Oh, you mean that screeching that occurs over the perfectly good music?
No, can't say I've heard it.

My uncle had a black German Shepard named Spook when I was a kid. I didn't know he was a racist.... and he didn't know he'd have black grandchildren.

Spook? How is that racist?

In the same way that eggplant, canadian, or mul(ignan) is.

Ok. Eggplant I've heard of. Mul(ignan)?

Oh and Canadian?


[eta] I've never heard black people called spooks before.

My husband named our black kitty 'Turbo'. He replaced my beloved Bo, who I had for 13 years. Turbo sort of lived up to his name when he was young...he always dashed around at full speed. Now the name is not quite as apt.

mulignan ( pronounced mool in yahn) is italian for eggplant. sometimes degos call black guys moolie for short.

Ohhh. Ok thanks.

Huh. We sometimes refer to our cats as "eggplants", that being the general shape they take in some forms of repose. Certainly, no racial overtones were implied.

As a kid, my really nice friendly neighbors down the street had a black lab named Toby. It wasn't until Roots came out that I learned Toby was supposedly a very common slave name. I still wonder about them.

Pie, regional... the historical animosity between the Italians and Blacks in the Philadelphia area, has created some unique jargon that other people wouldn't get.

That's not fair. Suddenly some TV show, movie or newspaper headline will attach a significance to or even stigmatizes a word or phrase that was perfectly innocent to most if not all of the world. Look at the word gay.

"Spooks" is called "MI-5" in the US.

It's also a radar, the SPQ-9B (pronounced "Spook-9B").

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