Is ''That's mighty white of you'' racist?

[yurbud]

I've been tempted to use that sarcastically from time to time, but wonder if people will misinterpret it to mean only white people are considered magnanimous even though the phrase is nearly always meant sarcastically like when someone makes a big show of pitifully small generosity.

So it seems like the negative use cancels out any compliment to white people. What do you think?

[JVS]

1. I get that you're using it ironically, but it might be better to just allow that phrase to die.

[yurbud]

2. I wonder if it was EVER used as a compliment

[JVS]

3. Probably

[Captain Hilts]

10. Yes, it was. Whites said it to other whites also. For example,

in the movie "Bringing Up Baby," when Cary Grant's character uses the expression.

If you see it in a theatre, the audience always reacts.

[yurbud]

18. I could see blacks inventing it a subversive way of insulting whites while seeming to respect them

I remember reading in Richard Wright's BLACK BOY about him being paid for a day's work with a moldy crust of bread. That would be a good time to say, "That's mighty white of you, ma'am."

[proteus_lives]

4. I heard my grandfather use it when he was alive.

Best to leave it in that generation.

I suppose people could use it without racist intentions but it's way too loaded of a phrase.

[Mimosa]

5. I second JVS: the phrase was always UGLY! n/t

[Bucky]

6. Say what you want to say. If people misunderstand and it bothers you, change; if it doesn't, don't.

What's the point in saying something sarcastic if you're worried about what other people might think?

Nut up or choke, your call, but git off the fence.

[Orsino]

7. Yes.

Context is all, and ironic use might offset the offense, but this phrase depends on the old racist use for its impact.

[struggle4progress]

8. Sarcasm feels great -- but is very frequently misunderstood

[Captain Hilts]

9. Yes. Like "praising" a woman for "having balls." Though meant as praise it is not as it assumes

the recipient of the 'compliment' isn't inherently adequate.

I take your comment seriously because of all the people who really DO think it's praise to say a woman "has balls."

[Lil Missy]

11. Yes, it is absolutely and obviously racist.

Think about it. Why would you say something like that?? That's mighty WHITE of you? As opposed to what - that's BLACK of you? Or, it's good of you, (white), as opposed to bad (black, negro, aa) of you?

[MicaelS]

14. Why? Context is everything....

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mighty%20white%20of%20you

This is the context I heard it used in when I was growing up in 1960s Texas. This is whites talking to one another.

Used to describe someone who thinks they've done a great deed, charitable action or sacrifice, but in reality they've done very little to help the human condition.

http://everything2.com/title/mighty+white+of+you

Over the last few decades, common usage of "mighty white of you" has become overwhelmingly sarcastic in tone. Originally intended as a white on white compliment, it is now used by people of varying hues as a pointed insult. "That's mighty white of you" is a scathing response to a situation in which someone is condescendingly attempting to portray their own actions as incredibly generous and worthy of gratitude, when the reality of the situation is just the opposite.

Today I would never use it, except to one of my closest friends when I were in the process of tearing them a new asshole.

[XemaSab]

12. I would totally use that phrase with friends

but NEVER with a non-friend.

[Schema Thing]

13. If you're mocking racism, no.

Context is everything.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

15. Here I stand, blonde haired, blue eyed, perfectly unashamed.

I guess "That's mighty white of you" is no more racist than "That's mighty black of you" or anything other color selection from God's spectrum...that's really the litmus test. Try it out, and if the person doesn't fucking CLOCK you, then it passed the test.

[jobycom]

16. I've used it ironically a few times.

To mock white people for something racist.

[DarkTirade]

17. I always got the impression that the original usage of the term wasn't a reference to race

but rather more of a 'white knight' kind of reference. However, over time the sarcastic reference to race kind of took over the phrase, so it is a race thing now even if it wasn't originally.

So yeah... I'd leave that saying by the wayside. Its impossible to separate it from the racial implications of it now.

[MorningGlow]

19. Once upon a time

in my parents' generation, it was meant sincerely, with the old implication of "white" being "good" or "saintly" (vs. "black" being "bad" or "evil"). However, by the time I was a teenager, when my mother said it in front of me, I was completely taken aback and told her she should NEVER say that. (My mom isn't racist, but her brother was.) She was sincerely surprised and didn't understand why. I had to explain that by then it would have been perceived as racist even though the original meaning wasn't racist.

[KamaAina]

20. Right up there with "free, white and 21".

:puke:

[hippywife]

21. Yes. Absolutely and undeniably yes. n/t

[ismnotwasm]

22. Yes

Let it die.