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Usenet Posted 17 years ago
Usage

Origin of stay black and die

Hi
Does anyone who does this quote came from " The only thing I have to do is stay
black and die!?
  

Top answer

[/nq] I have never heard that quote, though I don't challenge its meaning. Where or when (or from whom) did you hear it? The expression I have heard is "I may as well lie down and die", or "give up and die".

— Usenet

  • [/nq] I have never heard that quote, though I don't challenge its meaning.
  • Where or when (or from whom) did you hear it?
  • The expression I have heard is "I may as well lie down and die", or "give up and die".
  • Your quotation certainly has the feel of someone who has reached a depressing moment or sense of futility.
  • It may be an expression that some US black person has stated, though I think among US blacks there is a PC kind of feeling that improving themselves does not mean trying to grow out of their blackness.
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2 Answers
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[nq:1]Hi Does anyone who does this quote came from " The only thing I have to do is stay black and die!?[/nq]
I have never heard that quote, though I don't challenge its meaning.

Where or when (or from whom) did you hear it?
The expression I have heard is "I may as well lie down and die", or "give up and die". Your quotation certainly has the feel of someone who has reached a depr
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[nq:1]Hi Does anyone who does this quote came from " The only thing I have to do is stay black and die!?[/nq]
A quick wander around Yahoo suggests it was Langston Hughes in the late 40s or early 50s in this poem:
Necessity
Work?
I don't have to work.
I don't have to do nothing
but eat, drink, stay black, and die.
This little old furnished room's
so small I can't whi
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