Academic hi(gh)jinx
 

Where areyou from that you saw both a wild pig and a gigantic trannie in the same area?

Academic hi(gh)jinx
 

That could easily happen here.

TV Guide
 

Frankly, I don't think there is one.

We use "Islander" or the specific island (bahamian, trini, granadan, etc.) for the Islanders and the descendants of Islanders.

Here's a hint, though. If you find out your SO has white British relatives in those islands, he will generally not appreciate being called white or British.

Academic hi(gh)jinx
 

I understand there are feral pigs in and about Memorial park. So yes. Definitely.

-TL

TV Guide
 

Yeah, he'll probably yell at me again. Oh well.

Academic hi(gh)jinx
 

Concur. I've never seen a correlation. As for Islanders, well, people who live in waters teeming with sharks don't learn to swim like people living next to calm, friendly, non-human-eating lakes do.

Academic hi(gh)jinx
 

A place with the nation's largest w/in city park and a decent freak quotient (though I still don't know what the trannie was doing in the 'burbs); a place with more strip clubs per capita than any other city in America; a place with good beer and shitty salaries. In other words, the same place I am now. If that's outable, well, fuck it.

And what, no props for using the old Spreewell "ain't even lyin'" line?

TV Guide
 

Ahhh, that makes sense. Islander here in Bean-town usually refers to inhabitants of Nantucket or the Vineyard.

So to rephrase my earlier statement: none of my friends from Senegal, Kenya, Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti, Aruba, Jamaica, Brooklyn, or Springfield, Mass. know how to swim. The guy from Bermuda does, kinda.

TV Guide
 

The OM hates being called cafe au lait and prefers the wildly inaccurate mochaccino.

TV Guide
 

How about the old fashioned "people of color".

For Brits everyone, I simply use "prig".

white guy can't jump/black guy can't swim
 

Is "people of color" still on the radar screen? I always hated that phrase, so I rather hope not. Sounds somehow like social-worker patronizing to me. Like being one of the "special" people who ride the short bus.

Thinking of this, I have a friend from south africa who says colored (or "coloured," I suppose) all the time, which is quite disconcerting. I think I find it much more disconcerting than if he were to refer to himself as a "nigger." He just laughs at the sour expressions on our faces and says "get the fuck over it."

Anyhow, if by "colored" one means to include "everyone but the white guys," why not just say "everyone but the white guys"? It seems the distinguishing factor is whiteness, not some miscellaneous non-white ethnicity. While the observation that pacific islanders, asians, west indians, africans, etc. are not correctly referred to as "african-americans," why should there be one all-encompasing term identifying their shared "other-non-whiteness"?

And, while I'm on the subject (sort of), what is this "black people don't swim" thing? I've never heard of this in my life, so I am doubly surprised to find so many people backing it annecdotally. Is this up there with "black people don't eat mayonaise," which seems a bizzarre and random thing to assert but apparently is annecdotally borne out? Where the hell do these kind of strange, seemingly fairly neutral, stereotypes come from?

TV Guide
 

Double Tall, Grande or Venti?

Academic hi(gh)jinx
 

Big park, check.
Plenty freaks, check.
Tittie bars galore, check....

This sounds terribly familiar.

-TL

Cut the Cheese
 

Why did you take a hiatus from posting? Welcome back from lurkland!

TV Guide
 

This is silly (not you Anne, just this debate). My brother in law + nieces (black African although nieces are peculiarly considered white because of white mother) swim well because they are rich and swim at the freaking Nairobi club whenever they get the urge and they vacation in Mombassa and the Seychelles. I very much doubt that their housekeeper, gardener, nannies or driver knows how to swim because they are poor. Nothing to do with skin color. Everything to do with access to safe water (requires money).