Nutty Racism

The other day at work, during the normal conversational pauses, I learned something that I found truly shocking.

It seems that most of the country refers to Brazil nuts as "Nigger Toes". I was shocked as person after person casually said, "yeah, that's what they're called."

My boss was at a loss when asked if he knew another name for a Brazil nut. He didn't know what a Brazil nut was and finally asked, "Do you mean Nigger Toes?"

Everyone seemed to know this, other than myself. From Colorado, to Texas, to Minnesota, to Illinois to California the answers were the same and casually stated. In fairness, I don't think many of my co-workers actually use this term. Most attributed it to what was said in their home growing up.

Finally our sales V.P. who hails from Pennsylvania had the same reaction as I did. We agreed that if we ever even said that in our own home our mothers would have slapped us so fast we wouldn't have had time to duck.

How many of you are familiar with this term and how many heard it used in your home growing up?

Comments

[meg]

I didn't hear that term used in reference to brazil nuts until just a few years ago.

Not a big nut-eating family, the one I came from.

[A Curious Stranger]

Never heard it.

[wob]

never heard of it till just now.

[Mike Spille]

Yes w0b, although my mother refused to use the term, it is what her mother and presumeably others in Red Wing Minnesota called them. My mother told me about it when I was around 13 (30 years ago)

-Spille

[jake]

I've never heard that one.

[w0b]

holy shit it's spille!

I am afraid now that he has found our blogs...

:)

[dinaripper]

Sad to say, but my dad and other family memebers used it all of the time. Yes, I grew up in Minnesota. Perhaps Minnesotans are ingnorant bigets? I don't know, I just know that I live here in Colorado now.

[Nate]

I sent an email to my mom who grew up all over the country, but home base was near Green Bay, WI in the 40s wondering about her and my Uncle from MN's experience with this term. Here's her response:

"Completely familiar with the phrase, and never knew those particular nuts had a more respectable name until I was in high school/college. I think it merely reflects the unconscious verbal racism common in the good old USA a couple generations ago. And, yes, I'm sure [your Uncle] and his family are familiar with the phrase although I'm sure they don't use it in the type of polite conversation used in blogs today. On the other hand we wouldn't have been alive long if our mothers had ever heard us use F____, Holy Shit, Fart, Suck, etc. in conversation or in writing. Mom"

[Non Prophet]

I checked with my folks and neither of them have ever heard it. They are from Queens and Providence. Data is indicating that it is a widely spread regionalism.

Fun fact: In 1967 it was still against the law to marry interracially in 16 states.

[merdock]

I never knew those had a real name until just now. I have always called them nigger toes. I guess the ignorant one is now educated.

[Alf]

My Grandparents and uncles all called them nigger toes in the 1960's and 70's. I never knew there was another name for them until many years later. We enjoyed nigger toes and other nuts mostly around Christmas time. Ontario, Canada.

YESS!!!! I love nigger toes. Here in the south that is the PC name for brazil nuts.

[aempirei]

I just heard this word today and found this site via google. My dad asked for some nigger toes and I was like what the fuck? He meant brazil nuts. I couldnt really stop laughing.

My cousin called my dad racist and I said, Filipinos cant be racist, just to fill another stereotype that isnt correct.

My cousin said, Filipinos are racists against blacks a lot.

And then my grandmother said, yes, because blacks are mostly bad.

All of this in San Francisco by a Filipino family.

[Jimbo]

My parents used the "nigger toes' term as well. That was in Central Texas. I'm glad that we can now call them brazil nuts and most will know what we mean.

However, A couple of other terms still give me trouble. "Nigger shooter" has never had a satisfactory replacement term. That's a y shaped stick with rubber bands for firing a projectile. Not it is definitely not a Slingshot.

The other politically incorrect phrase is the poem, "....Catch a nigger by the toe, if he hollers let him go..." I forget the rest.

[Shaka]

Yes, I heard... You will find the word Nigger toes in Webster's Old thick Dictionary along with other Nigger words... I also heard the PC word African Americans.When you hear this word you assume you are referring to a Black person from American. Wrong! What do you call a White person born in Africa and then move to American and gain citizenship?

