Perhaps
you’ve heard that Melania Trump used the phrase “your word is your bond” in her speech the
other night. This along with other parts were lifted from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech. There’s “information” on the Internet that this phrase has its origins in black America or, more specifically, hip-hop culture. Patently untrue!
Similar biblical references aside, this phrase appeared in
Chaucer around 1400, Cervantes quoted it in Don Quixote about 200 years
later, and its first cited reference in America was in 1777 in The Diary of
Col. Landon Carter of Sabine Hall. Gregory Titelman, America’s Popular
Proverbs and Sayings at p. 223 (2nd ed. 2000). I
don’t know what hip-hop culture is or when it began nor do I care to know; but
I dare say Chaucer, Cervantes, and Landon Carter pre-date hip-hop culture. And
lest we forget, Scout tells us that “Mr. Radley’s word was his bond . . . .”
Titelman (quoting Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird).
It
is not a phrase that came out of hip-hop culture specifically or black America
in general. (It would be okay if it did, but it didn't.) And contrary to what the Slovenian-born Madame Trump claims it has
no Eastern European context.
We’ve
had two women whose husbands coveted the presidency assure us that their
husbands keep their word. The history of the last eight years is replete with
examples of Mrs. Obama’s husband’s failures in this regard. And Madame Trump
has forgotten that she is Madame Trump number three. Of course, I might be too hard on the political class. Madame Trump's husband, like Mrs. Obama’s husband, might intend to keep his word only until he
decides not to. But then it really wouldn't be much of a bond!
Will Bill claim that Hillary too was raised to believe that "your word is your bond"?
No comments:
Post a Comment