Oops, forgot the 
I’m no bigot - I hate everyone equally 
If you have ever cooked over an open fire, you will know exactly why “the pot calling the kettle black” is an apt expression.
Not only is it an issue of similarity, but also that crap that builds up on the outside of pots is seriously gross - not just a nice black colour, but sticky, greasy, impossible-to-get-off sooty crap.
What is “bad” about it is not the colour, hence racial overtones. What is bad about it is the fact that it is a sooty nuisance. That is why it is “bad”.
Back in Texas, sometime in the 1940s, I learned the dreaded N-word version. I also learned to call Brazil Nuts the dreaded N-word toes. I am ashamed to admit that I learned the former from my father and the latter at my mother’s knee. Until today, I didn’t know there was a “tiger” version of that little bit of garbage. For that matter, I didn’t know there was ANY other version than the one I learned as a child. I also hate to say that if I heard someone say “eenie, meenie, minee, moe” my brain would automatically complete the thing using the dreaded N-word. So, if I were a black passenger, I might well be mighty pissed about the casual use of the phrase, even if it had a different ending.
For the record, I strive mightily to not use the dreaded N-word, ever. I inflict enough random pain just by moving around and talking; I don’t need to inflict any intentionally.
Grew up in suburban San Francisco in the 1970s and never once heard anything but the tiger version. I had no idea there even were alternative versions of that rhyme until I opened this thread.
This lawsuit is ridiculous. Does it make anybody else think back to that stupidity in Washington DC a while back? I mean, even that incident made more sense. Not in a way that made any sense, but you know what I mean.
Another thought. I just saw a commercial for “Joe Millionaire” on Fox. One of the two women left said on the commercial “Enie Menie Miniey Moe, somebody has got to GO!”.
Should Fox be sued for that comment? (Fox should be sued for putting this kind of ‘reality TV’ crap on but that has nothing to do with the OP)
Slee
But you have to keep in mind that MANY people are totally unaware of the N-word version and it’s simply wrong to sue or get angry with them about it. I live in an area with a large Black population and interact with people of all races every day. I often hear “eenie meenie miney mo” (I’ve heard blacks use it!) and I’ve never heard any complaints.
Ok, I grew up in Alabama in the 1970’s and only heard the “Tiger” version until I saw Pulp Fiction. But then, I did go to a gifted school in Birmingham with kids from all sorts of different backgrounds, and thus was rather sheltered from seeing true bigotry until we moved to another state in 1984. What a rude awakening that was. 
And we also used “One potato, two potato” a lot of times. Never heard the “my mother, your mother” thing until reading this thread - it’s quite chuckleworthy, though…
Try flying Southwest to Buffalo. I’ve heard two different announcements that seemed unique to the area.
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“We’ve safely arrived at Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Please set your watches back twenty years.”
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(after the turbulence that plagues the region) “We’ll be piloting what’s left of our plane to the gate …”
Boy, does this take me back. Yes, I remember the “bubblegum” and “Cinderella” jump rope rhymes. Except at my school, it was “How many kisses will he give her?” Oops, I guess that falls under the heading of “sexualization of children”.
When I was 9 or so, there was a song making the rounds:
*I woke up Sunday morning and looked upon the wall
The Bedbugs and the Skeeters were playing a game of ball
The score was six to nothing; the Skeeters were ahead
The Bedbugs hit a homerun and they knocked me out of bed
Singing! Eenie meenie and a
Miney mo
Catch a tiger-tiger by the toe and if he
Hollers, hollers, hollers, let him go
Eenie meenie and a
Miney mo*
My friend and I and her little brother were coming home from orchestra one day, and we were particularly hyper, singing this not just for each others’ benefit, but also hanging out the car windows and singing it to other people stopped at a red light. This went on until her mom asked if we wanted to stop at Greystone (local mental hospital). We shushed.
And FTR, my friends were Chinese-American. Make of that what you will.
I remember that song! Except the version I learned had “Catch a whipper-whopper by the toe.” There was another verse, too:
My father was a burglar,
My mother was a spy,
And I’m the little ratty who called the FBI…
Can’t remember the rest of it, but I’m sure it’s quite offensive to members of the criminal classes.
This will serve as formal notice to all posters in this thread that I am representing both the Pep Boys, and descendants of the Three Stooges, and have filed a damage action seeking redress for the emotional shock, personal injury, loss of consortium, and other damages suffered by my clients owing to the pejorative and repetitive use of the name Moe and other spelling variants thereof, in an unflattering manner.
Pat McGroin, Esq.
I too, only learned the tiger version, and until today did not know of any others.
Now, when I was about 8 or so, there was a rather popular rhyme that involved something like this:
My mom was Chinese! (Pull ends of eyes up)
My dad was Japanese! (Pull ends of eyes down)
Look what it did to me! (Pull one eye up and the other down, creating in a diagonal thing)
Being that my school was excessively WASPy, no one really cared (except my mom. I was forbidden from that rhyme very quickly. Kudos to her).
A similar rhyme that I had heard as a child:
Chinese! (pull ends of eyes up)
Japanese! (pull ends of eyes down)
Americanese! (put your hands on your knees)
Growing up in various parts of the UK, I heard three versions of the rhyme; N-word, Tiger and (most commonly) monkey.
CJ: Offhand, I don’t remember when you moved to the US, but could you have learned the monkey version in the UK?
I seem to remember hearing both the “n-word” and the monkey version when I was growing up in Chicago; I honestly can’t remember which I’d heard more often, and it may be that the monkey version was supposed to be a substitute for the other one.
I’d also like to add my two cents that some people need to have someone remove the “I’m being discriminated against” stick out of their ass and beat them about the head with it. It’s getting to the point where I’m afraid to talk to anyone for fear of being accused of being racist, sexist, etc.
I learned:
Chinese (pull eyelids up)
Japanese (pull eyelids down)
Dirty knees (tap knees)
Hercules (flex muscles in arms)
Look at these! (pull out chest area of blouse)
Of course, this could only be done by prepubescent girls.
I must say, I think this was more because of the rhyme than some sort of anti-Asian agenda. It and a couple of other jokes were pretty much the only racist jokes we had on our plates, and they were more dialect jokes than “All _____s are _____” ones.
I moved around the US as a kid.
Heard the n-word version. Heard the monkey version. Heard the tiger version (which seems to be most common in the US). Seems that sometimes more than one version could be circulating in the same place at the same time.
growing up near detroit I always thought that tigers reffered to the baseball team. I did not know there was any variations, until just now.
I was 2 1/2 when we moved to the States, and I’m the oldest and most British of us three kids, so there’s a chance Mum could have taught me the monkey version. I’ll have to ask her which way she thinks it goes next time I talk to her.
I also remember the Cinderella version, both as a way of picking who was going to be it and as a jump rope rhyme. I also realized I just missed a prime opportunity – I was at a Mensa Games Night last night, and it would have been a prime chance to ask people what variation they used. On the other hand, there are other ways. I think I might make use of one and report back.
CJ