked pixie when it was popular, just because I like the word, and > I like two-eye turn, though it doesn't make much sense unless you know what > a two-hand turn is, which many contra dancers don't these days. (Pixie > doesn't make any sense, but it doesn't purport to.) I've never tried > Look-See, which is appealing, but maybe too cute by half, and I fear won't > come across well on PAs. Though pixie and look-see are both phonetic > references back to gypsy. They just rhyme, so it's a way of referring back > to the tainted word. It'd be like if someone who was racist but didn't want > to offend people with the N word went around talking about "those jiggers". > > Cheers, > Adam > > On Tue, Oct 8, 2019 at 7:56 AM Ron Blechner via Callers < > callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > >> I am working on a shared document, if only because it takes a lot of time >> and work to educate people and I'd like a resource with lots of links that >> people can easily share. If you'd like to positively contribute, please >> email me directly contraron at gmail dot com. >> >> It's the 21st century. We're smart people who love history, right? >> >> "G*psy" has its etymology back to mistaking olive-skinned peoples from >> India and Persia for Egyptians. It's _always_ been a racial term, and it's >> always been a slang that was put on Romany. While some groups have >> reclaimed the term, this is not the majority, and, like f*ggot to LGBTQ >> people, or the N word to Africans and African Americans, the word simply >> isn't white people's word, even if someone has "given you permission" to >> use it. >> >> When Cecil Sharp introduced it, so far research I've seen shows he didn't >> use "gip" it in the racial sense. It was a Morris dance word that had no >> roots in Romance languages. Sometime after in the 20th century, probably >> because of homonym confusion, other callers and dancers assumed it was >> "g*psy". >> >> Romancing nomadicism: >> So, y'all have Jewish friends, right? >> You all know the diaspora, and thousands of years of nomadicism by Jews >> was _forced_, right? >> You know that it was forced because of racism and anti-Semitism, and Jews >> have suffered greatly, culminating in the Holocaust, right? >> >> It's nearly identical to Romany oppression. Their nomadicism has been >> forced. They have the same myths, same racist stereotypes of baby stealing >> and dark magic. They've been denied citizenship and forced to relocate >> century after century in Europe. They suffered over a million deaths in the >> Holocaust. >> >> Why, then, would we romanticize their forced nomadicism? >> >> In dance, >> Ron Blechner >> >> >> On Tue, Oct 8, 2019, 9:16 AM Isaac Banner via Callers < >> callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: >> >>> Hey Jeff, >>> >>> Not **us** non-roma folk, thank you. My family on my mother's side were >>> a part of the culture and none of us appreciate the folks telling us not to >>> worry and that we don't need to be offended. >>> >>> Isaav >>> >>> On Tue, Oct 8, 2019, 8:10 AM Jeffrey Spero via Callers < >>> callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: >>> >>>> But Isaac… isn’t that what people on BOTH sides of the issue are doing? >>>> There are VERY few Roma in the contra community, and we’ve heard from very >>>> few overall on this issue. Mostly it’s just us non-Roma folk arguing >>>> amongst ourselves about what WE perceive how a majority of the Roma people >>>> feel about this. And that does apply to people who are both for and >>>> against using the term “gypsy” to describe a contradance move. Aren’t we >>>> ALL saying what is right or wrong for people who are from another heritage? >>>> >>>> And now I am bowing out of this controversy as it seems never-ending >>>> and very divisive. >>>> >>>> Jeff >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> > On Oct 8, 2019, at 5:57 AM, Isaac Banner via Callers < >>>> callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: >>>> > >>>> > Hey John, >>>> > >>>> > If the N word was also a move that somehow wasn't connected to the >>>> slur, you wouldn't dare argue that it's different or that you should get to >>>> call it, so drop the argument please. Just because you don't think I should >>>> be offended about the word and how it reflects on my heritage doesn't mean >>>> you get to dictate whether I actually am. I would ask you not to decide for >>>> others how they ought to experience and respect their racial identity, >>>> thanks. >>>> > >>>> > Isaac >>>> > >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> List Name: Callers mailing list >>>> List Address: Callers@lists.sharedweight.net >>>> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/ >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> List Name: Callers mailing list >>> List Address: Callers@lists.sharedweight.net >>> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/ >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> List Name: Callers mailing list >> List Address: Callers@lists.sharedweight.net >> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/ >> >
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