Chris Barton: Quest on dark side finds ten little ones

When Paul Holmes made his "cheeky darkie" remarks about United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, my initial disbelief gave way to unease. A forgotten word, hardly heard before, yet immediately offensive, carried a resonance from an earlier time. But from where exactly? Maybe the web could help.

"Cheeky darkie" - with the quote marks - delivers 1430 results from google.com, almost all about the Holmes gaffe, ensuring it will be used as example of what not to say for ever more.

At bartleby.com, "darkie (offensive variant of darky)" appears in The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, which gives some handy advice on racist language that Holmes might well heed.

"Avoid using language that consensus says is racist. Some terms - nigger, chink, darkie, and the like - have clearly been unacceptable for many years. But there is also rapid change in the acceptability of terms once thought proper even by the members of the particular racial group itself, and insensitive use can cost you a reader or listener or bring harsh social judgments down on you." Indeed. But I was looking for a source - where might Holmes or anyone else in NZ have come across such a term? In books or songs?

A search combining darkie and literature turned up the 1917 Children's Friend Annual - a little before Holmes' time, but possibly the sort of publication a curious child might find lying around Kiwi homes.

Such annuals are known for their gender stereotypes - Scouts rescuing a damsel in distress - and this one briefly features Punch and Judy puppets Darkie Jim and Darkie Bill.

That brought to mind Helen Bannerman's The Story of Little Black Sambo, first published in England in 1899 and which I vaguely recall from early primary school.

But which version? Numerous knock-off publishers stole Bannerman's plot line, but drew more offensive characters and changed the setting (originally India) to a more recognisable backdrop - such as slave plantations - for American readers.

It's about "a little black boy" who wears "beautiful" clothes and has "a beautiful Green Umbrella, and a lovely little Pair of Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings" who goes for a walk in the jungle, gives his clothes one by one to several tigers who wish to eat him, and gets them back when the tigers have a terrible fight and end up as melted butter.

Deeply symbolic I'm sure, but for enlightenment about the picaninny racial caricature of black children go to the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. While there, check out the Golliwog caricature and be reminded of the now hilariously insensitive The Three Golliwogs by Enid Blyton: "Once the three bold golliwogs, Golly, Woggie, and Nigger, decided to go for a walk to Bumble-Bee Common ... arm-in-arm, singing merrily their favourite song - which, as you may guess, was Ten Little Nigger Boys." Yikes.

Could Holmes have got his attitude from this? Or perhaps he read of Mormon president Joseph Smith's quote in Look magazine in 1963 discussing why "the Negro" could not achieve priesthood in the Mormon Church: "I wouldn't want you to believe that we bear any animosity toward the Negro. 'Darkies' are wonderful people, and they have their place in our Church."

Hmmm. Or it's possible Holmes may have been influenced by the Black and White Minstrel Show, which played relentlessly on TV here in the 60s. But I can't remember whether we had the sanitised or the original lyrics of My Old Kentucky Home by Stephen Foster.

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,

'Tis summer, the darkies are gay ...


And did they sing the classic Carry me back to old Virginny by James Bland?

... There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,

There's where the old darkey's heart am longed to go.

There's where I laboured so hard for old massa ...

But I think the most troubling aspect of Holmes' remarks was the "cheeky" addition. As far as I can establish, that's entirely his invention - but not unsimilar to the "uppity nigger" view some United States journalists had of the great Muhammad Ali.

* Where on earth did Paul Homes get "cheeky darkie" from? Email, ideally with a web address, to Chris Barton.