# I Pit Babale

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [April 7, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738 "2025-04-07T14:59:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 72

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1421 "2026-10-21T21:28:47Z")

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> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> I don’t feel super guilty about having been born here or anything, but i benefit a lot more from colonization than from slavery (which had been outlawed before my ancestors arrived here.)

I’d argue that all us white Americans benefit at least as much from white supremacy in its post-slavery versions, which were of course significantly influenced by slavery. The fact that about 15-20% of the US population was officially and/or effectively excluded from advantages that favored our parents and grandparents (and to a lesser extent later generations as well, even after the nominal end of segregation) looms pretty huge in white American prosperity.

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1422 "2026-10-21T21:35:36Z")

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Yes. But that’s more “benefit from racism” than “benefit from slavery”, although they aren’t unrelated. And my ancestors weren’t by any means on the top of the racial heap.

A (Jewish) friend suggested that one reason Jews were active in the civil rights movement was because “how Blacks are treated” was a floor to how people of other “less desirable” ethnicities were treated, and raising the floor helped Jews.

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1423 "2026-10-21T21:43:03Z")

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Yeah, maybe sorta? I think it may be more about the historical roots of Black/Jewish cooperation in, e.g., the founding of the NAACP in 1909, and solidarity in the face of bigotry that was **both** anti-Black and antisemitic. Jewish synagogues as well as Black churches got bombed in Southern cities, for example.

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**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1424 "2026-10-21T21:51:34Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> No, you wrote down a coy “joke”. Nothing “clearly” about it. I outed its meaning.

Holy shit, you actually _are_ this high on your own supply? You didn’t “out” anything by Googling a word, lil bro. It wasn’t a secret.

> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> It’s cuter that you still think anyone buys that you’re an actual liberal, lil’ _chaver_.

Ohhh, we aren’t friends, buddy.

> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Your many, many posts cheering the genocide are _never_ going away.

No matter how much you insist I’ve done so, it remains untrue. Sorry, lil bro. Meanwhile, all the posts where you have glazed Hamas by comparing them to the ANC are _never_ going away.

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**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1425 "2026-10-21T22:13:37Z")

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> [@Babale](#):
>
> Meanwhile, all the posts where you have glazed Hamas by comparing them to the ANC are _never_ going away.

I’d like to see a single cite of @MrDibble “glazing” Hamas.

In related news, the IDF, who protects rapists, mass-murders civilians in Gaza, and actively supports settler terrorists who brutalize Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, continues to be a-okay with @Babale.

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**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1426 "2026-10-21T23:34:40Z")

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> [@Babale](#):
>
> Upthread MrDibble explained that he’s tired of slurring whites as Wypipo and has moved on to YT (Whitey) now.

Whatever you do, don’t remind him that terms like “Wypipo” and “po-po” make the user sound infantile. He gets upset.

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**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1427 "2026-10-22T00:06:28Z")

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> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> Whatever you do, don’t remind him that terms like “Wypipo” and “po-po” make the user sound infantile.

Is he really stupid enough to need a reminder of something this obvious? How can the syllables “wy-pi-po” exit his lips without him realizing that he’s half an inch from “I gotta go potty”?

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**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1428 "2026-10-22T00:27:23Z")

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Anyone surprised to see @Babale and @Jackmannii denigrate African American Vernacular English?

Those Blacks should just learn proper English, right guys? /s

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1429 "2026-10-22T06:12:35Z")

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> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> Eh, a lot of us are.

Sure. But _some_ Jews live in Europe, Asia or the ME and didn’t take land from any natives either directly or indirectly.

> [@Babale](#):
>
> You didn’t “out” anything by Googling a word, lil bro. It wasn’t a secret.

Sure, mate, you were just soooo open about it.

> [@Babale](#):
>
> Ohhh, we aren’t friends, buddy.

I’m not your buddy, pal.

> [@Babale](#):
>
> No matter how much you insist I’ve done so, it remains untrue.

Like I said, all your posts are there.

> [@Babale](#):
>
> Meanwhile, all the posts where you have glazed Hamas by comparing them to the ANC are _never_ going away.

Ha ha. Don’t know how any of the small handful of [times](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-rtf-blusterfuck-a-dumb-ignorant-troll-too-lazy-to-read-before-shitting-in-gd/385527/74) I’ve [done](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alessan-you-syphilus-infected-rabid-cow-turd/529609/96) that count as “glazing Hamas” . Pointing out situational similarities is hardly flattery.  
Are you under the misguided impression that I _like_ the ANC? I’ve made no secret of my disdain for them when it’s come up.

> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> I’d like to see a single cite of @MrDibble “glazing” Hamas.

All he’ll come up with is what I’ve linked, where I’ve pointed out that Hamas and the ANC have similarities as armed liberation movements. In his mind that’s “glazing Hamas”. Because the ANC won and so don’t get called terrorists any more. And how could the genocide be justified if Hamas were occasionally called freedom fighters rather than terrorists. The optics! Utter _hasbara_ failure!

> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> Anyone surprised to see @Babale and @Jackmannii denigrate African American Vernacular English?

Not me.

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1430 "2026-10-22T09:52:01Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Only the other fascists like Smapti believe you, mate. Your many, many posts cheering the genocide are _never_ going away.

He’s fine with what’s actually happening. He just objects to it being called genocide.

