CP Time

[Wilson Gray]

On Nov 4, 2004, at 3:02 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: CP Time
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> Boojies?  (Sorry, Wilson!)

A nickname/slang term for "members of the black bourgeoisie," a group
that includes college graduates, postal and other civil-service
workers, owners of businesses, politicians, etc., especially if they
have money (this is America; what can I say?) but excludes entertainers
of any kind (unless they are also college graduates), pimps, drug
dealers, and other low-lifes, regardless of their income.

Though Bill Cosby made his rather enormous fortune as an entertainer,
the fact that he graduated from college *before* he made it as an
entertainer and then *continued* his education to the point of earning
a doctorate places him solidly within the boojie class. On the other
hand, Sean "Puffy/Puff Daddy/P. Diddy" Combes will never be boojie,
regardless of the fact that he has money to burn. Unless he uses his
money to get into politics, to set up scholarships and fellowships at
United Negro College Fund schools, or for something else that will
"uplift the race." That is, he can buy his way into the boojie class.
As Jack Benny once noted, "There's only one thing that money can't buy,
and that's poverty."

I could go on, but I'm sure that you get the point.

-Wilson

>
> At 02:25 PM 11/4/2004, you wrote:
>> On Nov 4, 2004, at 12:24 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>>> Subject:      CP Time
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>>>  From the comic strip Boondocks:
>>> http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/2004/11/02/
>>>
>>> Huey:  I dreamt I talked to God last night . . .
>>> Huey:  He said, Don't worry about the election 'cause everything
>>> would
>>> work
>>> itself out soon.
>>> Huey:  Of course, to God, "Soon" could be, like, 50 million years.
>>> Caesar:  Yeah, He's been on C.P. time lately.
>>>
>>>
>>> I've seen/heard "C.P. Time" as "Colored People Time", but never in
>>> such a
>>> mainstream form.
>>
>> Aaron probably recked without the ADS, figuring that "the other group"
>> would be too lame and unhip to have any idea what the reference was.
>> Or, perhaps, he just didn't care, since he uses a lot of in-group
>> references in his work. If this kind of thing interests you(-all),
>> you(-all) may want to watch Chappelle's Show on Comedy Central. He's
>> the sketch-comedy version of Richard Pryor, so to speak. Or as it
>> were.
>>
>> FWIW, I know this only as "colored people's time," with the possessive
>> "s" pronounced, since I've heard it used only by  boojies as a down
>> (sic) of the underclass types who, with their lack of couth, their rap
>> music, and their blink-blink (sic) persist in interfering with the
>> upward progress of the Talented Tenth. Bill - or, rather, William -
>> Cosby, EdD, you know what I'm saying.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
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