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Is Palin's use of ‘shuck and jive’ racist

bedlin88

Thinker
Joined
Oct 15, 2012
Messages
137
Submitted for your consideration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/palin-accuses-president-of-shuck-and-jive-on-libya/2012/10/24/cd0616b4-1df6-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_blog.html

CNN commentator Roland Martin responded by issuing a tutorial on the racially loaded nature of those words:

“Shucking and jiving” have long been words used as a negative assessment of African Americans, along the lines of a “foot shufflin’ Negro.” In fact, I don’t recall ever hearing the phrase used in reference to anyone white.

According to a story in Newsday, “The 1994 book ‘Juba to Jive, a Dictionary of African-American Slang,’ says ‘shuck and jive’ dates back to the 1870s and was an ‘originally southern ‘Negro’ expression for clowning, lying, pretense.’”

Personally I'm not really sure if she knew it was considered racist when she used it.
 
The question would be: Is the phrase in her normal vocabulary? In common usage in Alaska? Perhaps something she's picked up from someone/somewhere else, possibly during the 2008 campaign?

I don't know, but I slightly suspect.
 
There is a chain of oyster bars in Dallas-Fort Worth called Shuck & Jive. I'm betting if this phrase is racist then it's as much news to those business owners as it is to me.
 
There is a chain of oyster bars in Dallas-Fort Worth called Shuck & Jive. I'm betting if this phrase is racist then it's as much news to those business owners as it is to me.

I had never heard it, and I've been around a few racists in my time. I'll bet she just didn't know. I'd say her intention was probably not racist.

Like Sambo's?

I've actually eaten as Sambo's.
 
There used to be, many years ago, (I don't know if it's still around.) a rib joint in central Florida in a semi-rural area. It was literally on the 'wrong side of the tracks', and less than a hundred yards away from them.

Housed in a ramshackle, re-purposed old cinder-block garage, it was wildly popular. People would drive a hour or more just to get there, and the parking lot would be full of high status cars (Caddies, Beemers, Mercedes, etc.) with people lined up at the little hole in the wall, getting handed their slabs of ribs or half-chickens wrapped in old newspaper, by the wizened old black man who owned the place.

The window of opportunity was small. He'd open when he felt ready to, sell until he ran out, and close down for the day. You had to get there early and be patient.

He called the place ****** ["N" word] King's Barbecue.

Around the early '70s he started bottling his barbecue sauce by the half gallon, and in a nod to more easily offended sensibilities the label only read "King's Barbecue Sauce".

But if you asked any of the locals where to find the place (not easy), and called it "King's", they wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about. The full name was enshrined in local history, and spoken with reverence.
 
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More manufactured outrage. It's commonly used, even on this very forum, and is not racist:

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=6602728#post6602728

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=8444808#post8444808

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=8160577#post8160577

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=8660694#post8660694

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=8206266#post8206266

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=6943210#post6943210

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=6365962#post6365962

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=7628210#post7628210

Seriously, it's a common term and simply means someone is being evasive. If you think it's racist it probably says more than you than the person using it.

And btw "jive" was originally black slang for marijuana dating at least to the early 1900s. If you were "jive talking" it meant you were making no sense as if you were high. It's since come to mean other things obviously, but I don't think it ever had racist connotations.
 
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Well, that bit is certainly true.
Did you see who was using the term in my examples? Are those our racist posters? And I could could post dozens more if you'd like.

I'm just flabbergasted that anyone thinks it's a racist term. It doesn't even make sense as one.
 

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