Recently a visitor (a United Church minister) was describing a family awkwardness which had resulted in a young man phoning his aunt to shout at her, and used the phrase, “he called her everything but a white woman”. I am sure my expression (and my mind) was blank, but when she said it again, I recovered, and asked what it meant.
It was her turn to look blank, but she said that it was a phrase she had grown up with in New Brunswick. I was imagining some odd regionalism, or a grandfather with a particularly pithy turn of phrase, but I didn't press for details. I searched online, and found the phrase used eight or ten times, but all fairly recent, and all from the United States. This left me rather puzzled: she is originally from Atlantic Canada, who I doubt spends much time reading The Drudge Report—maybe Breitbart is staffed by ghost writers from New Brunswick?
I mentioned this to a family member, who said that she remembered an older man saying, "and he called him everything but a white man", but that she had no idea where it came from.
Any ideas?
I remember hearing this phrase used occasionally when I was growing up in Florida. That would be about 45 years ago, so I don't think it's of recent vintage.