Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Defiant

I said that I didn’t care, which means that I wasn’t offended, nor was I complaining, nor criticizing nor accusing you. It was just information. I was never a cartoon watcher, so I can’t comment on Bugs Bunny.
Nevertheless, this is where they got it from. Nevertheless, words have meaning and that meaning isn’t denied because your principal reference is cartoons. Just as the word “sambo” has a racial meaning that isn’t negated because I associate it with a children’s book.
That is why when I was told that “sambo” meant something else, instead of reacting defensively, I responded by reading about it. I found what I read interesting.
But that’s just me. You are welcome to stay in cartoonland.


70 posted on 06/28/2013 8:53:24 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies ]


To: kabumpo
I am disputing that the use of "maroon" when used by Americans who grew up with Bugs Bunny came from a Spanish word "cimarron". It comes from a mangling of the word "moron", and moron is an ancient word that has nothing to do with cimarron. It is a Roman word borrowed from the Greeks.

There may be people in the world who say the word "maroon" and mean something racial and denigrating by it, but I have never heard it used by anyone other than in a non-racial sense as a funny mangling of "moron", derived from Bugs Bunny. "What a maroon!"

Sambo, on the other hand, has no such non-racial connotation. It is from Rudyard Kipling's book about the Little Black Sambo, a book about an Indian boy who was chased by a Tiger and turned into butter, if I recall correctly. Americans in the south, mistaking the boy in the book for an African, took to calling blacks "sambo" in a derogatory fashion.

The point is just that you said that maroon has a racial past, and I say that when Americans use it, it is a Bugs Bunny reference, and has no racial connotation, notwithstanding that there may be a word "maroon" derived from the word "cimarron". That, if true, is just a coincidence. They are two separate words, used two different ways, like there and their and they're.

You can take away my Speedy Gonzalez if you wish, but don't ever say anything bad about my Bugs Bunny....

71 posted on 06/28/2013 5:51:09 PM PDT by Defiant (In the next rebellion, the rebels will be the ones carrying the American flag.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies ]

To: kabumpo
To wit: What a maroon!.
72 posted on 06/28/2013 5:52:58 PM PDT by Defiant (In the next rebellion, the rebels will be the ones carrying the American flag.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies ]

To: kabumpo
And further to wit.

Your absolution of my offense is not accepted when I never committed an offense, even unwittingly. Maroon=moron when I and 99.999999 percent of Americans use it. There may be a twit somewhere who knows its other meaning, but its taken me 53 years to find him, and most people know only the American version.

73 posted on 06/28/2013 6:12:43 PM PDT by Defiant (In the next rebellion, the rebels will be the ones carrying the American flag.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson