Urban Word(s) of the Day - 2/18/09

The Murder of Emmett Till –
A fourteen-year-old African American boy from Chicago, Illinois who was murdered in Money, Mississippi, a small town in the state's Delta region. The murder of Emmett Till was noted as one of the leading events that motivated the nascent American Civil Rights Movement. The main suspects were acquitted, but later admitted to committing the crime. Till's mother insisted on a public funeral service, with an open casket to show the world the brutality of the killing. Till had been beaten and his eye had been gouged out, before he was shot through the head and thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a 75-pound cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. His body was in the river for three days before it was discovered and retrieved by two fishermen. Till was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. The murder case was officially reopened in May 2004, and as a part of the investigation, the body was exhumed so an autopsy could be performed. The body was reburied by the family in the same location later that week.


The “Mammy” archetype –
The Mammy archetype is the portrayal within a narrative framework or other imagery of a domestic servant of African descent, generally good-natured, often overweight, and loud. The word "mammy" is a variant of "mother," formerly common in North America but now rarely used and now widely considered an ethnic slur. A "wet-mammy" or "wet-nurse" was a term used for a female domestic servant that acted as a nanny and was also assigned the duty to breast feed the child in lieu of the child's mother. A number of variations and usage of the mammy character became prominent in pop culture during the pre-civil rights period. One of the most notable examples is Aunt Jemima, a mascot for Quaker Oats's Aunt Jemima brand pancakes, pancake flour and mixes, and syrup. Mammy characters were a staple of blackface minstrelsy, giving rise to many sentimental show tunes dedicated to or mentioning mammies. Various “mammy” characters appeared in TV and radio shows during 50s and 60s.