User:PlayCuz

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PlayCuz, my pen name, is a variant of the term play cousin. That phrase is a common colloquialism among African Americans, used primarily in speech to refer to a person who is closer to the speaker than a friend, but is not actually a relative by blood or marriage. A play cousin is a person who is so trusted by another as to enjoy the kind of relatively unconditional access to one's home, personal information, and financial resources that is reserved in most families for siblings.

Alternatively a play cousin is someone who, regardless of current degree of contact or trust, has known one for many years -- as a childhood playmate or neighbor -- and who at some point in one's life was very close to oneself or to other immediate family members. If the relationship started in childhood, it is likely that play cousins introduced or described one another to others as a cousin, with or without the qualifier "play". In adulthood, that description, rather than being dropped or converted to, e.g., "old friend" is preserved by use of the term "play cousin". Therefore, the term is used not only between children, but between adults and even seniors, and may be used of a person of the same or opposite gender, and of someone much older or younger than oneself.

I chose PlayCuz as my Wikipedia handle because the term is unique to African American parlance, the relationship is an important one (especially among those of the same gender) in African American culture. It conveys a sense of the kind of inter-personal engagement I seek and value, and look forward to bringing to my edits on Wikipedia. PlayCuz 06:09, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I am an African American gay male, who is interested in Black and in gay culture, history and scholarship, among many other topics.