Constant Star

25 an aphetic form of raccoon (aphetic refers to the loss of an initial, usually unstressed, vowel or syllable),” and that “coon songs enjoyed a great vogue in vaudeville and music-hall on both sides of the Atlantic.

These were performed exclusively by white men in blackface [that is, black face paint with exaggerated, raccoon-like eyes] who portrayed the African-American as an ignorant, sentimental buffoon to audiences who accepted this stereotype uncritically. The genre was typified by such songs as ‘I’s Jes’ a Alambamy Coon.’ Al Jolson represented the last survival of this genre.”

The German-based Historical Racial Stereotypes in America website notes: “The coon caricature is one of the most insulting of all anti-black caricatures. The name itself, an abbreviation of raccoon, is dehumanizing. The coon was portrayed as lazy, easily frightened and chronically idle. He acted childish, but he was an adult. Although he often worked as a servant, he was not happy with his status. He was, simply, too lazy or too cynical to attempt to change his lowly position. By the 1900s, coons were increasingly identified with young, urban blacks who disrespected whites.”

Mulatto: quadroon, octoroon, (macaroon, calhoun), spade – According to Zolo Agona Azania, who prefers Afrikan to African, “Mulatto is a person having one Caucasian and one Afrikan parent.

Quadroon is a person having one-quarter (¼) Afrikan blood and the rest Caucasian. Octoroon is one who has one eighth (1/8) Afrikan blood, the offspring of a Caucasian person and a quadroon. Sambo is a word used by the Caucasian to define Afrikan men as humble pets, apes, beasts, stupid, dumb creatures and rapists white women. Coon is a slang derogatory term short for ‘raccoon’ used offensively against Afrikan people describing them as watermelon eating thieves. The watermelon is native to Afrika.

Colored is a person having mixed Afrikan, Indian, and Caucasian blood, or a dark-skinned people of Afrikan descent. Nigger is Latin for blacken, darken, dirty, denigrate, disgraceful, belittle or defame.

Negro is Spanish for . . . dark, dirty, or someone that is no good. Black is English for dirty, shameful, ugly, evil, sadness and everything negative.

“The aim of the Caucasian was not only to enslave Afrikan people physically, but, also to enslave them psychologically. The Afrikan was forced by violence to denounce their heritage. Afrikan babies were brainwashed from the cradle to believe they were members of the so-called colored, nigger, or negro race.”

Spade: word origins: “The racist usage of spade dates from the 1920s and is American in origin.

It [seems to derive] from the card suit, as in black as the ace of spades.”

Please note that “macaroon and Calhoun” are on this list only because they rhyme; nobody called African-Americans coconut cookies, although some of them undoubtedly sport the last name Calhoun, a legacy from slave days.

Frederick Douglass – This is from Frederickdouglass.org. “Frederick Douglass was born in a slave cabin, in February, 1818, near the town of Easton, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Separated from his mother when only a few weeks old he was raised by his grandparents. At about the age of six, his grandmother took grandmother took him to the plantation of his master and left him there. Not being told by her that she was going to leave him, Douglass never recovered from the betrayal of the abandonment.

When he was about eight he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master.

It was shortly after his arrival that his new mistress taught him the alphabet.

When her husband forbade her to continue her instruction, because it was unlawful to teach slaves how to read, Frederick took it upon himself to learn. He made the neighborhood boys his teachers, by giving away his food in exchange for lessons in reading and writing. At about the age of twelve or thirteen Douglass purchased a copy of The Columbian Orator, a popular schoolbook of the time, which helped him to gain an understanding and appreciation of the power of the spoken and the written word, as two of the most effective means by which to bring about permanent,