What the hell does "you think I come off of a Banana boat mean

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 273
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    Don't look it up in the urban dictionary:o

    Yup,
    What an outrageous site that is.
    I have PMSL there before now.:eek:.:D.;).
  • TironTiron Posts: 8,080
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    titfortat wrote: »
    Well having been told many times in my life to **** off home on a banana boat I wanna know what it means. Im sorry if you think im trying to stir something if you look back at my post you will see I never play the race card and I disagree with people who do.
    But when I hear a saying that I feel is a bit near the mark Im gonna ask.

    I don't think you were trying to stir anything. You asked a question that's all. You have a right to.:)
  • slappers r usslappers r us Posts: 56,131
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    So you are saying there are boats made of banana:Ds....wow didnt know that thought they were a fruit>
    The boats were full of bananas not made of them
  • yawalloperyawalloper Posts: 6,561
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    Fringo wrote: »
    So where were you suddenly enlightened? Can you send a link? Because you've obviously done your homework very recently.

    TBH that was what I had always believed (just by hearing it mind, never looking it up) but it would seem that isn't the case or indeed it's so common in parlance that the origin has been lost.

    Thats whats annoyed me with this thread. The op seems to be asking for an explanations as to what it means....whilst suggesting a meaning. Then goes on to argue the point for their meaning, while flying in the face of the majority of explanations.
  • JamesC81JamesC81 Posts: 14,792
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    a black friend of mine has used that phrase before and i think it is to do with race. she's originally from jamaica and she sometimes jokes she should get back on the banana boat back to where she came from
  • titfortattitfortat Posts: 9,126
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    Fringo wrote: »
    So where were you suddenly enlightened? Can you send a link? Because you've obviously done your homework very recently.

    TBH that was what I had always believed (just by hearing it mind, never looking it up) but it would seem that isn't the case or indeed it's so common in parlance that the origin has been lost.

    Its not becuses I know the histroy is becuses my Nan and Grandad came over for trinidad and has told me storys. So of course im going to know about my family back ground.

    And I was born and raised in this country and I have never heard that saying in my life
  • SunnydaysSunnydays Posts: 12,279
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    I heard the phrase in London a lot when I was a kid.......it was said about the black West Indians who came over to help with regeneration, after WWII ......

    It means, do you think I am naive......well, something along those lines anyway.....

    Showing my age here......bananas were scarce during the war, and afterwards shiploads came in from the West Indies, plus sugar, and rum which we were short of also......because we had a shortage of labour, we called on the West Indies for young men and families to come over and help in the rebuilding, and they ended up with poorer paid labouring jobs..... I won't go on.....only to say they were subjected to the worst form of racism.....
  • titfortattitfortat Posts: 9,126
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    Youve just said you never heard it before....but yet you have decided you know what it means?

    And all of a sudden youve heard lots of referrences to banana boats to put black people down??

    Thats convenient for you isnt it. :rolleyes:

    You show me were I posted that I have heard that term before
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,217
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    I believe the expression WAS originally racist - it was used to insinuate that those who worked on the banana boats (mainly Asian or Black people) were stupid (because White people thought such people to be uncultured and uneducated). I think the complete expression was "Do you think I've just come down the river on a banana boat?" which implies that the workers came from further inland and travelled the rivers to reach the main ports to deliver the banana crops - thus re-enforcing the idea of uneducated 'natives'.

    However, nowadays - especially as bananas are grown in something like 100+ countries - it is less racially insulting and more meant to convey 'do you think I'm stupid'? Though why somebody can't simply say that is beyond me!
  • SparklesSparkles Posts: 4,534
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    husted wrote: »
    No its a boat made out of a banana. Obvioulsy it wouldnt float which is the point.

    I was just about to post something similar. I thought it was a boat made from the leaves of a banana plant....but same difference...the idea is that it doesn't float. ie: I'm not that daft that I'd travel in a banana boat..or be taken in by what you are trying to tell me. :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 828
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    linfran wrote: »
    Yes, it means all that. Was it Coirin said it? She comes out with some really quaint expressions for someone who's only 29. My daughter's that age and I can't imagine she's even heard it!

    I'm 28 and I've heard that expression (maybe its more of a regional thing though as I'm from up t'north too lol) I think I've also used it but never in a racist way
  • billiobillio Posts: 3,695
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    I take it to mean the same as "born yesterday/wet behind the ears" i.e. naive and inexperienced rather than stupid.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 362
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    We had the Geest banana plant up here a few years ago and all the banana workers were white people, so I agree with you its definitely not a racist remark.

    It wasn't a banana factory. Do you reaslise bananas are imported?

