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Don't bow at me (November 10, 1907)
(midwest.social)
i love you all my evereyters
hope youre all dojnf well. much love to thr transcribers and everubody else.
A shame Condo went for that term to finish the gag. Possibly because South Africa was in the news a lot around that time. It would have made more sense to refer to bows as in European royalty, or bows in ballet or English folk dancing.
@Rolando @ShareMySims I mean, I don't think it was understood as a slur at the time. It's not like anyone in the US knew the correct endonym "Khoekhoe" and was choosing to use a different term "Hottentot" instead in order to express contempt.
But characterizing bowing as an excessively servile action characteristic of a "primitive" people is in and of itself problematic.
Yeah, before looking it up I thought it was probably 90% likely to be a racist slur and 10% likely to be an obscure jab at royalty or aristocracy. You're probably right about the reasoning though, but the joke could have so frustratingly easily been punching up instead of down.
This time he didn't even punch, he's only touching the guy with his fingertips. I think gravity did the biggest job by hitting him in the face.
Not that this excuses anything else being discussed.