Here's the context of my quotation. NY Magazine writer Choire Sicha wrote "For obvious reasons (Caucasity), most of these reporters are on the joyless, scold-y White Twitter...."
In the comments, Lucien said: "'Caucasity'? Is that like 'whiteness'?" And Clyde said: "'Caucasity'?! What bilge!"
To answer Lucien's question, "Caucasity" clearly means "whiteness." Why use an odd word when there's a more common word? I'd say it's just for humorous effect. It actually takes race less seriously. "Caucasian" used to have a somewhat elevated quality, when race was palmed off as a biological science. To seize upon the big word and to further enlarge it with an ending is a standard humor move. It's actually quite old fashioned.
But I just want to question the choice of ending — "-sity," rather than "-city." I've googled Caucasity" and got thrown into the Urban Dictionary entry "Caucacity" — with the "c," not the "s":
Caucacity is the audacity of white people. Meaning, the willingness to take bold risks only white people feel safe doing.
She had the caucacity to name her child Iveigh.
Ah! It's a portmanteau word. You're supposed to perceive "audacity." It is a bit of a problematic portmanteau, though, because "city" is such a prominent word, and then it sounds like a place — Cauca City — and that's a distraction. With the "s," there's no hint of a portmanteau. The "s" is there because it's the next letter in "Caucasian."
Googling some more, I get to a Wiktionary entry, and it points me to this tweet by a man who wants credit — and authority to dictate the spelling:
ADDED: I do like the portmanteau, because it gives the word extra meaning that "whiteness" lacks. It occurred to me that somebody must have already made the joke "The Caucasity of Hope." Googling, I found this from 2018 (so The Kid Mero should double check the timing and make way for the — speaking of portmanteau words — "Blacktress"):RANDOM BUT AS THE CREATOR OF THE TERM #CAUCACITY CAN YA SPELL THE SHIT RIGHT?! ITS “CAUCACITY” NOT “CAUCASITY”.
— THE KID MERO 🇩🇴 (@THEKIDMERO) November 28, 2017
AND: The Kid Mero was first with "Caucacity," in 2014:Working on a new book called "The CAUCACITY of Hope." there will be several volumes.
— Naomi Ekperigin (@Blacktress) August 19, 2017
Clicking on the hashtag, I see he's been using the word a lot over the years, going back to 2014, but Ekperigin seems to be the first one to write "The Caucacity of Hope."NOTABLES SUCH AS #CAUCACITY #KNOWLEDGEDARTS #PREGGAETON ALL BIRTHED AND NURTURED IN MY OWN CRANIAL UR WELCOME
— THE KID MERO 🇩🇴 (@THEKIDMERO) December 23, 2014
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36 comments:
"Meaning, the willingness to take bold risks only white people feel safe doing."
That is why the skyscrapers of Mies Van Der Rohe populate the skyline of every major city in the world, not oriental pagodas, Egyptian pyramids, or middle eastern ziggurats. Sorry but not sorry world that you're butthurt, but you had plenty of opportunities to 'get there first' and didn't.
You know my Caucasus City is all white
She’s outta sight
Sorry Kid Mero, but while you may or may not have coined caucacity (I bet you didn't), you don't get to decide how it's spelled. That happens by popular assent.
So, it's Okay, to make racist derogatory slurs against white folk? right (same as always)
BUT!, it's Still EVIL, to mention Anything that is not pleasant and positive about colored folk, right?
It's a wypipo thing to give your kid an odd name?
I doubt that "negrocity" has any chance of catching on as an analogously defined term. Too likely to be read as "Detroit."
As a person of oriental descent, I have been accused of having "Asiacity" in the past.
Well it appears to rhyme with pomposity, another trait of those people who are preoccupied by and create new terms for their racial obsessions. I find expanding the racial vocabulary antithetical to acceptance of each other. It appears to agitate in the other direction. This no different than random people who discuss the traits of black people as if all people of similar skin color think and act in unison.
We're a nation of 350 million individuals, each with dozens of loose affiliations and fluid participation in several other affinity groups. Humans are complex. Quit simplifying emotions and attitudes by artificially grouping us by your criteria. Let us form groups on our own. I guarantee the vast majority will group based on common interests, not skin color. Of all the people I know very few could be described as being the "same color" as others. There's kind of an infinite possibility for shading and tanning and different skin textures and characteristics.
