Isabel Wilkerson’s magnificent history, The Warmth of Other Suns, chronicles the Great Migration of American blacks from the Southern United States starting in the era of Jim Crow. In it, Wilkerson quotes someone who says of another person: “You must be smelling yourself.” This saying describes someone “conceited” or otherwise full of himself. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “You Must Be Smelling Yourself”
I’ve been reading the book The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.
This is the marvelous book about the great migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow South and beyond up North.
One of the expressions that I’d never come across before was, you must be smelling yourself.
Oh, yes, of course.
Which is what you say of somebody who’s conceited.
Right.
They have a high opinion of themselves.
Yeah.
You must be smelling yourself.
It is a marvelous history.
I have read some of that myself, but it’s been a number of years.
Yeah.
I highly recommend it.
The book again is The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.
