Talk:dindu nuffin

Scope

I don't think "assumed by his peers to be innocent" is correct. This is a specifically anti-black term used to refer to black criminals. The ety is presumably supposed to sound like a false protestation of innocence. Equinox ◑ 12:17, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Fair enough. Feel free to modify definition. SemperBlotto (talk) 12:18, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

I've personally witnessed the term (and its abridged version, "dindu") used by racists to apply to all black people in general and not just criminal ones. As such, I've updated the description accordingly. Illegitimate Barrister (talk) 07:00, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Attestations

Teen Vogue (2020):

"On Saturday (May 23), a Twitter user resurfaced a video of the 24-year-old rapper in what they claimed was an alt-right chatroom. This video was then linked to lyrics from a 2015 song called "Dindu Nuffin," in which Doja uses a racist slur used against Black people who've faced police brutality."

Daily Beast (2021):

"Episode titles include ... “Roy Moore Dindu Nuffin," ... “Dindu nuffin” is another alt-right meme denigrating Black people..."

ADL (2019):

"One white supremacist meme posted to 4chan in March 2018 referred to Roof as “the hero of Charleston…who singlehandedly…took down 9 wild dindu nuffins…at their weekly racist rally disguised as a church meeting.”  The phrase “dindu nuffin” is a racist slang term that refers to African-Americans."

Vice (2017):

"Look for this phrase primarily in comment sections of stories about slain African Americans. "Dindu nuffin" (often abbreviated as "dindu") is a bastardization of "didn't do nothing," in reference to the claims of innocence that parents, friends, and community members make about the victims of unlawful police shootings."

2A02:C7C:7062:7800:98CD:5D86:A4FC:E46A 00:21, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

RFV discussion: August–September 2022

This entry has survived Wiktionary's verification process (permalink).

Please do not re-nominate for verification without comprehensive reasons for doing so.

---

dindu nuffin

This entry, or one or more of its senses, has been nominated as derogatory pursuant to WT:DEROGATORY. It may be speedily deleted if it does not have at least three quotations meeting the attestation requirements within two weeks of the nomination date, that is, by 6 August 2022.

Tagged by @AG202 but not listed. According to WT:DEROGATORY, this should've been speedily deleted by now, but I'd advise against doing so since the term was never actually added to this page, thus allowing it to slip under the radar for two weeks. Binarystep (talk) 09:48, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

The two citations under the "black person" sense seem like they could be using either sense, and the two citations on the citations page under "black criminal" seem just as likely (or more likely) to be using the "black person" sense. In general, I get the impression that the kind of racists who use this term think of black people as all being criminals or potential criminals. Probably the best course of action would be to combine the senses along the lines of "A black person, especially if viewed as likely to be a criminal". A combined sense would then have four cites. - -sche (discuss) 18:50, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

Makes sense to me. Binarystep (talk) 23:00, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

I've boldly combined the two senses and their cites; this conflation of blackness and criminality is also seen in the term criminigger. (Anyone fancy citing dindu?) - -sche (discuss) 23:02, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

Then it looks like this is now cited. Binarystep (talk) 03:21, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Should the wording be the other way 'round? "A likely criminal, especially if black." DCDuring (talk) 15:15, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

I have not found any cite at Google Books or Google Groups that indicates use referring to, say, poor whites, or those of any racial/ethnic group other than blacks. DCDuring (talk) 15:19, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

It's caricaturing a supposed black pronunciation; AFAICT it was originally intended to indicate blackness (and criminality). Like you, I haven't been able to find uses referring to other racial groups, though if we later find any we can revise/expand the entry at that time. - -sche (discuss) 18:31, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Other than maybe adding an "uncommon" label given how relatively difficult it was to find cites (but this is debatable, as it's well-known enough that Doja Cat sang about it), I think this is resolved. - -sche (discuss) 23:26, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

For the record, it's only uncommon on Usenet, which is to be expected since it's a relatively new slang term and no one really uses Usenet anymore. It's extremely common on Twitter and Reddit, as well as countless white supremacist sites. Binarystep (talk) 02:05, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

RFV-passed This, that and the other (talk) 01:34, 12 September 2022 (UTC)