Look beyond surface appearances, progs!
We built Caucacity on rooock and roll…
Asians who are White adjacent would bring us full circle to "Cauc-Asians".
Had to laugh at that "caucasity of hope" tweet! It certainly does highlight how audacious it is for first term Senator with no prior legislative experience to run for president and think he could win. So ridiculous only an arrogant white guy would try it, right?
Caucacity of Hope
Not negrocity, negritude. Which is not a portmanteau word but sounds like one. I don't like your negritude young lady!
When is the "whiteness" critic crowd going to discover northeast Asia? These are the lands of Japanese and Chinese people, some of whom are literally "white" on any human skin color chart. Some of whom are descended from those who led the Rape of Nanking and human experimentation. Some of whom are descended from those who bombed Pearl Harbor and drew the USA into WW2. Some of whom are rounding up Uyghurs into concentration camps and sterilizing them today.
Oh, the Caucacity! [Irony alert]
Now, consider who dominates the manufacturing of cars, cell phones, TVs, drones, and your cheap Ebay/Amazon/Target/Walmart stuff, etc. etc. etc. Where is the white privilege today?
Militaries, and now apparently leftists, are famous for fighting the last war.
"when race was palmed off as a biological science"
What is race now? I believe that modern historical genetics pretty much resurrects the concept, though its practitioners are careful with their words. Speech is freer in China, and certain areas of scientific and historical research will probably make more progress there.
This dbag worked for Gawker and Vox. He's a social climbing twat who knows he can sign his paychecks as a white guy writing crap that denigrates white people. Trendy, shallow, and inauthentic to the core.
I'd like to promote the word Caucausity, another portmanteau, combinging Caucasian and causality, because white people are supposed to be causing all the problems. As a bonus, it reminds me of Mau Mauing the Flack Catchers, which used to be the method of ignoring a protest mob, but which has been forgotten in the mists of time.
Watching the birth of a word. It's not exactly pretty.
Speaking of Caucacity , the wonders of the internet provided me with info that my former elementary school in San Francisco is now 3% white.
Who is the minority now?
"when race was palmed off as a biological science"
We can dig up bodies and skeletons thousands of years old and determine what race the person was.
Why use an odd word when there's a more common word?
To garner attention?
Mikee references Mau-mauing the Flak Catchers but mislabels it. It was a method of intimidating politician's flunkies by the assembly of a large, loud, crowd, not a way of ignoring one.
I appreciate Readering's mention of Moynihan in the other thread (comment on Neocon-assity).
I intentionally passed on the spelling issue. Funny that a definition mentions bold risks only white people can take, and then gives the naming of a child as an example.
Because no African Americans ever had the negracity to take a bold risk in naming children. Is that irony, self-parody, or unintentional self-parody?
That's a very racist post and discussion. People who think like that are scum of this earth.
Dismissive but not quite contemptuous. Well, it's a start....What we're aiming for is the wedding of bad cause because Caucasian. Maybe KaKauKasian.
"For obvious reasons (Caucasity), most of these reporters are on the joyless, scold-y White Twitter...."
For obvious reasons, Caucasians being joyful are flaunting their white privilege.
Causticity coexists as a black hole (i.e. destructive) and white hole (i.e. constructive).
"when race was palmed off as a biological science"
Race was a biological quality, quantity, but less so with progressive color and diversity.
"when race was palmed off as a biological science"
Remember when in the old days they had the audacity to construct color blocs: people of color, Jew privilege, Asian-American, etc.
"She had the caucacity to name her child Iveigh."
Interesting example given the plethora of black names.
Great word. Whenever possible use in a sentence with callipygous.
Michael said...
Great word. Whenever possible use in a sentence with callipygous.
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Those with negritude tend to be steatopygous.
Thank you, Ann, for our morphological linguistics lesson of the day. But we really need a better English word to replace "portmanteau." It should become briefer, tossing the case.
When you're just making shit up it doesn't matter how you spell it.
Narr: when only the Flack Catchers can be Mau Maued, the effect of the Mau Mauing is avoided by the intended target of the attack.
Caca City
mikee, OK.
But I'm still right about Flak/Flack.
FLAK was the lovely German abbreviation for FlugAbwehrKanone.
Flack is a much older English word, related to flicking and flapping, mostly.
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