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**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1431 "2026-10-22T11:48:52Z")

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@Babale - I’m white & South African.

Being referred to as “WT” really is fucking nothing. It doesn’t even pass comment if some random guy shouted “whitey” at me. Getting in a “zing” when talking about a culture you know nothing of is at best foolish.

TLDR:

In Zimbabwe, we whites were called either “murungu” or, in an especially rare insulting effort, “mabhunu” (very mangled loan word from Afrikaans “boer”). In South Africa, “mulungu” or, the apocryphical “ubulungu” (Zulu for “sea scum” or “foam washed up by the sea”), maybe.

But the base is “-lungu” which usually is a term of respect, usually meaning “man” or “person” - “Mulungu” in the closely related Chichewa is “God”.

Note that chiShona does not have the “L” consonant so “murungu” and “mulungu” are interchangeable, Shona people don’t make the distinction. So are white people god? Probably not.

(There is an amusing decription, “Vanhu vasina mabvi” - the “people with no knees” because early white settlers wore trousers, but I’ve never had that thrown my way by some angry local.)

I _might_ get upset if referred to as “mabhunu” because I am not a Boer, and because the intent of the word when used is usually an insult.. but more likely not. I’d be more likely to laugh at the inaccuracy.

So, uh… comfortable as you are in whatever part of the USA you are, perhaps don’t try to generalise about South Africa.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1432 "2026-10-22T11:57:45Z")

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> [@scudsucker](#):
>
> In South Africa, “mulungu”

Slight nitpick - just mlungu. No U after the m. Umlungu also works - U _before_ the m.

The sea foam thing is definitely folk etymology because it’s clearly linked to East African _mzungu_ and Zim _murungu_ in origin, and the root there means “wanderer” or similar.

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1433 "2026-10-22T12:01:50Z")

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> [@scudsucker](#):
>
> In South Africa, “mulungu” or, the apocryphical “ubulungu” (Zulu for “sea scum” or “foam washed up by the sea”), maybe.
> 
> […]
> 
> (There is an amusing decription, “Vanhu vasina mabvi” - the “people with no knees” because early white settlers wore trousers, but I’ve never had that thrown my way by some angry local.)

First, I gotta say that calling white people “washed up sea foam”, because foam is white, is inexplicably charming. [ETA: even if it’s folk etymology.] Of course nobody should use racially derogatory sneers, but that one is sorta cute. So is the “no knees” one.

There are a lot of similarly offbeat colonized-society colloquialisms for Europeans. Early modern Sanskrit words for Europeans in India included “red faces” (because they got sunburned, unlike darker locals) and “hat wearers” (because they put shaped lids on their heads instead of wrapping cloth turbans around them like normal people).

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**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1434 "2026-10-22T12:12:26Z")

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> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> Early modern Sanskrit words for Europeans in India included “red faces”

An Afrikaans racist term for the English (the Boer wars still rankle!) is “rooinek”, “red-neck” because the pale English got sun-burned by the hard outdoor life.

It probably formed in a similar way to the "red-neck’ of the USA, but no immediate relationship, just convergent sociolinguistics.

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1435 "2026-10-22T12:25:20Z")

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It boggles my mind a bit that **ethnically Dutch** Afrikaans speakers were making fun of the **English** for getting sunburned. Aren’t they themselves equally melanin deficient?

(Actually, there seems to be a persistent conviction in Dutch culture even today that the English are paler than **anybody**. A Dutch person once told me that “English white” refers to a really pale complexion.)

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**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1436 "2026-10-22T12:39:22Z")

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> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> It boggles my mind a bit that **ethnically Dutch** Afrikaans speakers were making fun of the **English** for getting sunburned. Aren’t they themselves equally melanin deficient?

ha… come to South Africa.

One of the most vehement racists I have ever met in South Africa (an ex-colleague) was what I would VERY much regard as “mixed race” but he was all “white-superiority.” His features included dark skin, tight curly black hair, brown eyes… I found him amusing, not just because race is a bullshit way to self-identify, but that race is impossible to define in any meaningful way.

The Afrikaaners are a really mixed bag. Not just Dutch, but mixed in with French Huguenouts, and plenty of “mingling” with the local Khoekhoe tribes, and slaves primarily from Malaysia and Indonesia. Plus a bunch of Brits. A proper mongrel “race” - it boggles my mind that anyone with any idea of fairly recent history could have bitten into the idea of their “white” superiority… but we had apartheid to show that yes, people can indeed be very blind when prejudice kicks in.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1437 "2026-10-22T12:58:16Z")

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> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> Aren’t they themselves equally melanin deficient?

It’s more to do with the English allegedly being too dumb to wear proper hats fresh off the boat, I think.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1438 "2026-10-22T15:47:13Z")

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Lol, that I could see. Them and the mad dogs, I guess.

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**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1439 "2026-10-22T17:06:20Z")

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If we were wearing hats, you wouldn’t be able to see our stiff upper lips properly.

The Aussie insult ‘Pom’ supposedly comes from the same origin, because the British would sunburn red, like a pomegranate, which kinda rhymes with immigrant and… whatever, it’s Aussie slang, it doesn’t need to make much sense.

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**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-babale/1016738/1440 "2026-10-23T02:11:27Z")

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(Concerned therapist)

Are these illiberal accelerationists and their useful idiots in the room with us right now, Karen?

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