Mike Pence's "Whipped Out That Mexican Thing" Gaffe, And Other Musings About The Colloquial Use Of The Word "Whip"

Edited by Azizi Powell

In the midst of the one and only 2016 United States Vice Presidential debate, Republican Mike Pence probably didn't realize how big a gaffe his statement "Whipped out the Mexican thing again" was. But if he didn't know then, he surely realizes it now.

From http://www.univision.com/univision-news/politics/pences-that-mexican-thing-goes-viral-after-vp-debate Pence's 'That Mexican thing' goes viral after VP debate, Rachel Glickhouse, Publicado: oct 05, 2016
"The Republican vice presidential candidate's off-the-cuff comment during Tuesday's debate overshadowed his successful performance, inspiring anger among Latinos.

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence was doing well at Tuesday night's debate, until he fell into the same xenophobic, anti-Hispanic rhetoric that has haunted the Donald Trump campaign since the beginning.

When Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine brought up controversial remarks Trump made about Mexicans when he kicked off his presidential bid last year, Pence tried to brush the comments off.

"Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again," Pence retorted.

In that instant, the catchy, oft-repeated complaints Pence was making about Hillary Clinton's "insult-driven campaign" throughout the debate fell by the wayside. Twitter went crazy....

On Twitter, people used the hashtag #ThatMexicanThing to share personal immigration stories....

Inteligent Idiot @IntlligentIdiot
#ThatMexicanThing is my taxpaying grandfather and his four brothers collectively serving in three wars. Your boss dodged them all.
3:50 AM - 5 Oct 2016

....

Pili Tobar @pilitobar87
#ThatMexicanThing where undocumented immigrants pay more taxes than @realDonaldTrump does. #VPDebate
11:41 PM - 4 Oct 2016

Maribelia Avalos @MaribeliaA
#ThatMexicanThing where I'm becoming a naturalized citizen so I can vote for @HillaryClinton. #VPDebate
12:31 AM - 5 Oct 2016"....

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From http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/05/1578142/--You-whipped-out-that-Mexican-thing-again-Words-for-Pence-to-regret-until-November 'You whipped out that Mexican thing again:' Words Mike Pence will regret until November, By Joan McCarter, 2016/10/05
..."After Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, again brought up Donald Trump's provocative statements on immigration—including during his announcement speech when he said that some of the immigrants Mexico was sending were "rapists" and were "bringing crime"—Pence had apparently had enough.

"Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again," the Indiana governor said.

Within moments, ThatMexicanThing.org was set up, redirecting to VL Action Network's voter information and registration page. The Clinton campaign wasn't far behind, getting ThatMexicanThing.com set up and redirected to HillaryClinton.com. And Twitter went wild with the hashtag #ThatMexicanThing. A few highlights:

Delonté De Clou @dilemmv
#ThatMexicanThing pays 12 billion in taxes.
The orange thing pays ZERO
8:02 AM - 5 Oct 2016

Victoria Villalpando @vvillalp
#ThatMexicanThing is when we vote... all 27.3 million eligible voters.
8:14 AM - 5 Oct 2016

Latino voter registration is already robust, passing the goals set by Voto Latino. From what you can see on Twitter (more below the fold), it’s going to see another surge.

Thanks, Mike Pence!"
-snip-
Here are a few comments from that article's discussion thread:
"rugbymom Oct 05
"I think from context that what Pence meant to refer to was not Mexican people, but the narrative that Trump hates Mexicans. (I can’t imagine where we got that idea, can you?) In other words, it's the equivalent of Bernie's outburst about “those damn emails,” meaning “I’m tired of hearing about that topic.”

But if Mexican-Americans slam it as an insult to them and their families, that’s all good too. Let Pence and Trump try and explain it away, preferably in more epic Twitter nonsense."

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Reply
Bob Love Oct 05
"By dismissing the issue Pence dismissed the subject, which was Mexicans in the US.

He may have meant something a bit different, but he sure didn't mean well."

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dallasdave Oct 05 ·
"Wow, insult first used and then reappropriated within a couple of minutes. Love the netz.

ThatMexicanThing is going to bury your party, Mikey."

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free as a butterfly
"Yeah, that’s definitely going to get the Latinos to come out in droves to vote.

For the Dems."

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THE LINE FROM THE "BLAZING SADDLES" MOVIE
Here are some additional comments from that same dailykos post:
Darmok Oct 05
"I guess I'm the only one who thought of Blazing Saddles?"

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Reply
Will Smirk 4 Food
"See above. Others reminisced about Cleavon Little’s famous line..."
-snip-
Several daily kos commenters posted this video clip:

"Excuse me while I whip this out" from Blazing Saddles



qawse473, Published on Nov 1, 2014

Sheriff Bart arrives at Rockridge to, well not quite the welcome he hoped for.
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Saddles for information about the movie Blazing Saddles
Here's an excerpt from that page:
"Blazing Saddles is a 1974 American satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft.[4] The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences, and was nominated for three Academy Awards, and is ranked No. 6 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.

Brooks appears in two supporting roles, Governor William J. Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief; he also dubs lines for one of Lili von Shtupp's backing troupe. The supporting cast includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, and David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself.

