Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The "Nigger Problem"...


...is definitely NOT what you might think!

No, it's actually a fascinating insight into the persistence of memes. You see, the Mau-Mau has been in two separate day-care spots now. And at one of them, somehow, she's picked up an old, old rhyme. I'm sure you know it:

Eenie meanie minie mo
Catch a nigger by the toe
If he squeals let him go
Eenie meanie minie mo

The first time Natalie and I heard that from the Mau-Mau, we both nearly choked. First, of course, neither of us uses the word 'nigger'. But second... it's really not part of the Australian vocabulary to any real extent. We've got plenty of racist terms of our own: "coon", "boong", "abo", "road-patch"... dozens more. 'Nigger' is a very rare part of the vernacular here, and it's never had the same pejorative qualities, the same explosive power that it does in the US. You can go a damned long time without seeing or hearing it here.

So... where the blazes did the Mau-Mau get it?

Of course, that wasn't our first thought. The first reaction was: how can we get her to change that without making a big fuss? She's three years old. She doesn't have any ability to understand the sort of thing she's saying, so innocently. But she's a cranky, rebellious three - and if we make a big to-do out of the word, she will save it up and start using it when she's angry, and wants to insult someone... and that's exactly what we don't want.

We've been gently urging her towards the "tiger" version of the rhyme -- simply interrupting her when she says "nigger", and telling her she got it wrong. Of course, she's been trying to tell us that we've got it wrong, and that her friend Xxxxxx who taught it to her (and who happens to be about six years old) definitely said "nigger". So we're telling her that Xxxxxx and the others have got it wrong too... and we'll keep on with that tactic until the Mau-Mau is old enough to understand concepts like racism.

But in the meantime... isn't it amazing that a thing like this rhyme lives on? It's not a rhyme adults teach their kids. It's a thing that goes from kid to kid to kid, sidling between generations a year at a time in schoolyards and kindergartens and playgroups. I've heard both my sons bring home from school stupid little rhymes that I recall from my childhood, and it continues to amaze and surprise me. The implication is that there's this... culture of childhood, this collection of verbal and somatic artifacts that travels between children, and pretty much only children, and it can persist more or less unchanged for decades. Maybe even longer.

Nat and I will eventually convince the Mau-Mau that there's no good in using the word "nigger" in her little rhyme. But by that time, more kids will have heard it, and memorised it, and passed it on to still more... and I suppose there will probably be small children trying to "catch a nigger by the toe" long after I'm dead.

Which is a weird thought.

Now... if you've noticed that posts around here are a bit infrequent these days, just take it that I'm flat out. Because it's true. I'm stealing time right now... should be cleaning, laundering, working with the boys, reading to the Mau-Mau, prepping dinner, practicing sword technique... Oh, yes, that last one: I've been upgraded to a live sword now. No more iaito work for me. I'm practising with a full length, full-weight, viciously sharp battlefield-style sword. Scary, but good fun as long as I stay well away from the kids and the dog. Zombies, beware!

Where was I? Oh yes. Sword practice. Writing -- half a dozen projects on the boil. And other stuff. Exercise. Paperwork. Endless. No time for much of anything. So I post here when I can.

In other news? Admire this cute image:




Note the hyper-trendy footwear. I found some cheap-ass dinosaur slippers at the local crapola store. Bought 'em, brought 'em home, told the Mau-Mau they were her new Godzilla Slippers. Instant response = one superdelighted child. She's been stomping around, roaring and destroying Tokyo ever since. Best four or five bucks I've spent in months...


15 comments:

  1. difficult one on the rhyme but maybe you could persuade her to make her own up using the rhytheme but not the words, that way she feels important and proud and the rhyme bites the dust.

    Good news on the move to shiny sharp blades, give you and excuse to buy that pig sticker Barnes found.

    Anyway back to work you go.

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  2. Amazing how ancient, violent and bigoted some of those rhymes are. Even the ones which make it into stuff like Wiggles DVDs - Jack falling down and breaking his crown, everyone dropping dead from the plague in ring-a-ring-a-rosie.

    I guess the only logical way out of the N-problem (such that there is any logical way out of problems involving headstrong 3yr olds) is to point out that there's no such thing as a nigger. (And hope she doesn't go looking for evidence otherwise.) A tiger, yes, that makes much more sense.

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  3. Yeah, it's not one you come across here till ya go to the footy in one particular town.

    Swear words to come, typically dropped in the last places you wanna hear 'em.

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  4. You'd have more of hard time convincing her not to say it here probably considering a lot of the black community call each other "nigger". It confuses me as an adult as to why it's so offensive to hear it from other races but if it's said by one of their own it's taken as a compliment. Such as "He's my nigga."

    Lame.

    I've had some black friends try to explain it to me but I all I really got out of it was that I just shouldn't say it.

    Very interesting that the word is not really in circulation in Aussie land.

