# Help, I have a new job in the ER and it is making me prejudiced **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506 "2012-12-29T19:30:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/141 "2012-12-30T19:16:24Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > And I’m just saying that if you handed me a transcript from Here Comes Honey BooBoo before the show aired I’d want to believe it was Hollywood’s misguided take on poor white Appalachia, but you can watch the show and those folk sure as shit talk like drunk hillbillies. It’s embarrassing, not reflective of Southern white culture at large, but bad grammar do happen, ya’ll. Stop being thick in front of me, Troppus. I already broke this down for you. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/142 "2012-12-30T19:17:55Z")
Yinz be weird an’at. 😉 > [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I don’t know why this amused me so much, but I can just see someone saying “No, no, we already have a transgendered person. But, say, do you know any Buddhists?” I don’t know any Buddhists. But I do know a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/143 "2012-12-30T19:18:55Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > I am going to fully admit that I haven’t read this entire thread\* and I’m going to acknowledge that I’m probably going to deeply regret this and could very well get yanked over the coals as a racist bitch but I will SWEAR on my EYES this is true. It was bizarre and stupid and crazy enough that the three of us in the room were flabbergasted. The med student wrote it down on his notepad he carried so he was able to quote it back later for all to enjoy. Believe or disbelieve as you see fit, it won’t matter either way to either of us: > > Guy came into our emergency department with a bag of frozen peas on his lap. His answer when asked what happened? > > I will also tell you that I’ve heard worse than that. I’ve heard stupidity far and wide from black people and white people and every people in between in my time working in trauma. Like I said, I haven’t read the entire thread but anyone who thinks shit like that isn’t said should spend a little time hanging around an emergency department in any county hospital in a large city and have your mind blown. > > \*Again, I haven’[SIZE=1]t read the entire thread so I don’t know what people are believing or disbelieving specifically. I’m [SIZE=1]just saying that [SIZE=1]peo[SIZE=1]ple of all kinds say some crazy stupid shit when they’re in pain. Cra[SIZE=1]zy stupid shit.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE] I believe everything except, “my dick be broke” ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/144 "2012-12-30T19:20:12Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I believe everything except, “my dick be broke” If you’re serious you have made my day because that is NOTHING compared to some of the stupid shit I’ve heard. Nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/145 "2012-12-30T19:23:55Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I believe everything except, “my dick be broke” You be trippin’, cause I believe dude said it. (Or like the Beasties, you be illin’) ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/146 "2012-12-30T19:25:35Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > You be trippin’, cause I believe dude said it. (Or like the Beasties, you be illin’) Look, I get that you guys are having fun throwing back your winka winka nudgie nudgie “Let me play with the fake ebonics toooooooooo!” game, but a little has gone a looooooong way don’t ya think or are we all done trying to have any kind of discussion that doesn’t look like a chatroom? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/147 "2012-12-30T19:27:32Z")
I can believe that he said “My dick broke”. But not “My dick be broke.” Unless his dick is in a constant and on-going state of malfunction, the use of “be” here makes absolutely no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/148 "2012-12-30T19:28:45Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > If you’re serious you have made my day because that is NOTHING compared to some of the stupid shit I’ve heard. Nothing. Sleeps, listen. I PROMISE you. I have hung out with some of the most ignorant, backward, illiterate sumsabitches you ever saw in your life. I mean, I would seriously have to translate for these dudes, if they are speaking to either non whites or blacks who haven’t been in the poorest, darkest, saddest corners of the hood. So I don’t doubt that you have heard some stupid shit, my friend. But even people who are devastatingly ignorant don’t say ‘my dick be hurtin’’ unless their dicks hurt more than this one time when he was hittin’ that ho hard. Do you understand what I mean? I mean, I’m not doubting the dude was dumb and said dumb shit. I’m doubting your memory, (or the memory of the person who wrote it down) when it comes to that particular usage. It just is NEVER done when black people speak. I believe you think you heard it that way, and I believe that what you DID hear was retarded as fuck. I would have believed the OP if he had come back and said, “Well, not that precisely, but trust me, backward as fuck.” But what tipped me off was that he never came back to clarify on that. He is sticking to his story that it was said just that way. In a thread with this sticky topic, he should have known better. ETA: Yes, monstro, ‘my dick broke’ sounds likely. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/149 "2012-12-30T19:29:19Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I can believe that he said “My dick broke”. > > But not “My dick be broke.” > > Unless his dick is in a constant and on-going state of malfunction, the use of “be” here makes absolutely no sense. Because yes, subculture dialects always make sense. Just like when the doctor asked the hillbilly white boy about his infected penis he said “lick deez here nuts” and of course he didn’t say the HERE part because gosh, unless his nuts aren’t with him all the time that just wouldn’t make any sense! ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/150 "2012-12-30T19:29:40Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > Look, I get that you guys are having fun throwing back your winka winka nudgie nudgie “Let me play with the fake ebonics toooooooooo!” game, but a little has gone a looooooong way don’t ya think or are we all done trying to have any kind of discussion that doesn’t look like a chatroom? You don’t understand. **Nzinga** considers her(?)self an expert on ebonics, and if the statement you cite doesn’t comply with the rules of ebonics’ grammar, then it’s absolutely impossible that it could have been said. Because every ebonics’ speaker is fully cognizant of and complies with all the grammatical rules of that language. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/151 "2012-12-30T19:30:23Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Essactly! “Be” is not used to refer to the present tense. It refers to a consistent occurrence. Think of it as the difference between “She is lying” and “She lies.” One means at this moment she is telling a lie, and the other means that she consistently lies. “She be lying” means she lies, and does NOT indicate that she is lying right now. If someone says to me “My thumb be hurtin,” that means he has a chronic thumb pain. There’s no way this exchange happened as the OP describes. My blackness is my cite. > > _Ha!_ > > Man, white people be total pussies. It bes that way sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/152 "2012-12-30T19:30:57Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > You be trippin’, cause I believe dude said it. (Or like the Beasties, you be illin’) Why do you believe it? Because it sounds like something a black person would say? ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/153 "2012-12-30T19:33:20Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > “You be trippin’” fits the rule laid out in the OP, yes? If you mean to say “You are one who consistently trips,” that is the correct incorrect usage. Not if you mean “You are trippin’ [right now].” People, we’ve gone over this. Folks, there’s bad grammar, and there’s sentence structure that simply does not occur. Look at Nzinga’s example. “Troppus, all wrong are you on the topic this is” just isn’t a sentence that would anyone would say unless they’re using Bing translate (not Google translate, which is very good). I’ve heard some grammatical abominations before, but this example is just not the way people muck up grammar. For those not fluent in Ebonics (I’m just going to use that word because I feel like it), it often seems like incorrect usage of “be” is just thrown around all willy nilly, but it really is used a certain way, and consistently so. “You be trippin” just means you’re an asshole who trips all the time. It does not mean to say “You _are_ trippin,” which is often shorted to, as Brynda pointed out, “You trippin.” I’m not explaining this shit again. > [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I believe everything except, “my dick be broke” Yup! ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/154 "2012-12-30T19:34:36Z")
Makes note: Every Black person in the USA uses exactly the same language every other Black person does. I once told a group of women of color I worked with that I had never met a Black person until I was twenty and from then on I was considered a liar. It was true but they couldn’t understand that there were parts of the country where there were still pockets of all white people. Wasn’t in their experience “vocabulary.” Anyway, all of this is comedic relief, right? ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/155 "2012-12-30T19:37:22Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Sleeps, listen. I PROMISE you. I have hung out with some of the most ignorant, backward, illiterate sumsabitches you ever saw in your life. I mean, I would seriously have to translate for these dudes, if they are speaking to either non whites or blacks who haven’t been in the poorest, darkest, saddest corners of the hood. So I don’t doubt that you have heard some stupid shit, my friend. > > But even people who are devastatingly ignorant don’t say ‘my dick be hurtin’’ unless their dicks hurt more than this one time when he was hittin’ that ho hard. > > Do you understand what I mean? I mean, I’m not doubting the dude was dumb and said dumb shit. I’m doubting your memory, (or the memory of the person who wrote it down) when it comes to that particular usage. It just is NEVER done when black people speak. > > I believe you think you heard it that way, and I believe that what you DID hear was retarded as fuck. I would have believed the OP if he had come back and said, “Well, not that precisely, but trust me, backward as fuck.” But what tipped me off was that he never came back to clarify on that. He is sticking to his story that it was said just that way. In a thread with this sticky topic, he should have known better. > > ETA: Yes, monstro, ‘my dick broke’ sounds likely. \*\*Nzinga, \*\*I hope you don’t take this the wrong way because I really like you as a poster and I really enjoy your posts and the way you are able to say things so directly and cut through a lot of shit in tense posts but you sometimes have a habit of giving the impression that you are THE authority on all black things because you are black and have been around (as you put it) “ignorant, backward, illiterate sumsabitches” in your life. I appreciate that you are going