"Don't shit where you eat"

[Dennis Preston]

Wilson,

This is an interesting joke; a common piece of racist folk stuff
where I grew up, around Louisville KY, (apparently told with some
degree of belief) was that black people shook hands with their left
hands customarily. Is (was) this widespread?

dInIs



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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Ii agree with what you say WRT to Muslim custom. I read about it in a
>book, about fifty years ago. ;-) But wouldn't that also be true of
>Americans? Wouldn't you switch hands or put down what you were
>holding, in order to be able to shake hands with another American with
>your right hand? Or maybe I'm being hypersensitive.
>
>White guy offers right hand to black guy:
>
>"Happy New Year!"
>
>Black guy extends right hand.
>
>White guy withdraws right hand and offers left hand:
>
>"Oops! I'm sorry! I use my *left* hand to shake with niggers."
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 7/6/07, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  At 04:46 PM 7/6/2007, you wrote:
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>>  >Poster:       Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>
>>  >Subject:      Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
>>  >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  >
>>  >At 23:11 -0400 03/7/07, sagehen wrote:
>>  > >  >Sorry for the crude title.
>>  > >>
>>  > >>Has anyone searched to find out what the earliest version of this must
>>  > >>have been?  I would doubt that it was that phrasing.
>>  > >>
>>  > >>Anyone suggest what the original sentiment might have been?
>>  > >>
>>  > >>Sam Clements
>>  > >  ~~~~~~~~~~
>>  > >I remember reading about the Essenes or some similar group --  associated
>>  > >with the Dead Sea Scrolls, perhaps? -- that had strictures concerning the
>>  > >roles of the two hands: the one that went into the communal pot
>>at mealtime
>>  > >would never be the one that wiped one's bottom.   Whether the
>>left was the
>>  > >"clean" and the right the "unclean" I don't remember, but I believe the
>>  > >roles were immutable.
>>  > >AM
>>  >
>>  >I remember a month-long Sunday school sequence on the Arab world
>>  >(mid-70s, Unitarian Church) in which we were instructed to eat with
>>  >the right hand (no utensils!) because the left hand was traditionally
>>  >used to wipe oneself.
>>  >
>>  >Barbara
>>  >
>>  >Barbara Need
>>  >UChicago
>>  >
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>>  Still true for Muslims.  If I'm holding something in my right hand and
>>  unthinkingly shake hands with a Muslim student with my left hand, I
>>  immediately know I've committed a faux pas from the look on the face of my
>>  student.
>>
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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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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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