Dozen = racial slur?

[sha_lyn]

A few days ago a friend was shopping at Super-WalMart. She picked up a package of hot dog buns and her daughter asked her how many were in the package.
She pointed to the packaged and read the label "one dozen hot dog rolls".
An African-American lady standing near-by went nuts and told my friend she might as well be teaching her daughter to call her(the lady) a (insert the n word here). She said the lady continued to yell and rant for several minutes, and during the rant she did say dozen, so it wasn't that the lady miss-understood my friend. My friend eventually told her "the only thing offensive is the fact that you think I should know all the latest slang" then she walked off. She's asked several people what is offensive about it. A few of us have even tried looking it up online to no avail.
I figured someone here on the DIS might just know what is offensive about the word dozen.

 

[Cindyluwho]

WOW!! I have NO idea! We must be out of the loop?

 

[Sparx]

I think my head just spun around and exploded.

people need to find some real issues to get upset over.

 

[Loves Disney]

I'm sitting here trying, for the life of me, to figure out what is wrong with a dozen. It means 12...unless you are going for the baker's dozen lol.

Maybe this woman is expressing some repressed feelings towards the number 12...nightmare maybe? LOL.

 

[doxdogy]

First I have heard such a thing.

 

[Briarmom]

Perhaps the lady is a lunatic?

I've never heard of it.

 

[M 'n C]

I just tried urbandictionary.com and nothing came up so if it is some type of racial slur they don't even know about it!!!

 

[Aprille]

I didn't know hot dog buns came in packages of a dozen. Still doesn't match the number of weiners in a package.

Okay, sorry - continue with the discussion of the lunacy of a lady going off on someone because they said "dozen".

 

[eclectics]

Sounds like she missed her Meds that morning.

To my knowlege, Dozen is not a racial slur, unless it's some sort of gang thing.

 

[disykat]

Candid camera?

 

[Loves Disney]

It just hit me, what if she speaks some language that is uncommon and mistook that word for a bad one in that language? That's the best thing I could think of.

If it's not on Urban Dictionary, it doesn't exist. lol.

 

[ducklite]

I've never heard that one either. What a weird encounter.

Anne

 

[tinkerbell27]

found this .......



dozens 62 up, 8 down

Playing the dozens is an African-American custom in which two competitors -- usually males -- go head to head in a competition of comedic trash talk. They take turns "cracking on," or insulting, one another, their adversary's mother or other family member until one of them has no comeback. In the U.S., the practice can be traced back to chattel slavery, when violence among slaves was a property crime with potentially draconian consequences. Verbal sparring became a substitute for physical contention. While the competition on its face is usually light-hearted, smiles sometimes mask real tensions.

The dozens can be a harmless game, or, if tempers flare, a prelude to physical violence. But in its purest form, the dozens is part of an African-American custom of verbal sparring, of "woofin'" (see wolf ticket) and "signifyin'," intended to defuse conflict amicably, descended from an oral tradition rooted in traditional West African cultures. The dozens is a contest of personal power -- of wit, self-control, verbal ability, mental agility and mental toughness. Defeat can be humiliating; but a skilled contender, win or lose, may gain respect.

"Yo' mama," a common, widely recognized argumentative rejoinder in African-Amercan vernacular speech, is a cryptic reference to the dozens.

The term "the dozens" refers to the devaluing on the auctionblock of slaves who were past their prime, who were aged or who, after years of back-breaking toil, no longer were capable of hard labor. These enslaved human beings often were sold by the dozen.

 

[Fairy Dust]

Crazy woman!

 

[CapeCodTenor]

I could be wrong here, but this sounds like someone looking for trouble. This is a perfect example of why this country will never get over the issue of race relations. There are people out there who look for this and will eat it up ever chance they get. Then again, she could have thought your friend either said something else, or she could be a complete mental case. Either way, she sounds like trouble. Then again, I could be wrong on all counts.

 

[Lanshark]

She sounds a couple of donuts short of a dozen to me.

 

[lulugirl]

What a kook.

 

[grlpwrd]

I looked it up and found the acronym BUN means Big Ugly N-.

I haven't heard it personally, but it is derogatory .... ????

 

[DawnCt1]

Sounds like she is a disciple of Louis Farrakan and is channeling the Mother Ship.

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

She sounds a couple of donuts short of a dozen to me.

Very good

She's a dough - nut.

Imagine, if the customer had said "I'll take a dozen doughnut holes," and the offended lady though she had said dozen doughnut ho's.