I’m from a border state, where some of us are proud that we seceded from the secessionist south. Around here “boy” is often used generically, as in “What are you boys up to this evening?” when walking up to a fire at a party (and hoping there was a bottle of ’shine in the answer!)

I’m also sometimes called “honey” by the older gentleman at the hardware store when he asks me what he can do to help me out. He’s like 15 or 20 years older than me, and I’m 50ish. So honey is gender neutral, and boy isn’t always racist or insulting, at least in my neighborhood, which is WAY rural.

Language in these hills is very old fashioned, and my older neighbors (who are most all dead now) spoke in almost Elizabethan terms, using meandered pronounced as mindered, for example. This was a wonderful place to live for someone interested in the history of language.

I’m not saying “boy” isn’t used in a hateful way in other places, by other folks, but, really, my neighbors would rather spit on their Mom’s floor than be rude.

All that said, I do believe that the political boys using the term boy for a man of color running for national office are low as pond scum. I’m with Tom Head on that!!

JR

But this is ONLY appropriate in contexts of relative intimacy. You never say “boy” about somebody you don’t like, and when you do, it’s always an insult. In this way it’s sort of like the Hindi ap/tum distinction–if you use the “tum” terminology, it either means you know the person well or you don’t respect the person enough to use the more honorific term.

And non-intimate CROSS-RACIAL use of “boy” is always insulting, at least in every context I ever remember hearing it, given the word’s obvious history as a racial slur. The idea that any white person with a room temperature IQ would drop “boy” into a conversation about a person of color he doesn’t know well and doesn’t like and not expect it to at least potentially come across as racist is kind of stupid.

And saying “I don’t want that boy to have his finger on the nuclear button,” or however the guy worded it, definitely sounds like a racial slur–though the part about not trusting Obama with the same nuclear button wielded by (among others) Bill Clinton strikes me as much more racist than the actual use of the word “boy.”

And boy is definitely an insult.

To this Aiken, South Carolina native, calling a man a “boy” is an insult, no matter what. Commissioner Marion Williams of Augusta, Ga. called fellow Commissioner Joe Bowles a “boy” during one of their heated meetings at the Commission office.

You don’t even have to be from around here to know that it sounds odd. Normal people simply don’t go around calling each other boy or girl in a buddy-like way. The only two people I know who do that are a brother and sister who call each other Boy and Girl. Amanda was exactly right in her post; you simply do not address a stranger and an equal in that manner.

For someone with no real relationship with a person to call him “boy” is straight up weird, which is what gives so much credence to the idea that Davis is utilizing an old-school racial epithet. Sure, except for in the super deep south, a racist under the age of 40 probably wouldn’t use “boy” that way, but there are still plenty of people living who did, and as another commenter mentioned, it lives on in pop culture references, allowing you to know that the tv cop is a good-ol-boy racist redneck without using the the dreaded n-word.

kevin is just plain crazy to think it was non-racist to call Obama boy in that context.

Crazy kevin.

Oh, kevin’s never going to let go of the fact that I once said “cracker” because he’s desperate to cover up what I actually said in that comment, which was that all of the cracker farmers in downstate Illinois voted for Obama in droves. That’s right, the people that Rush Limbaugh claims he understands inside and out voted for the black Democrat and gave him a 70%+ majority.

Kevin can’t possibly let it get out that a Democrat can get past someone’s initial prejudices and win their vote, because then the entire Republican experiment collapses and the Southern Strategy loses the power it once had.

Farmers are likely to vote for Obama in November as well. Those guys are the most rational, interest based voters in the country and they back the candidate who will hook them up with their subsidies.

McCain doesn’t play ball with them, which is why he doesn’t bother campaigning in Iowa caucuses.

Someone could very easily go through life entirely unaware of the racist connotation of the word “boy.” It’s not heavily used in pop culture. Maybe once or twice, I’ve seen a menacing cop call a black guy “boy” on network television where racist characters can’t use real epithets.

In fact, the only time I’ve really heard it used to indicate racist intent is when it’s used in place of a name, as in “Boy, fetch me another mint julep” or “Best watch your step, Boy, we don’t like your kind,” or “Step out the car and put ya’lls hands on the hood, Boy.”

I’ve seen waiters referred to as “the boy” and maids referred to as “the girl.” I think that is impolite, and it makes me uncomfortable, but I don’t think that’s exclusively used to denote a black waiter or maid.

Personally, I have never heard the word “boy” used in the third person as an epithet. I’ve heard it to describe, for example athletes “that boy sure can knock down free throws,” and in that context someone might also refer to the athlete as a “kid” which has no racial connotation that I am aware of.

I have never thought of “boy” as being synonymous with an epithet like “n*****” and “boy” has lots of other connotations, i.e. frat boy, pool boy, copy boy, good ol’ boy, you’re my boy, white boy, etc.

I can’t think of any nefarious reason for Davis to drop “boy” in describing Obama. It’s not a “dog whistle.” Everyone has already noticed that Barack Obama is black.

I think Davis probably meant to be condescending and dismissive of Obama’s abilities in referring to him as a “boy,” and I think Bill Clinton intended the same thing when he used the plural “boys” to refer to Obama and John Edwards. I don’t think it was intended as an epithet.

Maybe it indicates some subconscious bias, one of those weird things like the George Allen “macaca” gaffe. But “boy” has a lot of meanings. I think Davis insulting Obama is just a convenient distraction from Obama insulting Pennsylvania voters.

Anyway, the proper channel of attack on Obama is not that he is black. That’s one hundred percent to backfire, and muddy the speaker and generate sympathy for Obama. The correct way to hit Obama is to highlight his liberalism, his elitism, his arrogance, his condescension and his disconnectedness.

He’s like John Kerry, except he’s not a war hero, he won’t wear a flag pin or eat a cheese steak, and his preacher loves Louis Farrakhan.

And what do the seeds look like?

Do they use an all-in-one combine harvester that puts the crackers directly in packages? That’s cool.