Pickaninny

Pickaninny (also picaninny or piccaninny) is a term – generally considered derogatory – that in English usage refers to black children, or a caricature of them which is widely considered racist. It is a pidgin word form, which may be derived from the Portuguese "pequenino" (an affectionate diminutive of "pequeno", "little [one] ").

Usage

In the Southern United States, "pickaninny" was long used to refer to the children of African slaves or (later) of African American citizens. While this use of the term was popularized in reference to the character of Topsy in the 1852 book "Uncle Tom's Cabin", the term was used as early as 1831 in an anti-slavery tract "The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, related by herself" published in Edinburgh, Scotland. The term was still in some popular use in the US as late as the 1960s; while it has largely fallen out of use and is now considered offensive, the term is still part of the American lexicon.

Although the term was used generally, it came to refer to the associated stereotype among white Americans of African American children. "Picaninnies had bulging eyes, unkempt hair, red lips and wide mouths into which they stuffed huge slices of watermelon." [Jim Crow, The Museum of Racist Memorabilia. Ferris State University "The Picaninny Caricature". [http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/picaninny/] ] The Picaninny was distinguished by its young age, male or female. "They were also half dressed and animalistic. The picaninny was seen as one of a multitude of black children – disregarded and disposable." ["Facts, Figures and History: The Evolution of Lynching" by Meredith Malburne (http://www.georgetown.edu/users/mmm43/ffh.htm)] That the pickaninny was often naked or half-naked has been interpreted by some to imply that black parents neglected the well-being of their children.

Examples

In the middle section of Margaret Mitchell's best-selling 1936 epic "Gone with the Wind," one of the novel's sympathetic characters, Melanie Wilkes, objects to her husband's intended move to New York because it will mean that their children will be educated alongside Yankee children and pickaninnies.

In the 1940 film Philadelphia Story, one of the characters, photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey), uses the term while inspecting the house of Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn).

Flannery O'Connor's 1955 short story collection "A Good Man is Hard to Find" contains the following: "Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!" she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. "Wouldn't that make a picture, now?" she asked and they all turned and looked at the little Negro out of the back window. He waved."

The term was controversially used ("wide-eyed grinning picaninnies") by the British Conservative politician Enoch Powell in his "Rivers of Blood" speech on 20 April 1968.

In 1987, Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona defended the use of the word, claiming "As I was a boy growing up, blacks themselves referred to their children as pickaninnies. That was never intended to be an ethnic slur to anybody." [cite book | first=Ronald J. | last=Watkins | year=1990 | title=High Crimes and Misdemeanors : The Term and Trials of Former Governor Evan Mecham | pages=p. 72 | publisher=William Morrow & Co. | id=ISBN 978-0-688-09051-7]

The word was used by Australian country music legend Slim Dusty in the lyrics of his 1987 "nursery-rhyme-style" song "Boomerang": "Every picaninny knows, that's where the roly-poly goes". The lyrics may also be an allusion to the Piccaninny crater in Western Australia.

In the 1987 movie "Burglar", retired police detective and blackmailer Ray Kirschman (played by G.W. Bailey) confronts ex-con Bernice Rhodenbarr (Whoopi Goldberg) in her bookstore. When Bernice walks away and ignores him, Ray says "now listen here picaninny!". Bernice, visibly angered by this, responds in stereotypical African-American slave talk and mocks Ray, and when Ray threatens to get violent, Bernice, having served time in prison, boasts of being the boxing champ there. A fight ensues, and Ray gets a broken nose.

Prior to becoming the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson apologized for any offence caused by an article in which he sarcastically suggested that "the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies". [ [http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23471866-details/Boris+says+sorry+over+'blacks+have+lower+IQs'+article+in+the+Spectator/article.do Evening Standard: Boris says sorry over 'blacks have lower IQs' article in the Spectator] from 02 April 2008] [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/01/10/do1002.xml Telegraph: Original article by Boris Johnson] from 10 January 2002]

Related terms

Cognates of the term appear in other languages and cultures, presumably also derived from the Portuguese word, and it is not controversial or derogatory in these contexts. It is in widespread use in Melanesian pidgin and creole languages such as Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea, as the word for "child" (or just young, as in the phrase "pikinini pik", meaning "piglet"). In certain dialects of Caribbean English, the words "pickney" and "pickney-negger" are used to refer to children. Also in Sierra Leone Krio the term "pikín" refers to "child" or "children". In Nigerian and Cameroonian Pidgin English, the term used is "picken". In Chilapalapa, a pidgin language used in Southern Africa, the term used is "pikanin". In Surinamese Sranan Tongo the term "pikin" may refer to "children" as well as to "small" or "little".

ee also

*Blackface
*Golliwog
*pygmy
*Uncle Tom's Cabin

References

External links

* [http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/picaninny/ An article on the Pickaninny caricature]