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

1234568»

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 907
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    lovinit44 wrote: »
    that's not true

    yes they did, have you ever been to a football match and heard the crowd chant? back in the 50s 60s 70s even 80s it was considered normal to hear racist chants at football matches things are thrown at players all the time.

    look someone as even asked why it was done http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081129151447AAtuazf
  • titfortattitfortat Posts: 9,126
    Forum Member
    Boselecta wrote: »
    It's a saying that could potentially upset a black person I think. I grew up regularly hearing the saying and in my view it definitely meant that you were "thick like the West Indians who'd come to UK". I should add that I grew up in Notting Hill/Ladbroke Grove in 60s/70 so I feel that I'm pretty clear on the usage. I'd accept that the overtly bigoted application of the saying may have waned over the years but nothing will convince me that the saying does not have an unsavoury side to it.

    That is how I felt when I first herd it. It just does not sit rigt with me
  • jeppajeppa Posts: 420
    Forum Member
    Boselecta wrote: »
    It's a saying that could potentially upset a black person I think. I grew up regularly hearing the saying and in my view it definitely meant that you were "thick like the West Indians who'd come to UK". I should add that I grew up in Notting Hill/Ladbroke Grove in 60s/70 so I feel that I'm pretty clear on the usage. I'd accept that the overtly bigoted application of the saying may have waned over the years but nothing will convince me that the saying does not have an unsavoury side to it.

    I`m 60 and it definitely had that connotation through the 60s, 70s and into the 80s, its only in the last 20 years that it has started to have the naive/stupid meaning to it. I`m certainly not condoning the meaning it had in the years I grew up but it was a time when people got away with racist comments like that, we`re much more pc now.
  • jaybee2jaybee2 Posts: 1,710
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Boselecta wrote: »
    It's a saying that could potentially upset a black person I think. I grew up regularly hearing the saying and in my view it definitely meant that you were "thick like the West Indians who'd come to UK". I should add that I grew up in Notting Hill/Ladbroke Grove in 60s/70 so I feel that I'm pretty clear on the usage. I'd accept that the overtly bigoted application of the saying may have waned over the years but nothing will convince me that the saying does not have an unsavoury side to it.

    This is definitely what it means. Someone above quoted from a dictionary about 'an innocent abroad' and that is what is means too. It does mean also, 'do you think I'm thick?' because if you just came off the banana boat you were thick about the ways of this country. Can people not see this from all the replies on this thread?

    It's origins were racist (who do you think was getting off the banana boats?) but I understand that people do not always use it in this way.

    What's really pissing me off is the number of people on this thread who categorically and definitively state that it's not racist, never has been racist and trot out that old chestnut about the race card. Why does the fact that it might be racist bother them so much?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 85
    Forum Member
    Partridge Dictionary of slang and unconventional english says: just off the banana boat adjective gullible, used of an innocent abroad. An allusion to the cultural innocence of a newly arrived immigrant UK, 1966
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,908
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Boselecta wrote: »
    It's a saying that could potentially upset a black person I think. I grew up regularly hearing the saying and in my view it definitely meant that you were "thick like the West Indians who'd come to UK". I should add that I grew up in Notting Hill/Ladbroke Grove in 60s/70 so I feel that I'm pretty clear on the usage. I'd accept that the overtly bigoted application of the saying may have waned over the years but nothing will convince me that the saying does not have an unsavoury side to it.

    Spot on.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,170
    Forum Member
    bigbro9 wrote: »
    it started on the footballl terrace when the first black players came to the UK to play they would get bananas thrown at them and told to **** off home on his banana boat.

    http://www.obv.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94&Itemid=112

    As has been expalined on this thread.....saying something along the lines of " ***off home on the banana boat" WOULD be a racist thing to say......obviously.

    That is not the saying that is being discussed here.

    The saying is "Do you think I just came off the banana boat", which does not have the same meaning or origins.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,170
    Forum Member
    Wow!:eek: I thought it was a mix up of wet behind the ears (which i assume means new born?)

    Poor uncle Laurie. :o We all laughed our heads off.

    Sure....wet behind the ears does mean a new born baby......innocent, lacking in knowledge etc.

    Phrases and sayings are developed over time and people always think up news ones, especially when a certain word may trigger another meaning.

    So "Wet behind the ears" may have been the first saying to be used.....then someone maybe thought "Why does corn get wet behind the ears....its green?"

    The human mind will play with words and its very different in in us all. Hence the different interpretations you might get from several people hearing the same sentence.
  • VeriVeri Posts: 96,996
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It probably means the same as "I didn't come out of a lemon tree" -- said by JJ just now in the highlights.
  • cleocleo Posts: 4,570
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    JJ on HLs just now

    I didn't drop out of a lemon tree.

    He's apparently got a few of these
  • TheBillyTheBilly Posts: 5,514
    Forum Member
    There you go. He just likes sayings. End of thread. :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 907
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    As has been expalined on this thread.....saying something along the lines of " ***off home on the banana boat" WOULD be a racist thing to say......obviously.

    That is not the saying that is being discussed here.

    The saying is "Do you think I just came off the banana boat", which does not have the same meaning or origins.
    its the same boat it does not matter if you get off or on it, its a banana boat at the end of the day.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,823
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    vald wrote: »
    No. In the sixties we would of said

    'Do you think I'm thick' or

    'Doyou think I'm stupid'

    I don't know what people would say today, if anything. My days of insulting people are well behind me:o

    i'm not insulting anyone. ?
  • STUPID CUPIDSTUPID CUPID Posts: 2,890
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It means naive.goggle eyed,innocent.
    Unknowing but not neccessary stupid.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,170
    Forum Member
    bigbro9 wrote: »
    its the same boat it does not matter if you get off or on it, its a banana boat at the end of the day.

    There is nothing racist about a banana boat....its an object.

    Of course the context is changed from one saying to another.....they are blatantly different and are said in a different manner.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 224
    Forum Member
    why on earth is this thread still dragging on ?
  • jendejende Posts: 21,432
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Merr22 wrote: »
    When my late mother used it, she meant the same as you're not pulling the wool over my eyes, basically it meant - you may think you can fool me, but you can't, the only race thing it eluded to, was the caribbean people who came over in the 40's, 50's and 60's who believed they were coming to a better life, and would be welcomed with open arms, and not the racist attitude they met.

    This is what I thought it meant but I don't like people saying it as I think it can be used as a rascist slur by some who think say anything about a banana and their rascist job is done. I think if you said that to someone who was a real rascist they wouldn't be happy.

    But I don't think JJ meant it that way. I think he meant it as 'do they think I'm stupid/naive.' If someone did have proof it did have rascist connontations, I don't think JJ would be aware of that. I know I don't like the term as I said, because it can be twisted, but I think JJ was just using it as a saying, just thinking it meant naive.
Sign In or Register to comment.