"Hard times make monkey eat cayenne pepper" (Clarence Thomas's grandfather)

[Barry Popik]

Clarence Thomas said in an interview that his grandfather used this
phrase; perhaps it's in Thomas's book.
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Is it in the ProQuest Black Newspapers database?
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
African-American Proverbs in Context
by Anand Prahlad - Literary Criticism - 1996 - 292 pages

Page 239
Hard times will make a monkey eat cayenne pepper. ... Usage: "If a monkey had
gone a long time without eating, he would eat whatever became available to ...
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
If He Hollers Let Him Go: A Novel - Google Books Resultby Chester B.
Himes - 2002 - Fiction - 216 pages
The white folks* pressure would make a monkey eat cayenne pepper—once.
1 tried to shake it from my mind, looked about me. I'd gone out past
Washington. ...
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(GOOGLE)
Hillsdale College - IssueMy grandfather used to say, "Hard times make
monkey eat Cayenne pepper." Hard times have a way of teaching us
lessons that we refuse to learn in good times. ...

[June 1994 essay by Clarence Thomas. Full quote below. -- ed.]
...
I know there are those who hear me with a smug arrogance that only
untarnished youth or insulated cynicism can generate. But I am
unimpressed with this uninformed and misguided arrogance; I have seen
it and I have been there. My grandfather used to say, "Hard times make
monkey eat Cayenne pepper." Hard times have a way of teaching us
lessons that we refuse to learn in good times. That is the one
university we all get to attend—tuition free. And learning the lessons
that we must learn cannot forever be avoided by sweeping our
difficulties under the rug of societal blame.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org