Reply #29: "Guinea Picnic" was a term my Grandmother used to refer to something [View All]

[KittyWampus]

that was an absolute mess. She used it fairly often when I was growing up and I NEVER thought twice about it. The term "Guinea Picnic" was just her words for a mess.

Nana grew up in Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th century... little education, all white, Germanic neighborhood, poor and a bigot of the Archie Bunker type. She wasn't malicious and wouldn;t wish harm on anybody.

She took care of home while Mom and Dad both worked as teachers. I went to school with a lot of minority students and had many black friends and still do. Once I invited a black friend to eat over and Nana didn't want her to... my Dad was furious and said Oh YES SHE CAN!

My Dad's the kind of guy who joined the ONE fraternity at college that allowed black people (this was back in the 1950's).

Now about six months ago... I was looking at something or other that was an absolute hideous mess and said to myself "that looks like a Guinea Picnic". "Guinea Picnic" is a term my Grandmother used fairly often but I'd never thought about what it meant and had never used it myself EVER. It wasn't until the above mentioned incident that I ever REALIZED it was an anti-Italian slur.

It took 25+ years for the realization that the term "Guinea Picnic" was a racial epithet.

I gotta tell you, I was madly in love with an Italian-American guy for eight years and loved his parents too... both from around Palermo.

Am I a bigot for using the term "Guinea Picnic", a term unconsciously picked up from my youth?