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

Skip to comments.

Airline Sued For Alleged Racist Rhyme
Channel Cincinnati - AP ^ | 12:49 p.m. EST February 11, 2003 | The Associated Press

Posted on 02/11/2003 6:53:50 PM PST by TSgt

Edited on 05/07/2004 8:26:48 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A March 4 trial date has been set in a lawsuit filed by two black sisters against Dallas-based Southwest Airlines. A judge ruled last week that the suit will go to trial in Kansas City, Kan.


(Excerpt) Read more at channelcincinnati.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: crimethink; ditty; kansascity; racist; southwestairlines
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-47 next last
To: MikeWUSAF
Channel Cincinnati must get its news via pony express. If they read FR, they would have known about it yesterday:

Kansas City Star:
185 comments here - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/839880/posts
duplicate post (this morning) 28 comments here -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/840622/posts

Fox:
278 comments here - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/840060/posts
21 posted on 02/11/2003 7:27:14 PM PST by PAR35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hole_n_one
lol
22 posted on 02/11/2003 7:28:52 PM PST by Balata
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
Too bad there isn't a commando unit funded by a super-rich patriot that does nothing 24-7 but snuff out maggots like these money-grubbing prostitutes.
23 posted on 02/11/2003 7:30:31 PM PST by Jonathon Spectre (who is speechless at this naked greed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WSGilcrest
Plaintiffs' attorney Scott Wissel said the sisters also want Southwest to stop using the rhyme and provide employee training to prevent such incidents.

Sure, just as soon as Mullah Jesse Jackson stops sounding foolish in rhyme. Every time he starts his rhyming, I try to pretend he's reciting "Green Eggs and Ham" instead of the silly nonsense he usually spews.

24 posted on 02/11/2003 7:30:47 PM PST by Orangedog (Accept No Substitutes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
Garbage. The first amendment is dead. The new first amendment is,

"Thou shalt not do anything to cause a protected person to say that he/she is offended. Actual offense is not required. Intended offense is not required. If the protected person claims to have been offended, that is sufficient evidence that offense has occurred.

"Damages shall be paid, in the amount awarded by a jury of the protected person's peers (ie, other protected persons). All individuals, companies, and government agencies anywhere in the vicinity of the offense or in any way related to any of the defendants, shall pay whatever damages the jury cares to award. Sensitivity training, unemployment, and public disgrace shall be necessary parts of the punishment for each of the defendants."

Free speech ain't free no more.
25 posted on 02/11/2003 7:30:55 PM PST by Rocky
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
Eenie meeny is old old, maybe as old as the Druids. It's part of old counting rhymes, said to be used by shepherds and fishermen.

Here is one I learned as a child, never seen it anyplace else:

Eenie kanips kanops kano
Rivali Sivali Domino
Ekabo sofalo
Tish!

When you say tish, you point to the thing or person which (who) has been counted out.

One website gives the following variations:

Eenie meenie macaraca
Rare raa dominaca
Knikerbocka lollypoppa
Om pom push

Eenie, Meenie, Cicilinee
Oh- Oh- Ah- Baleenie
Ochy, Crochy, Liberace
I love you
Eena Meena

In Anne MacCaffery's book The Crystal Singer, the main character Killashandra uses the following rhyme to choose one from a number of canyons:

Eena meena pitsa teena
Avoo bumbareena
Ova goasha bumbarosha
Nineteen hundred and one
http://pub143.ezboard.com/fwhirligigtvfrm3.showMessage?topicID=120.topic
26 posted on 02/11/2003 7:36:00 PM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
She should have just said what my brother says at the movies: OKAY EVERYBODY, PICK YOUR SEATS.
27 posted on 02/11/2003 7:38:39 PM PST by seams2me ("if they pass the reading test, it means they learned to read" GWB 1/8/03)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
>>The nursery rhyme, of which there are almost as many versions as there are nurseries,

Eena, meena, mona, mi,
Bassalona, bona, stri,
Hare, ware, frown, whack,
Halico balico, we, wi, wo, wack,

is not strictly a nonsense verse, because it was invented and used for "counting out," and the arbitrary words simply take the place of the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc.<<
http://edwardlear.tripod.com/essays/wells_1.html
28 posted on 02/11/2003 7:42:44 PM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Orangedog
...I try to pretend he's reciting "Green Eggs and Ham"...

This was the only speech by him I've admired.

29 posted on 02/11/2003 7:43:34 PM PST by lorrainer (Iraq, I roll...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
>>12 children wish to play a game of tag. To decide who is to be the 'chaser' they stand around in a circle and use this counting-out rhyme:

Eena, meena, macker, racker
Rare, ro, domino
Juliacker, alaapacker
Rum, tum, tush.

pointing to each person in turn as each word is said.