The film satirizes the racism obscured by myth-making Hollywood accounts of the American West, with the hero being a black sheriff in an all-white town. The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from the Count Basie Orchestra playing "April in Paris" in the Wild West, to Slim Pickens referring to the Wide World of Sports, to the German army of World War II."...
-snip-
WARNING: The "n word" is used in this movie a lot.

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THE SEXUALIZED MEANING OF "WHIP IT OUT"
Here's a definition of "whip out" from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whip%20out
whip out
"To rapidly and brazenly expose one's male genitalia. Often follows a command from another to "whip it out".
I got kicked out of school for whipping it out in the middle of a physics lecture.
by Whipper January 31, 2003

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Here's a definition of "whip it out" from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whip%20it%20out
"whip it out
v. inf. A common phrase used to describe the occasion of a man suddenly producing his penis, often when completely unexpected and for no reason whatsoever.
Jim: See the game last night?
Dave: Yeah, United were unlucky to lose.
Jim: Think they'll sack the manager now?
Dave: They might have to. What do you think Gary?
*Gary whips it out*
by Terry Deary May 28, 2005

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That scene from the Blazing Saddles movie plays on two memes- the sexualized meaning of "whip it out" and the stereotypical beliefs that Black males are oversexed and crude enough to "whip it out" in public. Notice that the White men in that scene pull the women closer to them to "protect them" from the lascivious Black man.

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THE SONG "LET IT WHIP"
When I first heard the phrase "Whip out that Mexican thing" I first thought of The Dazz Band's 1982 Funk song "Let It Whip". Here's a brief excerpt of that song's lyrics from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/dazz_band/let_it_whip.html
..."We both are here
To have good fun
So let it whip

So let it whip
(Let's whip it, baby)
Try (let's whip it right)
Let it whip (let's whip it, baby)
(Whip it all night)"...
-snip-

At least two commenters in that abovementioned dailykos discussion also thought of that song:
Radiowalla Oct 05
"Whip it good."

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khyber900 Oct 05
"Keep in mind that the real reason pence made this gaffe Is because Kaine pressured him into it. Kaine’s aggressive behavior produced this result."

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Reply
poboy8 Oct 05
"if only Kaine could have also whipped out that fat shame thing and that mock the disabled thing and that tweet VOTE TRUMP with no remorse when a young mother is murdered thing ..... and on and on and on .... again.

#whipitrealgood"
-snip-
[Update October 5, 2016 10: 28 PM.
Oops! "Whip it good" and "whip it real good" are combinations of two Hip Hop songs: "Push It" by Salt n Pepa, in 1986 (in which they rap "Push it real good") and "Whip It Real Hard" by Rick Ross Hustlin, 2006. Both of those records have sexualized meanings. WARNING: The last record mentioned contains profanity. End of update]

In the context of The Dazz Band's Funk music record, I think that the phrase "Let it whip" means "to go all out", "to do something with all your energy & enthusiasm"; "to dance (move) really well".

"It" in the phrase "Let it whip" could also mean a person's (particularly a female's) butt. A person who is "whipping" her or his butt is rhythmically but quickly moving it from side to side.

In the context of this record, "Let it whip" might also mean "to go all the way", i.e. "to have sex".

However, I don't think that the "whip it real good" title and refrain in that song have anything to do with the urbandictionary.com meanings that are given above. And none of those slang phrases have anything to do with hitting someone with a whip.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/10/what-musical-terms-jam-jamming-mean.html for a pancocojams post that showcases the song "Let It Whip"

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WATCH ME (WHIP/NAE NAE)
To add to the various slang meanings of the word "whip", there's also Silento's 2015 Hip Hop record "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)". The word "whip" in that song refers to a dance that is performed by imitating driving a car.

From ttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Whip
"Whip
When the steering wheel was first put into use in automobiles, it was called the "whip". The whip is what you used to control the horses on a stagecoach, hence the analogy. Many years later, various hip hop artists noticed that the Mercedes-Benz logo resembled a steering wheel. They then proceeded to use the old term "whip" to describe any Mercedes-Benz vehicle. The term has now been generalized to classify any expensive automobile.
The new show "Unique Whips" on SpikeTV is obviously going to suck."
by dieselaj February 04, 2005

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From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20whip
"The Whip
the term "whip" is referred to as a dance. The motion consists of lifting the knee opposite which ever arm you are using, then dropping it and moving you arm straight like you are driving a car. this dance move is associated closely with the nae nae and the song "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)
Can you do the whip

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/07/silentos-watch-me-whip-nae-nae-other.html for a pancocojams post on that song.

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CONCLUSION
These are just a few meanings of the word "whip" and the phrases "whip it". And to think, all of this and more came about because Republican Vice President Mike Pence didn't think, or he thought that he would pretend to be outraged that Democratic Vice President Tim Kaine dared to repeat Donald Trump's offensive words about Mexicans. In November they'll get what is coming to them, and it will serve them right.

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Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to all those involved in the Blazing Saddles movie. Thanks also to the publisher of that video on YouTube.

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