My mother loved to play a word game with me when I was about six. First she would ask me the meaning of the word, "synonym." Once we had established I knew two words with the same meaning, she would ask, "And what is a homonym?"
"Sounds the same, different meaning."
"Right. But is it spelled the same?"
Now, at age 6, and actually at age 60, my spelling is problematic, but I would say, as part of the ritual: "It may be spelled the same or differently, the important thing is they have different meanings. A homophone sounds the same but is spelled differently and so is a special type of homonym."
That would begin the game, which consisted of my coming up with examples of words which sounded the same but have different meanings.
I don't know that we ever did "guerilla" vs "gorilla."
Guerilla was a word I can only remember hearing in the 1960's and this game was before that time.
Perhaps the executives at ESPN would have benefited from that game had their mother's played that with them.
Apparently they fired a sportscaster named Doug Adler for uttering the following sentence, while calling a tennis match in Australia:
“You see Venus move in and put the guerilla effect on. Charging.”
That was taken, in some quarters, by some people, as a racial slur. The man just called Venus Williams a gorilla.
And in Australia! Australia, where never a racist word has been uttered, where brown skinned refugees are turned away to alternative islands.
Personally, I found it deeply offensive and amusing to hear white men refer to Michelle Obama as a gorilla. She is an athletic, tall and muscular Black woman, who beyond her physical attributes, could probably demolish the pot bellied, pencil legged men who called her that--demolish them on a basketball court, baseball diamond or even on a wrestling mat.
Of course, this record came out in the midst of the civil rights movement in 1970, and it was a lovely expression of the ying and yang of violations of civil rights. If the guy in jail has actually harmed you, you don't see his civil rights as having been violated.
Well, so much for gorillas and guerillas.
The fact is, political correctness can be stupid.
The facts in this case are a little more murky because the comment was made on air and nobody could see the spelling.
My mother would have had words for ESPN.
"Sounds the same, different meaning."
"Right. But is it spelled the same?"
Now, at age 6, and actually at age 60, my spelling is problematic, but I would say, as part of the ritual: "It may be spelled the same or differently, the important thing is they have different meanings. A homophone sounds the same but is spelled differently and so is a special type of homonym."
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| Magnificent gorilla |
That would begin the game, which consisted of my coming up with examples of words which sounded the same but have different meanings.
I don't know that we ever did "guerilla" vs "gorilla."
Guerilla was a word I can only remember hearing in the 1960's and this game was before that time.
 |
| Real Guerilla |
Perhaps the executives at ESPN would have benefited from that game had their mother's played that with them.
Apparently they fired a sportscaster named Doug Adler for uttering the following sentence, while calling a tennis match in Australia:
“You see Venus move in and put the guerilla effect on. Charging.”
That was taken, in some quarters, by some people, as a racial slur. The man just called Venus Williams a gorilla.
And in Australia! Australia, where never a racist word has been uttered, where brown skinned refugees are turned away to alternative islands.
 |
| Gorilla not |
Personally, I found it deeply offensive and amusing to hear white men refer to Michelle Obama as a gorilla. She is an athletic, tall and muscular Black woman, who beyond her physical attributes, could probably demolish the pot bellied, pencil legged men who called her that--demolish them on a basketball court, baseball diamond or even on a wrestling mat.
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| Eat Your Heart Out |
The guys who described her that way were invariably wimpy White men whose idea of exercise was getting up and walking across the room for their cigarettes.
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| Guerilla maybe, not Gorilla |
Beyond that use of gorilla, I'm not sure why that is such an insult. To my mind gorillas are gorgeous, magnificent beasts.
The do beat their chests, but usually to avoid conflict not begin it.
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| Flip Wilson |
My favorite depiction of a gorilla is Flip Wilson's great riff on the near sighted Reverand Leroy, the pastor of the Church of What's Happening Now, who mistakes a caged gorilla in a zoo for a man who is having his civil rights violated.
"Why look how low they've brought you, now," says the appalled Reverand Leroy. "They've got you eating out of a trough!"
And the Reverand promises the gorilla he will go right back to the congregation and mobilize a protest.
Of course, the Reverand gets too close and the gorilla snatches the Reverand through the bars of his cage (broke both shoulder blades getting him in) and proceeds to reign blows upon the Reverand's head with a seventy pound fist of hair covered knuckle before throwing the Reverand back out of the cage.
The Reverand pulls himself together and says, "You don't act like an upstanding man. You act more like a gorilla!" and promises to go back to the congregation to see if they can't get the gorilla the electric chair.
Of course, this record came out in the midst of the civil rights movement in 1970, and it was a lovely expression of the ying and yang of violations of civil rights. If the guy in jail has actually harmed you, you don't see his civil rights as having been violated.
Well, so much for gorillas and guerillas.
The fact is, political correctness can be stupid.
The facts in this case are a little more murky because the comment was made on air and nobody could see the spelling.
My mother would have had words for ESPN.
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