A reader writes:
As a Southern Baptist growing up in the 1970s, all of us young ‘uns read a book called The Cross and the Switchblade. It was about a young minister who witnessed to gang members in New York City. The name of the main gang in that book? The Mau-Maus. That is still what I think of when I hear the term, and I would be willing to bet that SoBap Huckabee has more than a passing acquaintance with the book. So it’s not just about blackness, it’s about rampaging big-city gangs…. (The lead Mau-Mau was Nicky Cruz, a Puerto Rican.)
Another remembers this lyric by a black character in the musical Hair:
I’m a Colored spade A nigger A black nigger A jungle bunny Jigaboo coon Pickaninny mau mau Uncle Tom Aunt Jemima Little Black Sambo Cotton pickin’ Swamp guinea Junk man Shoeshine boy.
The Dish 