[LMB] OT: nappy hair (was Very small child book recommendations)

[Paula Lieberman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <onyxhawke at onyxhawke.com>


>I live north of Boston and its a reasonably common useage here.

Where? "north of Boston" goes all the way from Somerville and Charlestown to 
northern Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont...  again, it's not a term I was 
familiar with, and I've lived in Massachusetts most of my life, in 
Leominster (which was at the the the plastics capital of the world), then in 
an MIT dorm, and I've been in a town of around 40,000 people for years 
now....

The terminology in use in e.g. Brockton, Dover, Worcester, Cambridge, 
Lawrence, Fall River, Pepperell, Orange, Springfield, etc., can all differ 
majorly.   There are reasons why even the US Census itself has come up with 
a -separate- demographic unit to use in New England, the NECTA -- New 
England City and Town Area -- in recognition of that sort of thing!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Paula Lieberman" <paal at gis.net>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Thomas Vinson" <t.vinson at sbcglobal.net>
>
>
>> Jacki in Canberra asks
>>> What's offensive about a nappy? (presuming it hasn't been used, that
>>> is)
>>
>> In US usage "nappy" refers to very tightly curled (aka kinky) hair.
>> Since most Americans with this kind of hair have African ancestry[*]
>> it is sometimes perceived as a racial slur.
>
> I've never heard that usage.... I wonder how widespread it is/was?
>
>> See http://www.carolivia.org/nappyhair/ for the book's website,
>> including a link to an article about the ruckus (Washington Post --
>> the other links seem to be dead).
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> [*] within the past few hundred years.  For the rest of us such ancestry
>> might be a few millenia further removed.  Then again, it might not :-)
>
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