"Don't shit where you eat"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Hey, Wilson, I never heard of that hand thing in NYC except as an Arab custom.

  And I had to read a book to learn that.

  JL



Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See there! Ain't I done told y'all a whole lot, segregation really
worked? I have never heard tell before this moment of any customary
use of the left hand among the colored. In the particular case that I
cite, the white guy was an Italian-American from Philadelphia named
deRosa and the black guy, named Jefferson, was from Oceanside, CA,
then an Army town connected to the now-defunct Fort Ord. His father
was also a GI. Nevertheless, Jeff was something of a punk. The insult
hurt his feelings so badly that he came back to the barracks crying.
He didn't get much sympathy from the rest of us, because we'd warned
his black ass not to go to the party from the BE-gin-nin'. There was
no telling what might happen to a coupl'a three blacks among a crowd
of drunken Northern GI's. On the other hand, Southerners who, when
sober, gave us the hate stare - cf. _Black Like Me_ - tended to become
"We're all Southerners together" when drunk.

-Wilson

On 7/7/07, Dennis Preston
wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Dennis Preston

> Subject: Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
>
>
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender: American Dialect Society
> >Poster: Wilson Gray
> >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 wrote:
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> Poster: Beverly Flanigan
> >> Subject: Re: "Don't shit where you eat"
> >>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> At 04:46 PM 7/6/2007, you wrote:
> >> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> >-----------------------
> >> >Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> >Poster: Barbara Need
> >> >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
> >> >
> >> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> 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.
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >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
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> Morrill Hall 15-C
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
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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