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  5. I nearly choked myself when I read that. I have in all honesty never, ever heard that version of "eenie meanie miney mo."

    I think the way you and Nat are handling it is great. Unbelievable the way a verse like that holds on. Holy crap.

    I also think it is absolutely positively delightful that Dirk Flinthart has the girliest of daughters. I cannot wait to meet her. I am going to teach her things that will drive you absolutely up the wall.

    Here's a fun one:

    Miss Susie had a steamboat
    The steamboat had a bell
    Miss Susie went to heaven
    The steamboat went to
    hell-o operator,
    please give me number nine,
    and if you disconnect me,
    I'll kick you from behind
    the 'fridgerator, there lay
    a piece of glass,
    Miss Susie sat upon it and
    broke her litttle
    ask me no questions,
    tell me no lies
    Miss Susie said the day before
    she dyed her hair in purple
    she dyed her hair in pink
    she dyed her hair in polka dots
    and washed it down the
    sink me in the ocean
    sink me in the sea
    sink me in the toilet
    and that's the end of me
    Flush!


    I have no idea why but that one provided endless amusement to my friends and me when we were kids.

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  6. The Mau Mau's version has been around here (in Aus) for a very long time. I picked it up as a kid and almost blurted it out to my grandson the other day before I caught my tongue.

    Moko - you woundn't be referrring to my little town about 2 hours west of Brisvegas would you?

    AusGaz

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  7. Thats one cute kid.
    I don't know if you've read Farie Tale, as fiest is probably a little too white bread for your taste, but there is a fascinating theory in it about disney destroying oral trad storytelling like the Mau Mau just demonstrated.

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  8. When I was a kid we said it

    catch a tiger by the toe
    if he hollers let him go

    Someone must've gotten to our meme. Which is ironic in a way because the casual use of the "N-Word" was common in the lily-white area where I grew up.

    Amazing what one remembers ... the ritual of calling in everyone to put their toes together for the reciting of the rhyme that would determine who would be "It" or set the teams. The yelling of "King Sayer" to establish rights to choose and recite the rhyme. The serious matter of making sure that one touched each shoe on each word/beat.

    There were several that I still recall:

    Akha bakha soda crackha
    Akha bakha Boo
    In goes Uncle Sam
    And out goew Y O U.

    Or, the ever popular:

    My mother punched your mother
    Right in the nose
    What color was the blood?
    (at this point the kid whose toe was touched at "blood" would choose the color - most likely something obscure like Pickle Relish to increase complexity of who would be chosen - and the rhyme would continue)
    P I C K L E R E L I S H
    Spells pickle relish
    And you are not the one to be out.

    Then there was the quick and sweet:

    Doggy, doggy diamond
    Step right out.

    Thanks for stirring those good memories.

    R.

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  9. You could substitute 'piggie' for 'nigger', as we do. I believe they sqeal when caught.

    Love the MauMau's jacket - we got one of them for my Little Bloke's kindy girlfriends. Very cool, tres chic!

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  10. You're gonna need that sword in about ten years time. Or a shot gun. Shotguns are good for scaring off nasty spotty teenaged boyz too.

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  11. Rhino - those are pretty cool, man.

    And Birmo... yeah. I'm gearing up for it.

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  12. Funny you mention that JB - my best mate (who has two daughters) is now the proud owner of my old open hammer double barrel shotgun and my .303 (amongst other sundry rifles) - I've joked that in years to come he'll be on the front porch in the rocking chair, .303 in the lap, waiting for daughters to return home.

    As I have four sons, I'll be teaching them how to avoid (Or at least appease) blokes like my mate!

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  13. Well, you could always teach her some of the fraternity songs I learned, but that would only cause more problems.

    That word was rarely used where I grew up, in New Jersey. It was racially diverse enough, we *tended* not to see color, so when someone was being an ass, that's exactly what we called them.

    And the one time I did see a white guy use that word to a black guy (in my high school), the white guy got beaten with a cafeteria tray, so most of us learned that it was not a word to be used lightly.

    Very cute daughter. Hopefully you've brainwashed her into cheering for the appropriate teams?

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  14. My kids were taught the "tiger" (or "tigger") version of the rhyme at school in the late 80s. From memory, "tigger" was a character from Winnie the Pooh books? It seemed to make logical sense to both my kids. I vaguely recall showing pictures of the "tigger" to the kids, to reinforce the non-racist version of the rhyme.

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  15. Hi Flint.I hear you about stealing time.

    I haven't heard that nursery rhythm in years!
    I'm surprised it surfaced and found the lips of babes in a time like now.I remember some years back talking of nursery rhythms and singing them out.We were quite shocked at the words we were singing-had no idea as youngsters what we might be saying, or singing for that matter.

    I remember someone telling me what the nursery rhythm London Bridges meant, and the song, Ring Around The Rosie A Pocket Full Of Posies meant.
    Sighs...

    By the way? Mau is styling. Course, she'll laugh one day looking back:)

    Dee.

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