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capri0mniOkay, this is an incident that happened about 17 years ago, and it floats to the top of my consciousness every so often.
Preface: Now, at the university where I went for my Masters, they had a student escort program for people who didn't walk alone back to their dorms after dark, where you'd call into the volunteer center, and tell them where you were, and that you'd like an escort to come and walk with you to X place on campus. And a volunteer in an orange safety vest, carrying a walkie-talkie would show up and walk with you. I used it all the time, because a) not only am I a woman, and walking alone after dark is more dangerous for us, but b) I use a wheelchair, and am thus less visible to highway drivers (being below their line of sight). And it gave me someone to talk to on the way back from class.
Anyway, one night two African-American young men came to escort me one evening, and we got to talking... And I mentioned someone I admired having X talent "In spades," and they cut me off and told me please not to use that phrase because it's racist. I blushed to my ears, and said "Oh! Sorry! I didn't know..." and the conversation ground to a halt. I was too embarrassed and flustered, just then, to ask why it was racist. And I feared that if I did, it would come across as my defending my racism, which I didn't want to do.
But I've always been curious about that phrase ever since (and I never did meet up with those guys again, to ask them in person, with a little distance from the actual exchange).
And currently, my Google-fu is failing me. I put the keywords [Phrase, origins, "talent in spades"] in the search box, and the closest hit I got was a closed discussion thread where people were accusing someone of being racist because he used the phrase. So now, I know that it has a wide reputation for being racist. But I'm not exactly sure why.
Language geeks on my f'list: a little help? Do you know where this phrase comes from? And/Or is there another set of keywords I could try?
In the meantime, I'll try to conscious of when I want to use the phrase, and try to come up with something different.
Preface: Now, at the university where I went for my Masters, they had a student escort program for people who didn't walk alone back to their dorms after dark, where you'd call into the volunteer center, and tell them where you were, and that you'd like an escort to come and walk with you to X place on campus. And a volunteer in an orange safety vest, carrying a walkie-talkie would show up and walk with you. I used it all the time, because a) not only am I a woman, and walking alone after dark is more dangerous for us, but b) I use a wheelchair, and am thus less visible to highway drivers (being below their line of sight). And it gave me someone to talk to on the way back from class.
Anyway, one night two African-American young men came to escort me one evening, and we got to talking... And I mentioned someone I admired having X talent "In spades," and they cut me off and told me please not to use that phrase because it's racist. I blushed to my ears, and said "Oh! Sorry! I didn't know..." and the conversation ground to a halt. I was too embarrassed and flustered, just then, to ask why it was racist. And I feared that if I did, it would come across as my defending my racism, which I didn't want to do.
But I've always been curious about that phrase ever since (and I never did meet up with those guys again, to ask them in person, with a little distance from the actual exchange).
And currently, my Google-fu is failing me. I put the keywords [Phrase, origins, "talent in spades"] in the search box, and the closest hit I got was a closed discussion thread where people were accusing someone of being racist because he used the phrase. So now, I know that it has a wide reputation for being racist. But I'm not exactly sure why.
Language geeks on my f'list: a little help? Do you know where this phrase comes from? And/Or is there another set of keywords I could try?
In the meantime, I'll try to conscious of when I want to use the phrase, and try to come up with something different.