    I love this forum & what it throws up sometimes. :eek:
  • DeerdDeerd Posts: 21,240
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    titfortat wrote: »
    But why I have never heard that saying before. Its it ment to mean Black people are stupid who came over in the 60's

    It wasn't intended as an implication of stupidy rather lack of knowledge of an environment.

    In Scotland the term even had the added local reference to indicate the 'naivety' within the context of the 'sophiscation' of the local - 'Do you think I just came up the Clyde in a banana boat?'. It was an ill thought out sayng then, within the context of lesser racial awareness, and is moreso now - if one is aware of the actual historical context.

    However, I doubt JJ has an appreciation of the eytmology of the term. i further doubt he was bringing any racist laden to it and I assume he is repeating a phrase learned in chilchood which he takes to mean 'Do you think I am naive?'.
  • FringoFringo Posts: 7,995
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    titfortat wrote: »
    Its not becuses I know the histroy is becuses my Nan and Grandad came over for trinidad and has told me storys. So of course im going to know about my family back ground.

    And I was born and raised in this country and I have never heard that saying in my life

    Okey doke - I've heard it a lot but not for years to be honest.

    You just seemed to give a very good answer in reply to someone else that it seemed strange that you didn't understand in the first place.

    I think, only my supposition mind, that the people that came on the "banana boat" were usually swizzed by the locals and were seen as an easy target. Not necessarily rascist but the "whites" were opportunistic with them? Maybe.
  • titfortattitfortat Posts: 9,126
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    I'm 28 and I've heard that expression (maybe its more of a regional thing though as I'm from up t'north too lol) I think I've also used it but never in a racist way

    Im the same age and I have never heard it. And I live in london so that why I was a bit like wow what is that ment to mean
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,170
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    titfortat wrote: »
    You show me were I posted that I have heard that term before

    Eh?
    I didnt say you had.....my post says..."You have just said you have NEVER heard that before"

    So what do you mean?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 932
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    The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (p. 1134 for those really interested) have it as:

    just off the banana boat adjective

    gullible, used of an innocent abroad
    An illusion to the cultural innocence of a newly arrived immigrant


    I reckon he just meant it as that, not in a racial context.
  • SparklesSparkles Posts: 4,534
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    titfortat wrote: »
    You show me were I posted that I have heard that term before

    To answer that..see my post here.

    http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=41384568&postcount=48
  • MariaLeFrink2MariaLeFrink2 Posts: 1,779
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    Daisydozy wrote: »
    Google is your friend.

    Sarcasm isn't yours.

    Already there are several different answers on this thread alone.
  • TheBillyTheBilly Posts: 5,514
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    Don't Australians grow their own bananas? Why would they need a banana boat coming? :confused:
  • sheils1sheils1 Posts: 16,297
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    It means do you think I am stupid... its got nothing to do with race or anything like that !


    Agree
  • titfortattitfortat Posts: 9,126
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    Deerd wrote: »
    It wasn't intended as an implication of stupidy rather lack of knowledge of an environment.

    In Scotland the term even had the added local reference to indicate the 'naivety' within the context of the 'sophiscation' of the local - 'Do you think I just came up the Clyde in a banana boat'. It was an ill thought out sayng them, within the context of lesser racial awareness, and is moreso now - if one is aware of the actual historical context.

    However, I doubt JJ has an appreciation of the eytmology of the term. i further doubt he was bringing any racist laden to it and I assume he is repeating a phrase learned in chilchood which he takes to mean 'Do you think I am naive?'.

    Thankyou for explaining it to me. No I dont think JJ is either he is a lot of things to me but not in anyway a racist. But having heard storys from my Nan and having people say get back on your banana boat it just made me kind of go hold on a second.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,170
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    Devilchild wrote: »
    I believe the expression WAS originally racist - it was used to insinuate that those who worked on the banana boats (mainly Asian or Black people) were stupid (because White people thought such people to be uncultured and uneducated). I think the complete expression was "Do you think I've just come down the river on a banana boat?" which implies that the workers came from further inland and travelled the rivers to reach the main ports to deliver the banana crops - thus re-enforcing the idea of uneducated 'natives'.

    However, nowadays - especially as bananas are grown in something like 100+ countries - it is less racially insulting and more meant to convey 'do you think I'm stupid'? Though why somebody can't simply say that is beyond me!

    Not really.
    The boats used to be loaded up with very green bananas because of course, if they were yellow they would be bad by the time they arrived here.
    The saying originally started out as something similar to Am I that green.....and over the years became twisted to Am I that stupid as people Chinesed Whispered it.
    As the chinese whispers changed the saying, they also changed the origins.....

    "Its because of the bananas off the boats"......and over time became "Its because of the people off the boats".

    It means....am I stupid, am I green, do you think I dont know that.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 224
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    embrace the English language , it's a wonderful thing.
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