*eyeballs explode* It’s like they’re playing a game. Go for one, then go for the other, then go for one … These goddamned journalists are prodding at black males and women of all colors like we’re fucking toys to be poked for amusement value. It’s a game to them — we have a one in three chance of being raped. Black males have a higher chance of being shot in some cities than if they were serving in Iraq. And they make fucking JOKES ABOUT US BOTH, like it’s fucking comedy night, and sit back and enjoy the fray.
Janis, Yeah disgusting isn’t it? It’s also the sort of thing that could tare the Democratic party apart at let the rethugs win in November. I am sad, sickened but not really surprised by all this. But hay racisim is a thing of the past and feminism isn’t really needed any more right?
Now that google has explained it all to me, I now know what shuck and jive means. Is this otherwise in any sort of regular usage?
Context is everything evil fizz. I have used it to refer to myself when fast talking my way our of a tight situation but I’m as white as they come. When applied to a black person it brings up very ugly step ‘n’ fetchit stereotypes. I haven’t really heard it used in a long while but one look at the headline over at Pam’s House Blend and I knew exactly what was being implied.
Depends on whose usage, evil fizz. I know, I realize. I’ve just never heard it before and was wondering if it was more of a macaca moment.
Meh, like ‘gyp,’ another term that no one seems to know is an insult, it’s best left out of one’s lexicon entirely.
I predict a veritable national Tourette’s Syndrome of malapropisms, presumptive usages, bad taste metaphors and similes. Some will be head on insults (e.g. the recent “I don’t want a Cool Brother for President” shot from James Lileks, to whom I remain grateful because as long as he is alive, I am at worst only the second dorkiest man on the planet.) Then some will be more subtle or dramatically ironic like that white liberal couple on Good Times who wanted their daughter to move in with one of the young Evans men, I think Michael, who expressed their appreciation for African-Americans’ “juving”, rhymed with moving. They dripped with condescension and their real-life 2008 counterparts will be funnier and jaw-droppingly sadder than Cuomo (who at least knows shucking and jiving when his racist eye tells him it’s there.) The culture is racist; this fact is unprintable because while true, it is not “news.” Language is of course a core part of culture and much of our language is permeated with the history and current reality of racist structures. This is doubly true in politics not only because of the readiness of politicians to deal from the bottom of the deck, but because politics is about power and racism (and racism’s lexicographical legacy) is about power. So racist vocabulary is not only a chance to dogwhistle or to administer a subtle or nasty beat down, but a well-stocked, conveniently stored toolbox by which to do so. Accordingly, Zuzu, keep the coffee on and your keyboard ready, as you will have a target-rich environment for a very, very long time.
Vanessa, I neither use “gyp” nor “welsh” as a verb. Even if most folks don’t know where they come from, I do.
My favorite is the posters on Kos saying they don’t see it. Yeah, because “jive” has no connotations of blackness, does it? Idiots.
Thing is, too, this is one of those terms that I’ve really only seen black people using, often to criticize other black people. It’s just one of those terms white people should not use.
We used shuck and jive 40 years ago to mean an attempt to con someone, a pretense. Used to describe Obama it can only mean putting something like this in his mouth, “Yassuh, Captain suh! I sho’ am grateful that you all are ‘llowin’ me to run for President ‘n’ all,” followed by some tap dancing. In keeping with Cuomo’s theme of denigrating black people, I tried to find Mantan Moreland saying “Feets don’t fail me now!” but youtube failed me.
zuzu: except for perhaps June Cleaver in Airplane! This clip is prefaced by a commercial for Southwest Airlines: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1083240160&fr=
Okay, I’m a 40 year old white woman raised in the boondacks of upstate NY, now living in SW Ohio, and I know this is not a phrase to use in this way, if ever. WTF was Cuomo thinking? His dad was the best damn political orator of my lifetime. Mario brought the crowd to tears and to their feet at my sister’s commencement. How is this his son?
Jesus, what looking glass have we fallen through when Pat Fucking Buchanan is the one pointing out how racist and sexist Chris Matthews is acting?
Matthews: You sound like Alan Alda Pat. Where’s this new sensitivity towards women’s aspiration coming from? Well that just about says it all, doesn’t it? How ridiculous for a man to acknowledge and call out sexism when he sees it! Who cares about them bitchezz!
Oh, I heard “jive” plenty from white people in the ’70s, often combined with “turkey.” Probably popularized greatly by black sitcoms like The Jeffersons, which were watched by plenty of whites. But yes, this is one of those “context is everything” kind of things. If Cuomo had been talking about the Republican candidates specifically, all of whom are white, the comment probably would have passed unnoticed. And if, the minute the words were out of his mouth, he’d said something like, “Sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” it probably would have been shrugged off. But he had to say it and then do some Don Imus dance about it. I wonder if Mario did a massive headdesk as soon as he heard it. I hope so.
“Meh, like ‘gyp,’ another term that no one seems to know is an insult, it’s best left out of one’s lexicon entirely.” Probably because you don’t see it in print very often. Every time I’ve seen someone spell it, they’ve spelled it “jip” or “jipped.” Once the proper spelling is pointed out to them, the light bulb usually comes on pretty quick and they realize that it’s the equivalent of saying that someone got Jewed. Even assuming Cuomo was ignorant of the connotations of the phrase, how hard is it to say “I was unaware of the implications of that term, I did not intend to use the phrase in that manner, and I am deeply sorry for any distress or offense it caused. It won’t happen again.”? Is it so hard to just apologize instead of going for some lame defense that’s just going to piss everyone off even more?
i’m embarrassed for him. that is a white man’s brain fart if i ever heard one. it makes me red in the face and sweaty, because i am afraid that any old time something like that might pop out of the toxic basement of my white privilege. the best thing to do is to own up to it, apologize, make some kind of statement about how much we all have to learn etc. etc. the worst thing he could do right now is hem and haw and try to blow it off as unimportant. i can completely see how, if i was african american, this would just make me frosty. and trishB – that was the first thing i thought of when i heard about this. it made me realize how much i miss his dad.
“Gyp” makes sense as quasi-“innocent” (but don’t get me wrong, it should be deleted from our brains) because Gypsies aren’t so much a part of American culture…or at least under that particular term. Likewise, go to continental Europe and listen to the n-word fly from even the most intellectual of locals. It’s pretty frightening. But “shuck and jive”? That would be referring to something in the brutal history of people who ARE ALL AROUND YOU. Baffingly stupid. And it certainly is slashing through the idea that the Democratic Party would be the one where racial/gender harmony would reign. Don’t do it to yourselves, people.