tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post8519460896972860038..comments2024-03-28T07:58:41.643-04:00Comments on pancocojams: The "Clean" Meaning of The Name "Becky" In African American Culture Azizi Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-60496424411194478292016-07-19T06:54:32.004-04:002016-07-19T06:54:32.004-04:00Here's a 7/19/2016 tweet that refers to the fa...Here's a 7/19/2016 tweet that refers to the fact that Donald Trump's wife Melania's speech at the Republican Presidential Convention contained plagiarized portions of Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech. <br />"keraa @mockalattee<br />Someone said "Becky with the borrowed speech." I'm weak. #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes<br /><a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes?src=hash" rel="nofollow">https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes?src=hash</a> Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-32081083086708051022016-04-29T03:25:44.713-04:002016-04-29T03:25:44.713-04:00Here's one of the three tweets that were featu...Here's one of the three tweets that were featured in that Huffington Post article about UK Glamour:<br />Chante Watkins<br />Gloucester, Gloucestershire<br />"Before writing this did any of your team bother to look up there term "good hair"? Clearly not because if you did your writers would have noted it is a loaded term about the struggles of ethnic women especially black women accepting their natural hair despite the Eurocentric beauty standards. LEMONADE visual album is about black women empowerment among other messages. This article is embarrassing and highlights the poor quality in writing as clearly no research was done beforehand. And having 34 pictures of shiny hair and not a single one shows very curly or afro hair adds insult to injury."Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-9244708088568498222016-04-29T03:09:50.269-04:002016-04-29T03:09:50.269-04:00And the beat goes on...
Click http://www.huffingt...And the beat goes on...<br /><br />Click <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/beyonce-glamour-lemonade-becky_us_5722682be4b01a5ebde50805" rel="nofollow">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/beyonce-glamour-lemonade-becky_us_5722682be4b01a5ebde50805</a> for an article entitled "Whitewashing Beyoncé, Or Any Black Woman, Will Never Be OK" by Poppie Mphuthing 04/28/2016 <br /><br />The sub-title reads "The Internet lashed out at Glamour UK after it posted an insensitive article defending Beckys everywhere."<br /><br />That article was about a UK Glamour magazine story with the title “Things you only know if you’re called Becky and you have good hair.”<br /><br />That magazine posted a tweet about that story (of two of their writers-both young White women- who happened to be named Becky and who had good- no- great hair!" Here's that tweet:<br />"Beckys fight back! Here two GLAMOUR writers defend their name - and their good hair."<br />-snip-<br />Quotes from that Huffington Post article "Both the story and the tweet were deleted less than 24 hours after being published, I would hazard a guess because many readers called out Glamour UK on social media for publishing a culturally tone deaf and ignorant article."...<br /><br />This story missed the point on so many levels that it’s embarrassing at best and deeply offensive at worst. If it was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek angle or fresh take on “Lemonade” it would have been advisable that the authors firmly hold their tongues.<br /><br />It’s an insensitive story that on the face of it is defending the world’s Beckys but at its root is yet another instance of attempting to silence black women and invalidating our struggles navigating a world that frequently disrespects our intelligence and beauty. In just a few words and gifs, a respected publication contributed to the whitewashing of the black female experience." Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-20273340286073489702016-04-29T02:43:15.149-04:002016-04-29T02:43:15.149-04:00Thanks for your response, slam2011.
