In a message dated 2/9/01 5:57:11 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes, quoting: << America is the whole f***ng continent, including us f***ng latinos, like it or not. >> But...but, the proper name *is* "The UNITED STATES of AMERICA", not "AMERICA", though we call ourselves "Americans" as opposed to another, less identifiable name. (But then, Latinos, or at least a lot of them, like to refer to us Americans as "Gringos," even beautiful Black people like me.) Me? A "Gringo**"? Wanna know how that starts my identity crisis shit all over again?-"Damn!" **I spent years in sessions after a Mexican (see: Latino; see: Tejano; see: Mestizo; see: Hispanic) called *me*, beautiful Afri-Arab-American me-a "Gringo", in a tone reminiscent of a man who had just scraped me from under the instep of his nearly worn-out peasant boot. (Can we help it if others insist on shortening our true name?) *North American (Africana) saying: "Dogs and slaves are named by their masters; free men name themselves." Here's a question. Would you *really* want to be own as an "American", considering what scorn you (and others around the world) seem to hold for us? What you'll have to do then, if your care to take the assignment, is go to work on Central and South "Americans" about being so anal about it, as in: "don't get your shorts in a twist about our "nickname*." ______________________________________________ NICKNAME: nickname [1] (noun) [Middle English *nekename* additional name, alteration (resulting from misdivision of an ekename) of ekename, from eke eke, also + name name] First appeared 15th Century 1 : a usu. descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing. (Get it?) Norte "Americanos", (smirking bastards), (uppity sons-a-bitches), see: (Gringo). see: (Dirty rotten bastards with everything God meant for me). ____________________________________________ * GRINGO: grin*go (noun), plural gringos [Spanish, alteration of griego Greek, stranger, from Latin Graecus Greek] First appeared 1849 : a foreigner in Spain or Latin America esp. when of English or American origin; broadly : a non-Hispanic person -- often used disparagingly nickname: 2 : a familiar form of a proper name (as of a person or a city) Suda Mafud, Born in America-American member of the http://www.Africana.com online community [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
