Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1918-09-21
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER

If you like that fippant expression, please
give yourself the credit Of using it, not
me-"
If Mr. Ellis did not make use Of the term
"darky editor" then we are delighted to
make the correction, and we are delighted
because it s low down vulgar verbage such
as we abhor most and we are further de-
lighted to meet one white man of Mr.. Ellis
prominence, who disdains to speak thusly of
a human being. No, we do like that flip
pant expression and to go step further
we do not like any man that does like it,
but the expression is common to the average
white man, who delights to amuse his
friends by referring to a colorde man in lam
guage like the objectional, fippant express
sion. It was not long since that we heard
prominent white minister of the gospel in
the pulpit illustrate his point by telling
story of an cold darkey" He probably at
knew that would please his hearers to leave
the impression with them that even the
darky, more beast than human, had an in
tuition from which lesson might be drawn.
The man who told us of the alleged Ellis
language may perhaps have done so in order
to get Ellis in bad with us, and we verify
believe now he did, but we believed what he
repeated because he knew it's common to
the white man of the United States.
Almost every day you will see something
about colored person in one of the daily
papers of the city and in a two or three
inch article the person will be referred to
by the writer as ''the negro'' not less than
a dozen times, despite the fact the caption
of the article labels the performer in bold
black type. The writer seems to be afraid
the reader will forget the fact that he or
she is writing about Negro and so instead
of using the pronoun he or she negro takes
the place. No other class of human beings
in this country is similarly treated by the
daily (white) press and the writer's thereof
should be ashamed of their everlasting de-
sire to pull down instead of build up a GER
tain class Of citizens. There is never a prem
ium placed on either the goodness or the
educational accomplishments of the colored
man in this country. His goodness is ridiculed
and his alleged educational ability is scoffed
at. If one of the reporters Of the daily
papers had reasons to quote the most learned
colored person in the United States he or
she would put plantation jargon in his or
her mouth and such would be done despite
the fact that the writer had not more than
completed high school course. This would.
be done because the cOlored man and jar
gon are synOnomOus to the average white
person and that simple minded high school
squirt gun is but pandering to the public
pulse in quoting colored person in jargon
and in making Of his colored subject cross
between man and a monkey if not in so
many wdrds then by inuendo. Just last week
white man was speaking to colored audi
ence in Seattle and dwelt at length Of him
having had a ''black many for nurse, and
glance at his swarthy complexion con-
vinced us that he was telling no lie, but he
said nothing in that speech that he would
have said to white audience. The colored
man Of the United States thinks and acts
just like the white folks. OF the twelve
million colored folk in this country six mil
lions are mixed bloods (white and black)
and still another million so white that they