Shaka

[mugu]

ilo ve the whole of this siteoooooooooo

[Fresh Dizzy-izzle]

I was kickin' it to dem nigga beats with my nigga hoe that was nigga lipin' my nigga nuts. I said nigga please; I paid a nigga price with my nigga roll for this Nigga Cig which I nigga rigged. Stop suckin' my nigga dick and come up by this nigga supreme and smoke some of this nigga cheese with this nigga in waiting. After which we had a few nigga toes. You can thank the Black Rap Artists for perpetuating and congregating and instigating the word 'NIGGER'. You can find almost every variation and term associated with the word Nigger at www.urbandictionary.com.

My aunt called these fat, brown nuts niggertoes, and it was from her I received the term during my youth in the 1970s. It falls into the category of racially-based euphamisms that includes "paddywagon" (a police prisoner transport van) and "wop slop" (a term referring to spaghetti and tomato sauce, as explained to me by an Italian chef who wanted it known that his cuisine consists of more than noodles and pizza).

Niggertoes are different from these phrases in two ways. First, the term is quite descriptive. These nuts do look like the amputated toes of a youthful nigger.

Secondly, the term is not pejorative; that is to say, it means no undue harm toward niggers. Unlike "paddywagon," which suggests that prisoner transport carries a primarily Irish contingent, and that, today, isn't an accurate description. ("Niggerbus" is actually a pretty good name for a modern police van, and that would be worth adopting, IMO.)

I will add that, unlike most races, the nigger has two problems. One is its unsightly fecal-colored skin and its extremely nappy hair, a shredded mess that is so ugly that the nigger itself often tries to straighten and lighten it so as to look less like the great apes and more like Whites.

The other problem is, of course, cognative: the nigger doesn't understand what it fails to know. You can't train it, and unless it's controlled it will shit where it eats and parasitically destroy everything it comes across.

Thus, to the nigger, the world is one big handout. When that which is not theirs is justly denied them, they resort to violent, animalistic behaviours to obtain it.

It's a shame that it's so, but it is so: no-one who has a choice desires to live in a nation, or even a city that is predominantly nigger and controlled by a nigger government. Do you want to live in Haiti? The Congo? Rwanda? Downtown Detroit?

In any case, niggertoe nuts are descriptively accurate and good humoured toward the nigger race. I'm glad that you've discovered it, and I hope you enjoy these tasty snacks.

[wade]

I was taught "nigger toes" when I was 4 years old. I was also taught: eenie meenie mynie moe catch a nigger by the toe, if he hollers let him go, eenie meenie mynie moe. But more often we always substituted the word tiger instead. As of this day, I'd never teach younger children these terms.

[Bea Arthur]

Cashews are still better.

[idlechic]

i'm from pennsylvania, too, and i'd never heard it until last week. i brought a can of mixed nuts into work and had 3 co-workers refer to them as nigger toes in one day. we're all from pennsylvania, so apparently it's still pretty prevalent here, too. even if i'd grown up calling them that, i'd be embarrassed to admit it in mixed company.

[peaceful]

My grandmother, who lived from 1918 - 1970, called them nigger toes. I never knew they had a different name until near the time she passed away, when I was told they were called Brazil Nuts.

More recently, in fact, just in the last two weeks, I was told that the reason for its widespread name was because they were canned under that label name. I am wondering if that is true, which would account for why so many people refer to them that way (very offensive).

[Jessie]

Both my parents\grandparents and my husbands family use the term. Our families are from CA, PA, NC & SC. I found this page because I was searching for what kind of nut a "nigger toe" is.My 3 yr old asked me recently what I was eating (mixed nuts). I didn't know what to say, surely it has a proper name! I certainly didn't want to pass along the term "nigger toes." Now I know to say that's a Brazil Nut!

[Cozmo]

The Brazil Nut Tree:

Native to the Amazon, this tree resists cultivation elsewhere--and even in Brazil wild trees fare far better than the few commercial plantations of domesticated ones. Brazil nut pods are gathered only after they fall to the ground. Why? Because each weighs about 5 pounds a piece! Harvesters run around gathering them while bearing shields over their heads.

[Rich K]

that's the only name I heard them called in my home and my grandparents home (Ohio and Michigan). We always had a large bowl of mixed nuts on the table especially for the holidays. Today I was eating mixed nuts with my wife (Harrisburg, PA) and asked her if she new what they were called??? and that's the only name she knew them by.