Morphological Confetti

Comedic actor, Stepin Fetchit, was born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry on May 30, 1902 (maybe as early as 1892). There is little know about Mr. Perry’s early life, but he was born near Key West, Florida to immigrant parents. Personally, this surprised me; the man who would personify the southern jive-talkin’ “coon” was the son of a Jamaican father and Bahamian mother. Until I looked up his info, I had him growing up with Ma Rainey (see: redhotjazz.com/rainey) in Alabama or Mississippi somewhere. Mr. Perry was better known for his stereotypical, foot shuffling, slow talkin’ – yassa bossin’ character that became synonymous with uneducated blacks in the Southern United States. It appalled and offended many African Americans, while entertaining much of white America. In fact, it entertained white America so much that Mr. Perry became the first actor in history to become a millionaire. Interestingly, despite all the criticism and accusations for setting black folks back ...

Have you ever heard the word “hunky-dory” (Superlatively good) used in a sentence and wondered where it came from? I have always wondered. I first heard a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy say it when someone asked how his day was going; he stated that everything was “hunky-dory!” So, from that point I thought it was just something that corny older white men said to describe their day. *giggle* Well, that was until I read about a man named Thomas Dilward (aka Japanese Tommy). Mr. Dilward was one of the first African American Minstrel performers performing on stage before the Civil War. He performed with a troupe called, the Christy's Minstrels . Thomas Dilward excited and thrilled white audiences with song, dance, and violin (note: I'm going to refrain from expressing my disdain for minstrelity just to keep this a short post). Also, I imagine that audiences were intrigued by size. Anyway, it turns out that the word is attributed to Thomas Dilward; researchers say that Dilward int...