tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013979377265462028.post6291110612479156346..comments2014-05-29T01:33:48.250-04:00Comments on Text-Based Advent: I'm all over this like White on a Tea Party protest!textbasedadventhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882816187967291934noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013979377265462028.post-55935000234992232742009-12-13T02:15:19.078-05:002009-12-13T02:15:19.078-05:00Terry wins.Terry wins.Kaylanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013979377265462028.post-3765108552163224222009-12-12T14:24:51.683-05:002009-12-12T14:24:51.683-05:00To the extent there are any racial overtones to &q...To the extent there are any racial overtones to "white on rice," it appears that might be due to its heritage in southern black slang. I think its pretty innocuous - it'd be a lot more inflammatory if connected to white-asian race relations. But, its worth bearing in mind that rice was an important slave-labor cash crop in the American South (See the wikipedia article "Southern United States" for a bit more on this).<br /><br />I found the following on JSTOR (there's italics in the original, to designate the phrases, but I can't seem to italicize in this comment box):<br /><br />James H. Warner, A Word List from Southeast Arkansas, 13 American Speech 3 (1938):<br /><br />We should also note that the speech of southeast Arkansas abounds in distinctive and forceful similes which often spring directly from the occupations and conditions of the region. For example: 'I'm feeling like a sharecropper,' that is, very bad. 'He got all over me, like the white on rice,' that is, he scolded me as thoroughly as the color of white covers rice. 'He runs like a windmill in high gear,' that is, like the windmills in the rice fields around Altheimer, he runs very fast. 'He came out of there like beetles out of an old house.' 'He's sweating like a nigger at election.' 'I don't chew my tobacco but once.' 'I have him in the short rows now,' that is, where I can control him. 'He'll raise more trouble than the alligator did when the pond went dry' (several decades ago alligators frequented the streams and bayous of the region). 'The wind is off the peach orchard,' that is, the wind is cold. 'When he got to acting like that, I unhooked my mule and went to the house,' that is, I quit. 'I'll bat you down a hatch,' an interesting survival of the nautical expression for punishment, but with noticeable weakening.<br /><br /><br />Merle Herriford, Slang among Nebraska Negroes, 13 American Speech 316 (1938):<br /><br />Here are a few phrases in Negro usage. To be on rubber or to be on wheels means to have a car. To be caught in the go 'long means to be an unfortunate victim of circumstances. To motivate down the thoroughfare means to walk along some widely frequented street, as along 24th Street in Omaha. To make light sport is to have a good time. Hip me to the jive! and lace my boots! mean 'put me wise!' Thus to be hipped or to have one's boots laced is to be aware of a situation. Let me blow you one means 'Give me a cigarette' in Omaha. To blow your top or to knock yourself out means to go the limit in some particular direction. A nice little piece of furniture is a pretty girl. To make a creep is to set out on some clandestine mission. <br /><br />Last may be noted some picturesque similes: take off like a herd of turtles, knee high to a tall Indian, higher than a Georgia pine, blacker than the inside of an undertaker's derby, run off like a striped ape, come out like a bat out of Hell, stick like white on rice, slicker than a poker player on New Year's Eve.Terrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013979377265462028.post-79668360854854329012009-12-12T05:57:42.045-05:002009-12-12T05:57:42.045-05:00I think she may have been messing with him. I woul...I think she may have been messing with him. I would do it. In fact, I've done it before.<br /><br />-Stephen QAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013979377265462028.post-52048810848918059572009-12-11T18:18:13.417-05:002009-12-11T18:18:13.417-05:00You mean...there's a black Stormy?You mean...there's a <i>black</i> Stormy?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13282804494725932645noreply@blogger.com