The person pointed at on the last word (tush) is out, and the rhyme starts again
on the next person in order, until only one is left, and that is the chaser.<<
http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/puzzles/comps/comp17.htm
30 posted on 02/11/2003 7:44:51 PM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
>>The foregrounding of prosodic features and repetition is very prominent in nursery rhymes, such as:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the King's horses and all the King's men

Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again

and:

Rain, rain, go away

Come again another day.

and of course in dipping or counting out rhymes, the pleasure of which frequently lies solely in rhythm. These rhymes are believed to have derived from old Celtic numbers, which are still used for counting sheep, fish, stitches in knitting etc. in some parts of England:

Eena, meena, mina, moe

or:

Hickory Dickory Dock<<
http://www.uia.ac.be/apil/apil101/deroder.pdf
31 posted on 02/11/2003 7:47:50 PM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
The best part is they don’t even have to win the suit to make big bucks. If it costs $50K in legal fees to fight it, Southwest will be happy to settle for $40k and avoid a trial. Not bad for a couple days work.
32 posted on 02/11/2003 7:49:52 PM PST by Klein-Bottle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LaraCroft
I think that Southwest Airlines is known for its humorous methods of defusing tense situations. Such as when you have a couple of dumbasses who fiddle and phart around instead of taking their seats. You can't just out and out call them dumbasses (which is what I'd do and why you don't want me working with the public), but I think that this little rhyme as stated is non offensive. I think that the judge should be brought up on charges, as should the bimbos who couldn't quite figure out how to sit and when in an aircraft readying for departure.
33 posted on 02/11/2003 7:51:40 PM PST by giznort (Trust and Verify)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
How old are they?
When dealing with inaccurate records, word-of-mouth accounts and years and centuries gone by it is impossible to be precise about anything. Deciphering the chronological history of nursery rhymes has proved a very difficult task for scholars and they have been lead along different paths. Nevertheless, a basic history has been established. There is reason to believe some of the rhymes are of great antiquity. Henry Bett concluded that some nursery rhymes and tales "…have spread over the world with the migrations of races and the forgotten commerce of many thousands of years" (12). He bases this statement on the fact that the rhymes are found in thousands of variations all over the world, and because of their allusions to ancient customs and ideas. An example of this is the counting out rhyme “Eena, meena, mina, mo”, whose purpose, even today is to designate which of a group of children shall be singled out as “It”. Strikingly similar versions of this rhyme have been collected in diverse regions8. A popular belief in England was that such counting out rhymes were remnants of formulas used by the Druids for choosing human sacrifices (Opie 12, Baring Gould 12). It is not known how this idea arose, but the words could possibly be a corruption of ancient Celtic numerals:
Welsh (pronounced)
un een
dau daay
tri tree
pedwar paidwar
pump pimp
The connection is not immediately apparent, but when we look at it in relation to an early version of the rhyme that goes “Eetern, feetern, peeny, pump” it becomes a bit clearer. However, in oral tradition there exists another similar counting system called the Anglo-Cymric Score. It was often used by shepherds for counting sheep, fishermen for estimating their catch, and knitting women for their stiches :
Yarmouth ina mina tethera methera pin
Northumberland een tean tether mether pimp
Westmorland yan tyan tether methera pimp
http://www.isholf.is/bernes/BAritgerd.doc
34 posted on 02/11/2003 7:52:02 PM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CobaltBlue
http://www.geocities.com/aericanstory/moe.html

"... the government eventually passed a law banning zookeepers from feeding working class people to their animals directly after World War II."

gotta read this... ;)
35 posted on 02/11/2003 7:57:43 PM PST by just mimi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
Sick, sick sick. Sick and scary! Why? Because, as the Communists learned during the worker's paradise years of the past century, after a while you no longer need official censorship. Self-censorship works just fine, thank you! How many teachers in this country would ever bring up such word as "niggardly" to their class? We can list a few other words that have been self-censored from the language. Expect the same to happen with this nursery rhyme. A big bad country is being terrorized by intellectual and cultural pygmies (oops, sorry about that word!), we are doomed, and it ain't no joke!
36 posted on 02/11/2003 8:00:09 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Someone left the cake out in the rain I dont think that I can take it coz it took so long to bake it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MikeWUSAF
This is why we need tort reform. Lawyers who bring this silly, stupid kind of suit should have to pay a fine.
37 posted on 02/11/2003 8:00:14 PM PST by Lunatic Fringe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lunatic Fringe
This is rediculous. It was just a humerous way to tell these women to sit down so they can split. Southwest has deep pockets and these vermin know it.
38 posted on 02/11/2003 8:17:48 PM PST by lone star annie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: PackerBoy
The version I heard as a child was "catch a monkey..."

Obviously that's a reference to the French...there just wasn't space in the line to include "cheese eating surrender."

39 posted on 02/11/2003 8:18:59 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Lunatic Fringe
Sadly, tort reform is never going to be instituted by lawyers - instead, there is another way that such lawsuits could be brought to a quick halt.

Juries have to find for the plaintiffs (yes, the jury agrees that these women were offended), and award them each one dollar in damages. If every nuisance lawsuit that is brought to court ended in a judgement of a buck lawyers would stop filing real quickly.

"Oh yes, we agree that you were burned when you put a cup of hot coffee in your lap and drove away, here's $1.69 in damages, buy another cup. Might we suggest iced coffee this time?"

40 posted on 02/11/2003 8:26:03 PM PST by par4
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-47 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

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