I grew up hearing it in childrens books, so I don’t blame you for not knowing. But it’s one of those phrases that in hindsight is obviously offensive based on how it was used.
My mother used it similar to “in your room it looks like below the sofa of family Hempel” (“hier sieht’s aus wie bei Hempels unterm Sofa”). So my naive brain thought it’s just another family name
mriswith@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
It is apparently an outdated term for this variety.
(For those unaware the second part is an offensive term for black people.)
ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
I was o: In Germany it’s a term for chaotic / messy people unrelated to race. Thanks for the context
mriswith@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I grew up hearing it in childrens books, so I don’t blame you for not knowing. But it’s one of those phrases that in hindsight is obviously offensive based on how it was used.
ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
My mother used it similar to “in your room it looks like below the sofa of family Hempel” (“hier sieht’s aus wie bei Hempels unterm Sofa”). So my naive brain thought it’s just another family name
gid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 weeks ago
Sorry, I didn’t intend my comment to appear as policing what you wrote! I was just taken aback by the common name.
ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
It’s fine, it didn’t :)
But your comment without the additional context that was provided by another user wouldn’t have helped me to understand what’s going on.