Because once you reach a certain age, all you can do is “Yo mama so dead” jokes, and there’s only a few really good ones. Not to mention when the senility sets in, you can’t remember what joke you told and wind up repeating the same one. Doesn’t matter though since everyone watching can’t hear a word that you’re saying.
I don’t think we’re in disagreement. The dozens has a specific historical backstory in the African-American community. It’s certainly possible that other cultural groups practice similar traditions.
Because the specifics of the question are more in line with male, (I do not consider it a “young” activity), mores.
On the other hand, restating the question as “Why do black women appear to follow the rubrics of signifying while women of other cultures do not appear to use the same rubrics as the men of those cultures?” might be an interesting pursuit.
I would deny that women, in general, avoid the back-and-forth insult fests that men seem to enjoy, but I would certainly agree that (most) white women in North America in the early 21st century use different patterns of insult than their male counterparts. (If you think women do not engage in that behavior, at all, I would suggest you get a job in a female-dominated department or company for a few weeks.)
How so? You’ve gone from asking generic, astonishingly naive questions about why black people allegedly have certain traits to starting this thread, which is about… why black people allegedly have a certain trait. How’ve you changed?
Cite?
Actually, I think black and the rest of the world have quite a bit in common than people think . A lot of white people call other white people “white trash” or something like that, at least in my generation . I mean, I’m not trying to make any generalizations, but the general portion of black people might have a different way of trashing each other like say, white or Asian people, but in one way or another, the dozens game is existent in every race, not just blacks, And I wished more people in the media, especially a lot of the ones from Fox News, would reallize and mention that whatever with blacks is a worldwide issue if an issue.
Yes. In fact, IIRC, our whole concept of “cool” (not showing emotion) comes from slave culture. (Cool = not to show your suffering during a whipping.)
My wife is black & as somebody that’s been on the receiving end plenty, I agree that “ridicule as social bond” (as the OP put it) is a characteristic of black culture, across genders.
(a) Click on the blue word. That’s one cite right there.
(b) Google has hundreds of pages linking you to the word “signifying.” Many of these have to do with the subject at hand. I’m not inclined to do your legwork for you.
(c) Learn when it’s appropriate to jump in and say “Cite?” Better, learn when it isn’t.
The Spartans?
Were pretty cool. As in “not showing emotion during a whipping”.
Would seem to predate American black culture by about 2,000 years.
ETA: The British “stiff upper lip” bit would also seem to be unrelated to American black culture. Also Japanese stoicism.
Yo momma so unconvincing, she … something.
If I was black, I’m sure I’d have a punchline for that.
Thy Mutter ist eine Cow!
Ja? Deine Mutter trägt Kampfstiefel!
Sie ist so groß, daß sie ein ganze Postleitzahl hat!
Sie ist so groß, daß ihre Gürtel Größe “Äquator” ist!
Good points. But the quoted post said “our” whole concept of cool comes from, etc.; I didn’t read it as suggesting that it was INVENTED at that point in human history.
I wonder if it would cut across socioeconomic lines if hip hop, a heavily socioeconomically-influenced genre, wasn’t so popular and ubiquitous now as to popularize other aspects of the subculture into the mainstream. Pretty much all my co-workers, acquaintances, etc. are black and I’ve noticed that the guys that are raised in less ‘ghetto’ subcultures seem to be less likely to engage in that kind of play, which leads me to wonder if it isn’t more about deflecting violence than anything else. The Wiki link up top actually stated that in terms of the african-american roots of this particular phenomenon, it predated slavery and went back to Africa as a way to defuse conflict. More potentially violent and expressed conflict to defuse in lower socioeconomic circles which then gets culturally disseminated through popular culture? Which would then explain the guys in suits doing it either as reminiscent of earlier in their lives or else adopted more fully from the popular culture where hip hop is now so dominant.
The reason I do not like the popular black shows is because I am offended by the constant put downs. On Cosby he once told his son…I brought you into this world and I can take you out. Followed by a laugh track.
I did not think it was funny. I see endless fat jokes. At some point, they become cruel.
Yeah. I clicked the blue word and I got an article on ‘signifying’. That is just one form of ‘ribbing’ eachother. Signifying is more likely to be found in Black culture, yes. But that doesn’t mean that ‘putting eachother down playfully’ is more likely to be found in black culture.
So now for my own request for a ‘cite’. I have to do so for the following:
I’m not sure I buy this.
ETA: When I was growing up, we called this ‘drilling’. Funnily enough, the white kids on the school bus did it to eachother too…but they never called it ‘drilling’. They just did it.
<cole porter> Oh, wouldn’t it be slaverly? </cp>
I’m guessing the OP has never seen Rosanne…
The first time I ever heard of the dozens was from listening to an old George Carlin album He had a routine about how he preferred to hang with the black kids because they seemed so cool. They were always ripping on each other and doing the “Yo’ Mama…” insults. My favorite line was,
Ha! I have the very LP (“Go Bo Diddley”) frontally displayed in my stereo cabinet. There’s another great song whose title I forget, but the lyric goes, in part…
“Rock ‘n’ Roll and rock-a-billy
Made me lose my sweet little Lily”
Well, balls.