In many ways, McGuire's article, "Note on Jook," is a fascinating study on how jooks were treated in white popular discourses. His primary focus was on how the term entered the vocabulary of college students at the University of Florida. Though he did offer various intriguing references to contemporary local newspaper articles, he also stated that "practically all of this paper, with the exception of newspaper clippings, is gleaned from information in the possession of students" (28). His characterizations of jook joints definitely fall, at times, into conventions we see in other sources from the time; the light humor in his general tone only makes this all the more likely. But nonetheless his approach is varied and subtle enough to warrant more than a cursory dismissal as racist and classist. You can browse "Note on Jook," as it appeared in the Florida Review in 1938. You can also read up on a bit of the history of this intriguing source, either here or from within the article. If you are interested in what I am talking about when I mention conventional treatments of jook joints, and this doesn't sound that familiar to you, you should follow up with more on the discursive history of jooks. (That may, after all, be where you came from...) |