I read this in a Raymond Chandler book a few years ago - words to the effect of “he rubbed the little nigger’s [sic] head for luck”.
They’re having a very similar discussion over here at Metafilter. My favorite post so far:
In all seriousness, they’re just as confused over there as to whether it’s a bald head, or a black head, that brings luck when rubbed. I’m willing to give GWB the benefit of the doubt and assume he grew up with the Bald superstition, not the Black one. (I’m a Southerner too, and like Zoe I’ve never heard of the black-head-luck connection.)
Word to the wise: do NOT, while at work, do a Google search for “rub black man’s head.”
Hiliarious link, masonite. I think my favourite post over there is:
Ha!
I would hope that they’d be more confused over there, but that might just be pride f*ckin’ with me, to quote a bald black man.
Nice of fold_and_mulilate to wade through all the porn to find a few references in the wild about rubbing a black man’s head for luck:
Because it feels nice. I don’t get it either, although I share the compulsion.
My friend reports that once while he was in a movie theatre, a woman he didn’t know reached across several seats to rub his freshly-shorn head.
It is very inviting.
And now that I have a ‘negro’ husband whose head I can (and do) rub whenever I want, where’s all that luck? Hmm?