Based on the reports of the GA congressman referring to the Obamas as ‘uppity' I have become embroiled in a heated debate as to the racist origins of the word ‘uppity'. I was always under the impression that this word denoted someone with their nose in the air, a snob if you will. I am being told I am naive, and ‘uppity' is a term describing the behavior of a ‘Negro' who acted out of place/above their station. Which is true?
Oh dear, it would help if I could type. My apologies for the misspelling of racist in the topic line.
Totally ignorant, but I'm going to vote no on this one. I may be misoriented because I was just listening to a podcast about the incident in the Dallas City (County?) Council where a member was castigated for using the term "black hole", which is obviously racist.
😉
On the American Dialect Society email list, there's speculation that whether you think it's racist depends upon how old you are.
Interesting. Thanks for the reference, Grant. Looks as though the OED citing from 'Uncle Remus' ties it up pretty neatly as a pejorative Southern term linked directly to race. I think the idea that it has changed in the last 30 years is interesting.
BTW, I didn't know there was going to be math on this site ~sigh~
that is from the hungryblues.net site:
I suppose this might seem hyperbolic to some. It is a factual, historically accurate statement.
When I interviewed the children of Samuel O'Quinn, an African American man who was shot dead by a sniper at the gate to his property in Centreville, MS in 1959, they said that the main problem their father had with whites was that he was well educated and successful.
Samuel O'Quinn was a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute—â€the highest form of education you could get†at that time, if you were Black, Rance O'Quinn emphasized.
“My mother and father gave away a fortune,†Rance O'Quinn continued. “They gave money to every cause, the building of every church. They bought the bus for the kids to go to school and paid the bus driver to take children to school.â€
“That's why he was hated,†added Phalba O'Quinn Plummer. “They said he was biggity. They would say ‘uppity' and ‘biggity.' ‘Biggity' means too big for his britches.â€
Five years after Samuel O'Quinn was murdered, in April 1964, his eldest son, Clarence, was attacked on the Centreville Post Office steps by Chief of Police Bill Ivey. “You damn uppity nigger, you think you own the town,†Ivey said, as he beat O'Quinn with other whites looking on.