I think that...Thanks for your response, slam2011. <br /><br />I think that I had a false memory of reading that Elizabeth being a name that used to refer to Black women in general, Maybe I was remembering those old "Eliza"; "Little Liza"; Liza Jane" songs. Those are nicknames for Elizabeth, as is the name "Betty". <br /><br />Here's a link to Wikipedia's Betty page which gives brief information about women and fictitious characters named "Betty": <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty</a><br /><br />That list doesn't mention the term "Black Betty".<br /><br />Also, as somewhat of an aside, Fred Sanford in the [African] American television sitcom "Sanford & Song" (that is based on a UK sitcom) often pretended to have a heart attack during which he would act as though he was calling out for his deceased wife "Elizabeth".Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-88085046242235647542016-04-29T01:29:08.978-04:002016-04-29T01:29:08.978-04:00No, I've not heard of Betty/Elizabeth being as...No, I've not heard of Betty/Elizabeth being associated with any particular culture or group. The only names I can recall being associated with Jamaicans - the majority of black Brits till recent decades were usually of West Indian descent - were male names, like Winston and Delroy. These may have been popular in the aftermath of WW2, but will have fallen out of fashion now. (I notice though that the Black British actor Idris Elba recently called his son Winston, in defiance of fashion - this was to honour Elba's own father, whose name was Winston.)<br /><br />Elizabeth being the queen's name, it wasn't considered a particularly Black name at all. <br /><br />Betty was a very common girl's name in the generation before mine, but not for many girls of my age. It had a slightly old-fashioned sound. I remember we used to chant a skipping-rope song that concluded:<br /><br />'Betty Grable is a star<br /> S-T-A-R'<br /><br />I never really knew who Betty Grable was, but guessed she was probably a film star of my mother's era, because 'Betty' was no longer a fashionable or film-starry name to my ears.<br /><br />To me Betty is somehow a 1930s -1940s name - Betty Grable, Betty Boop, Bette Davis etc. But in Britain I don't think it was ever associated with Black women especially (though by an odd coincidence the only Betty I knew at primary school had a West Indian father.)slam2011https://www.blogger.com/profile/03112153426493772446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-72295808123699379922016-04-28T08:04:30.071-04:002016-04-28T08:04:30.071-04:00In response to a comment from frequent pancocojams...In response to a comment from frequent pancocojams reader slam2011, I wrote this in the comment section of the related pancocojams post:<br /><a href="http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/04/1930s-versions-of-folk-song-black-betty.html" rel="nofollow">http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/04/1930s-versions-of-folk-song-black-betty.html</a><br /><br />Hi, slam2011.<br /><br />I'm not discounting that the original meaning of the term "Black Betty" may have been from the UK and may have meant a liquor bottle or a musket...<br /><br />What I'm suggesting is that in the 1930s Black folk's songs about "Black Betty" the term "Black Betty" probably didn't mean a liquor bottle or a musket or any of the other references that White folks had given to that term. <br /><br />John Lomax noted in his 1934 book that Black inmates use the term "Black Betty" to refer to a "whip". Although that might have been the main meaning for Black folk's use of that term, "Black Betty" might also have been used as a referent for a woman within the same song - for instance, references to Black Betty having a child, a references to that child being the captain's baby (a White man's baby), and the child not being fed, and going wild etc. <br /><br />I suppose that the reason for the musket being called "Black Betty" was because its stock was the color "black" and "Betty" because begins with a "b" - this was therefore alliteration. I suppose that the reason why liquor was called "Black Betty" was because the liquor so named was dark in color. <br /><br />As to the nickname "Betty"- Betty was a very frequently used nickname for the name "Elizabeth". I remember reading somewhere that in the early 20th century it was customary for White people to use the name "Elizabeth" for Black women even though that might not have been their given name- similar to the use of "Becky" for White women that is the topic of this post. I'll try to find some source for this point. Would you please also try to see if you find any referent for that?<br />Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-15476250854581708352016-04-27T18:15:17.373-04:002016-04-27T18:15:17.373-04:00Here's an excerpt from https://www.yahoo.com/b...Here's an excerpt from <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/becky-not-racial-slur-stop-171000408.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/becky-not-racial-slur-stop-171000408.html</a> Style<br />"Becky" Is Not a Racial Slur — So You Should Stop Calling Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' Racist [April 27, 2016]<br />"After Beyoncé unleashed Lemonade to the world, unloading a concoction of underlying political and sometimes controversial themes, no other line has been as much a catalyst for scandal as "He better call Becky with the good hair."<br /><br />...on Tuesday morning, TV personality Wendy Williams took the term to task: "Calling a white girl Becky, I have decided — hi, white people — that is not very nice. That's like calling a black girl 'Shaniqua,'" Williams said. The daytime talk show host then proceeded to call her off-camera producer Susanne "Becky," acknowledging the two use the phrase casually off camera. "I am not using that word anymore, today is the last day I'll use it, and I encourage everyone else, don't call white girls 'Becky,' that is very hurtful."...<br /><br />The undermining of the name dates as far back as 1847, in which a novel titled Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray explored the life of Becky Sharp, a woman who climbed the social ranks by charming rich businessmen and collecting their wealth by tricking them into marriage."...<br /><br />-snip-<br />I really don't think that the novel <i>Vanity Fair</i> has anything to do with the use of the name Becky as a referent for White women. Furthermore, although I included it in my post yesterday, the more I think about it, I also don't think the character named Becky in the novel "Tom Sawyer" is the source of that referent for White women-or a certain sub-set of White women.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.com