Dozens (game)
A verbal duel of insults played before an audience.
The Dozens is an elaborate insult contest where participants trade disparaging remarks, often about an opponent's mother.[1][2] The game is played almost entirely by African-Americans, with higher popularity in low-income and urban communities.[3]
Quick Facts
- First academic treatment
- 1939
- First academic author
- John Dollard
- First attested in print
- 1928
- Common participants
- African Americans, especially men
- Settings
- Low-income
- urban
- middle-class
- rural
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
The first academic treatment of the Dozens was made in 1939 by psychologist John Dollard.[4] He hypothesized that African Americans shifted anger from racist oppressors to friends and neighbors through these insults.[5] Sociologist Harry Lefever stated that verbal skill is valued among African Americans as much as physical strength.[6] The object of the game is to stupefy opponents with swift speech, and the meaning of words is lost in the performance.[6][7]
Those playing the Dozens must show quick thinking and verbal skill.[6] Lefever described taking offense as a childish reaction, while maturity allows one to endure the harsh talk with composure and wit.[6] According to Abrahams and Leland, a number of these verbal contests do result in physical fights.[8]
What the cited sources add
Mona Lisa Saloy explains that the dozens has its origins in the slave trade of New Orleans, where deformed slaves were grouped in lots of a "cheap dozen" for sale.[9][1] Saloy states that Blacks practiced insulting each other indirectly by attacking the "mother" to toughen their hearts against verbal assault.[1] Jeffries also reports that the Wayans Brothers released The Dozens, a "yo momma" game for mobile phones in 2004.[9] Saloy describes toasting as a mix of the dozens and rapping, where the power of "talk" overcomes conflicts.[1]
Saloy adds that the dueling dozens and rapping have been incorrectly attributed only to Black male culture.[1] Being sold as part of the "dozens" was considered the most severe insult for a Black person.[9][1]
References
- Saloy, Mona Lisa, "African American Oral Traditions in Louisiana", Folklife in Louisiana (1998). Retrieved November 12, 2009.. facts only, no text reused. louisianafolklife.org
- Wikipedia, "Dozens (game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jeffries, "The mother of all insults", The Guardian, June 12, 2006; Chimezie, Amuzie (June 1976). "The Dozens: An African-Heritage Theory", Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 401–420. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Dozens (game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Although folklorists have observed some white adolescent boys engaging in a form of the Dozens, a black psychologist wrote in 1970 that white psychologists' dec (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Dozens (game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jordan, Larry (1983). "Social Construction as Tradition: A Review and Reconceptualization of the Dozens", Review of Research in Education, Vol. 10, pp. 79–101. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Dozens (game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dollard, pp. 290–294. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Dozens (game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lefever, Harry (Spring 1981). "Playing the Dozens": A Mechanism for Social Control, Phylon, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 73–85. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Dozens (game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Leland, p. 173. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Dozens (game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Abrahams, "Playing the Dozens", The Journal of American Folklore, July–September 1962, p. 209–220; Leland, p. 173. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Jeffries, "The mother of all insults", The Guardian, June 12, 2006. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Dozens (game) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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