As a child of the seventies I grew up thinking "Shuckin' and a Jivin'" was a clever lyric from a sitcom theme. A sitcom about black people on network TV - back when you had sitcoms about black people on network TV. Just this week I've found out that is an offensive phrase. Moreover, whenever I may have used it in casual conversation (not often, but I must confess to using it often enough to remember that I had) I was being insensitive in my ignorance.
I really am sorry...I'll try to go on.
When I remarked to someone that there seemed to be an "arbitrary" line that bumbling white-male idiots like me inadvertantly cross I was informed by a helpful commenter that it was offensive to the extreme to insinuate that the line was "arbitrary". That being the case I would love some help defining what this very "non-arbitrary" line...
...is. Really, let me know where I can and cannot go. I mean, I know what traditional racial epithets are and I know what it is to direct one at a person or persons but I clearly need more information. Some more examples of seventies iconology1.
- "Keep On Truckin'" Don't know where this came from ... research it for me.
- "Shake Your Booty" I can make assumptions but we all know what happens when you do that. Let me know.
- "10-4 Good Buddy" Like to attribute this to "Peck-a-woods" (I presume it's okay to make fun of rural southern folk here, right?) but what do I know.
- "Bookin'" As in "bookin' to my classroom", "bookin' home early" or "bookin' from the fuzz". Sorry, this one might really be the "B-bomb", I just don't know and it's killing me."
And lastly, probably the most often heard phrase of my childhood and the one I most suspect of being non-arbitrarily offensive:
- "Pound-off douchebag" Not a clue but it sounds French...I hope I haven't offended any Franco-philes here.