Date:  Mon, 17 Nov 1997 17:17:07 +0000
From:  Lynne Murphy <M_Lynne_Murphy[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]BAYLOR.EDU>
Subject: subcategories of people

hi all--

i'm working on a comparison of racial labeling and sexual orientation
labeling, in which i'm looking at some hypotheses from the cognitive
social psychology tradition on social categorization to see if they can
be applied to (and thus supported by) social labeling. anyhow...

the thing i'm looking at now is the hypothesis that an ingroup will
perceive more differences within itself than the outgroup will perceive
in them--and therefore have more words for different 'subtypes' of the
group. i have lots of examples from the sexual orientation arena. for
example, straight people (the outgroup in this case) have very few words
for, say, gay men, and what they do have reflect generalizations, not
subtyping (e.g., fag, fairy, homo). but gay men have tons of names for
different types of gay men (here's what's on my handout so far):

Ingroup labels for subcategories of gay men (see also Stanley 1971, Zeve
1993):

queen, etc.

(fat), Ivy (Indian)

bottom

ok, so now i want to make the same point about ingroups/outgroups when
it comes to race, instead of sexual orientation, considering African
American ingroup terms for other African Americans. all i can think of
right now (and find while skimming DARE and _juba to jive_) are color
terms (high yella/yeller/yellow/brown, nappyblack, etc.). other than
'uncle tom', which is not exclusively an ingroup term, i can't think of
any sort of cultural/political divisions, sexual divisions (words for
African American women or men, but not both), occupational divisions, or
other "types" (career-driven, sweet old granny, whatever). can any of
you help me out? the type of word i'm trying to find would only refer
to a subgroup of african americans, so it wouldn't count, say, if i had
an AAVE term for a police officer if that word is used for both white
and black police officers.

i hope i've sufficiently explained what i'm looking for. any words or
references would be most gratefully received. also, if you want to give
me counter evidence to my hypothesis, i'd like to hear that too.

best,
lynne
--

M. Lynne Murphy
Assistant Professor in Linguistics
Department of English
Baylor University
PO Box 97404
Waco, TX 76798