My friend thinks I am an asshole for insisting that I gave him all the context he needed to understand this snippet.

Accompanying that image, I sent him:

His response:

It’s all there, I assure you. But let’s break it down.

Nobody says “negro” anymore. My adding this was to more assuredly call attention to the time period, geography, and mood of the snippet.

Montgomery and Negroes and 1956 all call to mind Civil Rights time period and events—and to, say, a person who fancies himself a historian—the bus boycott.

On “her employer”: The established time and place makes it near certain that the employer isn’t a negro and the her is. It is also fine at this point to run with the assumption that the employer is a man.

On “tells her”: This Employer-Boss Man-Mister-Master is telling her-negro-woman something to correct her behavior.

On “Everybody is saying”: classic (and classically faulty) passive and indirect approach to admonition.

On “Communists refuse to ride the bus”: here we have confirmation of bus boycott and Alabama. The use of the C-word in the 50s is meant to be so repulsive that any self-respecting Negro would never group themselves by action with the commies.

On “I know you got them told, Miss Lucy”: We have confirmation that employee is Negro Woman through “got them told” (read: I know you corrected everybody holding this errant belief) and we found out we were wrong on sex of employer. Miss Lucy clearly indicates a woman. And on the whole, we appreciate the setup for the punchline that the Negro Woman just delivered. Compelling stuff.

On “‘Cause you wouldn’t let no communist raise your six chillin”: This is both more confirmation that a Negro Woman is the her, adding specifics of job requirements, and the punchline. The punchline is that the white employer lady—white employer ladies are supposed to be smart—turns out to be a rather grave hypocrite when the plain facts are admitted. This is because a refusing-bus-Negro-servant, whom everybody thinks must needs be communist, cannot possibly be communist, because if she was a commie, then it would mean employer-white-lady-boss would be raising communist children. An thar aint no way in hayell Klan members is commies.

****

As usual, “What is right is not always popular; what is popular is not always right.” Or as Mark Twain puts it, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reconsider.”

So I say again, “Yay truth!”