to know WAY more than I am about black culture than I am, but if you really honestly think that because YOU haven’t seen or heard something that means it doesn’t happen then I’m just really not sure there is anything else to discuss. I have heard people (white and black honestly) do the “be” thing that you’re flatly refusing to believe. You think I heard it wrong? You think he wrote it down wrong? Okay. I have no real interest in trying to change your mind but it isn’t the only time I’ve heard this type of thing and as far as I know I don’t have a hearing condition where the word “BE” gets inserted into sentences I hear so I’m going to go ahead and believe my own ears. You believe I’m lying or mistaken. We’ll both be just fine. I have no idea if the OP heard what he claimed he heard or why he hasn’t been back to clarify. I have no intention of fighting his battle. I know what I heard and (as I said) it’s hardly an isolated incident so I’m comfortable continuing to believe myself. I’m funny like that. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/156 "2012-12-30T19:37:31Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > Because yes, subculture dialects always make sense. Just like when the doctor asked the hillbilly white boy about his infected penis he said “lick deez here nuts” and of course he didn’t say the HERE part because gosh, unless his nuts aren’t with him all the time that just wouldn’t make any sense! _sigh_ I have heard people use “here” all the time. Like I would say “this here is a stupid conversation”. I have never heard ANYONE use “be” in the way that you are saying that dude did. I’m not talking about logical sense, but linguistic sense. A double negative doesn’t make logical sense, but I understand what the hell is being communicated because it is a construct commonly used to convey a specific meaning. “My dick be broke” does not fit in any system of communication that I’m familiar with. “My dick broke” certainly does, however. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/157 "2012-12-30T19:41:26Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > _sigh_ > > I have heard people use “here” all the time. Like I would say “this here is a stupid conversation”. > > I have never heard ANYONE use “be” in the way that you are saying that dude did. > > I’m not talking about logical sense, but linguistic sense. A double negative doesn’t make logical sense, but I understand what the hell is being communicated because it is a construct commonly used to convey a specific meaning. > > “My dick be broke” does not fit in any system of communication that I’m familiar with. “My dick broke” certainly does, however. The fact that you think ignorant people who speak ignorantly are going to use linguistic sense and logic makes me laugh so hard I can’t imagine that you are serious. If you are serious I am questioning your view on reality. I really am. Thank you for the laugh, that is honestly a good one. ETA: So even though saying “here” about his nuts made no LOGICAL sense because his nuts are always there, you can believe he said that because YOU have heard it. It’s not logical but since YOU heard it, you believe it. So the logic and linguistics is kind of a bullshit excuse you’re floating then, right? It’s all about believing something just because you’ve heard something similar and if you haven’t heard it, it doesn’t happen. Ok. And yes this HERE conversation IS stupid but that’s only because you think anything outside of your experience can’t happen. What a lovely way to live. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/158 "2012-12-30T19:44:18Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Why do you believe it? Because it sounds like something a black person would say? Nah, because "You be Illin’"was 29 of the Top 100, the Jewish Beastie Boys covered the song in 2010, and “You be trippin’” has been around what, twenty years now? Sure, there are some recognizable patterns to Ebonics, and “You be…” is one of those. Ain’t is a pretty common bastardization of will not/cannot, too, and most educated persons avoid using it even though we all understand it, because we do occasionally hear it even though it’s frowned upon. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/159 "2012-12-30T19:45:50Z")
And maybe that dumb motherfucker did say “My dick be broke.” All I’m saying is that he was not speaking grammatically correct Ebonics (or AAVE). So if someone wants to cite this as an example of how funny black people speak, rather than one stupid individual’s idiosyncratic speaking style, they perhaps may need to reconsider. I’m about sick of this got’damn thread. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506/160 "2012-12-30T19:47:09Z")
Sleeps, I like you as a poster too, and I DON’T think you are lying. I believe you are mistaken. It is easy to get mistaken with this ‘be’ thing, because it is so hard to explain. I’m getting really frustrated, but I don’t want to bail, because I just…I don’t know. I want to be understood. I know I’m not the authority on all things black, and I will work on being more careful to not come off that way in the future. This thing here though…I think every black poster who sees this thread will back me up on this one. I think people who aren’t used to the ‘be’ being used in the habitual aspect misunderstand when they hear black people using it. The reason I brought up the ignorant people I know who speak poorly was to make sure no one thought I was trying to pretend that all Black people speak well. I know that all black people don’t speak well, just like any other race can’t all claim to. But this one, I am right about. I just…am. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-i-have-a-new-job-in-the-er-and-it-is-making-me-prejudiced/645506.md?page=9)