Colored People's Time

English

Etymology

From its facetious treatment as a time zone.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Noun

Colored People's Time (uncountable)

  1. (US, dated derogatory slang, sometimes reclaimed) A notional system of time (or time zone) which others sometimes derogatorily ascribe to African Americans, and which they sometimes jocularly ascribe to themselves, to account for their supposed tendency to be tardy.
    • 1967 January 27, Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted in Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound (1994), p. 338:
      β€œColored People's Time,” King said with a grin. β€œIt always takes us longer to get where we're going.”

Synonyms

Further reading