Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
One thing to keep in mind is that Aunt and Uncle to refer to black elders can be considered problematic. In some cases, it was a way of getting away from calling them Sir or Ma'am and Mr. or Mrs. like their white counterparts. It's not unfair to say that it's called Aunt Jemima instead of Mrs. Jemima because the racists (read: pretty much all white people in the 1800s southern states) would have rioted over giving her that type of respect. While Mrs. Butterworth still has the same 'mammy' racial issues, her creation in the 1960s meant she wasn't called Aunt Butterworth. Think of it like the word "boy", on the surface it doesn't seem at all bad but if you hear a southern police officer call a black man a "boy" you know he's a racist ####head.
In other cases it's because slaves were seen as part of the family, as terrible as that sounds and was. And in other cases it was just a way of showing southern endearing traits.
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Yeah the South is certainly a different deal than most places. I dont recall hearing "boy" directed at anyone other than a child when i resided there, but that certainly doesnt mean it didnt occur.
More often than not, and even directed at me by people of both white and black skin color was being called "son". Even younger people would use that term. I didnt think much of it other than it was just a Southern thing, (though a bit odd) and likely thats all it was meant as.
Other words down there though are entirely local and not derogatory per se, but still a bastardization of the english language.