It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand-- origin

Cafe Society
1

If you had asked me yesterday, I would have said “It’s a black thing, you wouldn’t understand” originated with Richard Pryor. I remember a routine he did where he talked about the difference between dating a white woman and a black woman and one of the benefits of dating a white woman was that he could use that line on them.

But a search for this routine shows that the line has been around forever. Does anyone know where it originated?

P.S., just to head off any sidetracks-- all the black people I know (and believe me, I know a lot of 'em) only use this line ironically. Can we stick with the origin of the phrase and not how racist it is or isn’t?

2

I don’t know, but it seems to me that it became a “thing” in the early 90s, when Afrocentricism was in and folks were walking around with Africa medallions around their necks.

3

That’s also when I first encountered it. I’m actually surprised to find out it goes as far back as Pryor.

4

A quick Google Books search turns up a number of reference to “It’s a black thing, you wouldn’t understand” as a t-shirt slogan in the late '80s/early '90s. The phrase was presumably around before anyone thought to put it on a t-shirt and I wouldn’t be surprised if it did originate with Pryor, but the t-shirts seem to have done a lot to popularize it.

The earliest usage I could find on Google Books was from 1981, in a book titled The Victims of Democracy: Malcolm X and the Black Revolution, but it’s just mentioned as something that black people sometimes say to white people.

5

Someone must have said it first. I’d like to know the context, the whole nine yards.

6

That’s the beauty of it, it doesn’t MEAN anything!

7

So, it was pryor to that.

8

Badaboom TISH!

9

Sorry, nope. It’s an SDMB thing-you oughta understand.