When I was in junior high school, I was walking down the street one day wearing one of the first articles of clothing that I’d bought with my own money. It was a button-up shirt, and the color scheme was loud and tacky (this was the early 1970s). I happened upon a schoolmate, who greeted me, and then commented, “I like your shirt. How many (blacks) did you have to beat up?” I was puzzled, but didn’t care enough to ask what he meant.
Years later, I was in a technical school class taught by an old retired electrician. He normally dressed in the same unremarkable clothing you’d expect. So it really stood out when one day, he showed up sporting a shiny, brightly colored, disco-looking shirt made of rayon or nylon (likely a gift from a younger family member). When of the kids remarked, “That’s some shirt Mr. G”, he replied, “Hey–do you know how many (blacks) I had to beat up to get it?” The kids in the class (all boys) laughed, but I don’t think any of them really understood what his comments meant. They were laughing at a teacher making such an out-of-character remark.
For some reason I’ve been wondering lately what the hell this meant. FWIW this was in a small town in West Virginia.
Sounds more to me like it’s the cliche of Black men wearing loud “pimp” style clothing. The Black guys all wanted the loud, tacky shirt, so they had to beat them up to keep them from buying it instead.
Nothing else makes sense to me. It’s a really really dumb comment.
What @carrps said. My first thought was that it wasn’t a stereotype about violence by white racists, it was a stereotype about Black men wearing loud clothing. And a thoroughly racist thing to say, as it not only promotes a dumb stereotype, it makes a joke out of beating people up.
I thought of that except that how many did he had to beat up? He kept trying until he could beat one up? Makes him sound a bit wimpy, which I wouldn’t expect a racist to admit.
I agree that “how many” makes no sense, which is why it never occurred to me that it’s implying the white guy stealing the black man’s clothing. “I like your shirt. Did you beat up a Black guy?” would have conveyed this better.
Over the years, I’ve wondered if it might have been a reference to the association of Italian men with flashy clothing. And possibly to the emerging genre of Blaxploitation films, which often involved conflict between traditional mafiosi and Black gangs (Shaft) or law-abiding Blacks (Black Belt Jones). The Italian gangster pays for his flashy clothes by beating up Black guys. But I think that’s unlikely.
I hear the joke as a combination of casual racism and self deprecation.
The casual racism part is the suggestion black men have hideous fashion taste and wear luridly coloured clothing.
The self deprecating part is the (presumably white) wearer of the lurid shirt is suggesting (suggesting this simply to set up a joke) he routinely steals shirts from black guys using violence (and the hilarious punchline) but to get a shirt THIS BAD he had to steal quite a few…
This sort of humour was very common in 1970s UK. The person making such comments almost certainly wouldn’t consider themselves racist. If challenged they would suggest ‘It’s just a joke!’ or the inevitable ‘I’ve nothing against black guys, some of my best friends are black…’
Back in the 1970s I agree w all the above. Loud clothes = black men → white guys like you had to have stolen them.
Of course nowadays the e.g. Proud Boys types seem to have adopted Hawaiian flowered shirts as a de facto uniform. Why? Because morons gotta moron is all I can offer.
My (black) girlfriend in 2012 bought me a big red button-up t-shirt to wear for a formal event. I’m not black but every single person I personally knew no matter the race immediately told me a variation of “Did you steal that off a black guy?” I was living in Los Angeles at the time and the joke didn’t involve violence but it fits the theme of “Guys stealing loud shirts from black guys”
I don’t recall that “joke” at all and I grew up in the 70’s in the South. Fights broke out often at my middle and high schools and such a joke would be fighting words we’d all hear about it.
Idk maybe being so close to Miami we were all in loud obnoxious prints yeah that’s the ticket.
Recently I had some passing concern over wearing Hawaiian shirts after the “Boogaloo Boys” starting using them for a trademark, but decided “Fuck them, I’m not changing my clothes just because a bunch of racist assholes decided to start wearing them”. I make that shit look good, and I’m not going to stop.
Bollocks to that! I’ve been wearing Hawaiian shirts for decades, and I’ll be damned if I’m going let them be usurped by racist idiots. I’m wearing a Hawaiian short right now.
The joke’s on them, though. Hawaiian shirts are made in Hawaii, so they’re giving their money to Liberals.
ETA: Quasi-ninja’d by Bill_Door. (His post was already there; I just didn’t finish reading the thread before I posted.)
I heard the same remark as the OP, also in the early 70s, also in a small towns (one in Illinois with a Black neighborhood, one in Wisconsin with no Black people whatsoever).
As others have said, the “joke” is that these white people were wearing clothes that are stereotypically worn by black people.
The “funny” part is that these clothes don’t just evoke African American fashion, but that it is literally true that only black people can buy them, so a white guy can only acquire the clothes by getting them from a black guy.
And the racist part is that the way to get stuff from a black guy is to beat him up and take it. (You could have told the joke by saying any number of variations: “how many black men did you have to blow/befriend/scam/bluff/pay to get that shirt?”)
The stereotype of black men being able to fashionably wear brighter or more flashy clothes than white men definitely existed for a time. In college (late 90’s) my roommate (a very white guy named Todd) used to say he wished he was black so he could wear purple silk shirts. “Only a black guy can pull that off.”
