Date:  Thu, 24 Mar 1994 09:07:01 -0600

From:  mftcf[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UXA.ECN.BGU.EDU

Subject: Re: for the record



> >bias this morning on the radio. Kokie Roberts was referring to some

> >federal legislator (whose name I didn't catch) when she said that he

> >"mumbled in a Mississippi drawl that nobody understands." I will bet

> >money that the person in question was a white Southerner, for she would

> >never have permitted herself such a derogatory remark if it had been

> >otherwise. In fact, the insult is all the greater because of the exaggeration

> >for even if someone of another ethnic group conceivably spoke a divergent

> >variety of English or an "accented" variety that impeded comprehension, such

> >a remark would be considered inappropriate. Yet in this case it is not

> >credible that the variety of English she is referring to is actually

> >unintelligible to her or anyone else, but she did not hesitate to use

> >exaggeration to make a negative insinuation based on linguistic habits.

> >

> >Mike Picone

> >University of Alabama

>

The insult is all the worse since Kokie is the daughter of Hale Boggs.

Am I not mistook that he was a rep. from Louisiana?



Tim Frazer