Several days ago, the management of the Lafayette Theatre resorted to antebellum phraseology in advertising a watermelon-eating contest. This act offended many negro patrons who interpreted this ad as a gesture of disrespect and an admitted lack of appreciation for negro patronage. Perhaps those hundred or more negro citizens who protested to The Reflector are correct in their contentions. Perhaps the management of the Lafayette Theatre does not appreciate negro business, nevertheless, as a group, we took it as an insult and resented it.

Regardless of the intentions of the management, we think it timely to define the term used as accepted by negroes. In the first place, it is as remote as cotton's being one of the chief industries of the South, or serfdom in England. Then, the word "darkey" is a misnomer. It is equivolent to the word "Wop" as applied to the Italian, "Mick" as applied to the Irish, or "Cracker" as applied to the white race, and we resent it used as a representative term describing our race. Call us negroes or colored, but "darkies" and "pickanninies" are misnomers that are quite out of place in a time like this.

Having shown this angle, let us turn to another. A noted philosopher said "one may be regarded as that which he represents himself to be". Great was his wisdom. If we are poets, priests, ourselves as such. Maybe the management of the theatre did hurl an insult at our pride by the advertisement inserted in the paper last week, maybe it does not care for negro patronage, but after considering all that is true in the case, we wonder, just how eight little boys, who, with hands tied behind them, would consent to be made a laughing stock of, could be classified.