Jive Turkeys

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Tiffany Hendricks from Las Vegas, Nevada.

I’m actually a high school teacher, and I’ve been using the term jive turkey with my large, diverse group of students.

Then I heard from a friend of mine that it was a racial slur.

So I was wondering what the origin of jive turkey actually was.

Now, hold on a second. What do you do for a living?

I’m a teacher, a high school teacher.

Okay, so, and you were born when? Give me a decade.

The 70s, late 70s.

So why are you using the word term jive turkey?

Well, it’s a term that my father used.

He would just say it jokingly growing up, like jive turkey.

There we go.

So Daddy used it, and so you just remember it,

And you’re pulling it back out of the arsenal, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

And so how do you use it in the classroom?

Well, it started with a couple of stuffed turkeys that we used for a review game.

And I said, these are the jive turkeys.

And then the students were suddenly very interested as if they sort of knew what that meant.

And maybe I really was using it incorrectly.

Like, what did you call him?

What did you say?

So that made me even more interested in finding out what it actually, where it comes from.

Yeah, no, I don’t think it makes you racist.

I think it just sort of dates you.

Okay.

No, Tiffany, to cut straight to the chase, jive turkey is not racist.

Awesome.

No.

That’s a relief.

But are you a white woman?

Yes.

Oh, and you’re about 20 years too young and pretty much the wrong race to be using the term, though.

Okay, okay.

And the reason I say that is because jive turkey is heavily, heavily associated with black English.

It’s something that was very common in the 1970s, quickly faded when it became overused in movies and songs.

And basically, if you break it down, jive is just a way of saying lame or stupid or weak.

It’s just, or fake, you know, poser-ish.

And then turkey is just a common term of abuse for someone that you don’t respect.

So jive turkey.

That’s all.

But it’s not a word that was ever used except in a humorous or ironic way by anybody who was white.

Right, which is exactly what you’re doing, right?

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, you’re trying to make your students laugh, right?

You sound like my mother.

You sound like the way she taught classes.

But who told you it was racist?

I was just a friend of mine who’s also a teacher.

So she said, I’m sure it’s a racial slur.

I said, well, I should probably find out before I go.

No, it’s not.

I’m 100% certain it’s not a racial slur.

Well, that’s quite a relief to me.

Old-fashioned, yes, but not a racial slur.

Awesome.

Well, thanks so much for your call, Tiffany.

All right, talk to you later.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Is it racist?

Is it offensive?

Is it a slur?

Is it derogatory?

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