“Sitting High and Looking Low” Can Mean Ignoring People Who Need Help

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, it’s Leanne McKellway. I am in Richmond, Virginia.

All right, well, welcome to the show. How can we help you?

Well, I heard a phrase about 25 years ago. I’ve only heard it the one time, and I am really, all of a sudden, very curious as to what it might mean and where it comes from.

In the Social Security office here in Richmond, Virginia, I had gone to get my name changed 25 years ago after I got married. And so we were all sitting around the lobby waiting, you know, to be helped. And two of the people who were sitting with me were talking to each other, and they were talking about one of the employees there. I guess I was eavesdropping, but all of a sudden one of them said to the other, she is sitting high and looking low. And I have never heard that phrase before or since. And I took it to mean that the woman who was supposed to be helping them was being very patronizing and feeling superior to them. I don’t really know. What do you think?

It’s possible. Do you mind, was she African-American, the woman who said that?

Yes, she was.

All right, that would make a lot of sense. Because this expression is almost exclusively used in an African-American community. And a lot of times it comes up in context of God and religion and judging other people and judging oneself. And it’s got a lot of different nuances. As far back as the 1970s, it’s probably older than that, but that’s as far back as I know, you can find it being used to talk about God sitting high and looking low. And what that means is that he is in a position of power, and yet he takes care of the small things, the people who are weak and helpless and innocent. But you’ll also find it used in a more negative sense to describe somebody who is in a position of authority and uses that authority to ignore the people who don’t have power, who are helpless, who need help. And that sounds like the context that you heard it in, sitting high and looking low.

Yeah, that is exactly what was going on in that waiting room. So, yes, it’s perfect. I don’t know where it came from. I would not be surprised if it were in some writing from the 60s and 70s. Certainly by the time the 80s and 90s rolled around, it’s so well entrenched that it starts to appear in books about religion and family and self-help and the writings of Maya Angelou. I believe she used it in 2004, even at the Democratic National Convention. And so at this point, it’s a well-established phrase.

Well, I guess it’s more common than I thought it was. So thank you for helping me.

Well, I’m impressed at your 25-year-old memory, that this particular circumstance should sit with you for so long.

Well, it was just like this phrase out of the blue that I had never heard before. So I guess it stuck with me.

You must have quite an ear then, Leanne. It’s a very evocative phrase. You can just picture it, can’t you?

Yes.

Up there in the sky down here considering the lilies? It’s great. Outside of religion, it’s almost always used in a negative way to describe somebody who has power but doesn’t use it on behalf of the people who really need it.

I think I’m going to look for situations where I can throw it out in conversation.

Please do. Very good. Please do, and let us know how it goes.

Thanks, Leanne. We appreciate your calling.

Thank you for your help.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye.

If you have a question like Leanne’s, you can call us 877-929-9673 or send it an email to words@waywordradio.org.