It's possible I don't get around enough to know such things, but I'd never heard the term "CP Time" before New York Mayor Bill de Blasio got in trouble for using it (emphasis mine):
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing some criticism for joking about "CP time" while performing in a comedic sketch alongside Hillary Clinton at a charity event over the weekend.
During Inner Circle's annual event in New York City that includes musical and comedy performances by local politicians and reporters, Clinton made a surprise cameo during a scripted scene with de Blasio and Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr in the Broadway show “Hamilton.”
Clinton joked with de Blasio about how long it took him to endorse her for president, to which the New York City mayor (and Clinton's former Senate campaign manager) quipped back, “Sorry, Hillary. I was running on CP time." The remark is an apparent reference to colored people time -- a phrase sometimes used as a stereotypical reference to black people supposedly being late to everything.I appreciate the explanation, but seriously, I'd never heard that term before. And in my experience, it makes no sense, because the only identifiable group of people I know who are always late are my siblings, and they're as Caucasian as they come. As always, it must be my lack of nuance.
In a video of the skit, released by the mayor's office on Sunday night, the audience appears to laugh awkwardly at the remark. One man in the crowd can be heard shouting, “No!"
"That’s not -- I don’t, I don’t like jokes like that, Bill,” Odom, who is African-American, said.
Clinton then interjected. “Cautious politician time," she explained. “I’ve been there.”
5 comments:
With where I grew up, there was Hawaii time. These peeps were usually tardy if they bothered at all, and referenced the work ethic of Hawaiian peeps and those who came from there. There was a marked difference tween Japan Japs and Hawaii Japs who were culturally similar to others, but very different to each other.
As for blacks... I've never noticed the issue presented.
How old do you have to be to hear "CP" and the first thing your brain goes to is "colored people?"
Comedy is dead. And we have killed him. -F. Nietszche
It's amazing how many racial and sexual slurs I've learned because prominent liberals started using them in public, on camera. And I'm guessing that the term's used a fair amount in Gotham, since Leslie Odom grew up there and made very clear he was familiar with it. He's only 34.
(does it have something to do with how nobody cares if blacks use racial slurs, and di Blasio's wife does happen to be black....? Did he forget how offensive it was for a white man to use that phrase because it might have been used in his home?)
I'm reminded of how I learned, when I moved to Boulder, that it was actually a hotbed for a lot of the bias Boulderites railed against--far more than I'd ever seen in more conservative areas. Was an interesting paradox.
But - cultural appropriation is wrong!
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