In a message dated 9/14/2006 1:59:55 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

With  regard to David Fears response to my query about Twain not referring
to

white people by race--well, let me just say thanks for making my  point.
The
litany of ethnic slurs you offered as examples could  hardly be thought of
as
simply descriptive; much like the term "nigger,"  they serve to subordinate
an individual in ways that are far from  subtle.

This reminds--there are many places in Innocents  Abroad, or letters written
to the Alta California which became the  book, that point out racial markers
for other than blacks. I'd haul up a few for  airing and de-mothballing, but
I'm past that stage in my WIP, so dasn't dip my  cranium back into those
halcyon
days of 1867 with Sam and the good Quakers today.