Heard on The Judges: "sucks"

[Wilson Gray]

That's really creepy.

-Wilson

On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 2:37 PM,  <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
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>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       RonButters at AOL.COM
>  Subject:      =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20=A0=20=A0=20=A0=20[ADS-L]=20Heard=20on=20Th?
>               = =?ISO-8859-1?Q?e=20Judges:=20"sucks"?=
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  See:
>
>  Something Within: It Does Not Suck To Be A Black Woman!
>  Nov 30, 2007 ... You're right, it does not suck to be a black woman. It's
>  tough, but I wouldn't trade my culture or gender for anything in this world. ...
>  somethingwithin-rjweems.blogspot.com/ 2007/11/it-does-not-suck-to-be-black
>  -woman.html - 125k - Cached - Similar pages
>
>  and
>
>  "Unsaved People Suck" at http://www.cafepress.com/landoverbaptist.38641475
>
>  Not sure the latter are African American Baptists, but it does show how
>  widely received "suck" for "stink" has come in 21st Century American talk. My
>  perception is that "X sucks" is widespread among all Americans, especially younger
>  people, though maybe I'm just talking to middle-class African Americans?
>
>  In a message dated 4/11/08 10:46:28 AM, hwgray at GMAIL.COM writes:
>
>
>  > Spoken by thirty-ish, black, male defendant:
>  >
>  > "I'm great as a father, but I _suck_ as a boyfriend."
>  >
>  > Judge:
>  >
>  > "Why is that?"
>  >
>  > Defendant:
>  >
>  > "Because I like to cheat."
>  >
>  > I fear for the vocabulary of the dialect. This is the first time
>  > that I've heard "suck" as slang used naturally in the wild by a black
>  > person. In all other cases, the person has used it in mockery of lame
>  > white slang. Back in the day in Saint Louis, the word mocked was
>  > "neat," used by white teenagers instead of "cool." E.g., if someone
>  > did something lame, the bruz might say, "Gee, guy, that was really
>  > _neat_!"
>  >
>  >
>
>
>
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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