Edited by Azizi Powell
On September 29, 2026 I reprinted a 2011 pancocojams post about African American children's recreational rhymes that include the words "African booty". Here's the link for that 2026 post: https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-yerm-african-booty-in-childrens.html "The Term "African Booty" In The Children's Recreational Rhymes "Mailman Mailman Do Your Duty" & "Policeman Policeman Do Your Duty".
That post about those children's rhymes was prompted by my interest in documenting YouTube videos of the "Booty call" soul line dances. Here's a link to Part I of a two part pancocojams series about those line dances that were performed to the 1994 Blackstreet record "Booti Call [Remix]". The title of that record is also given as "Booty Call [Remix] https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/some-examples-of-booti-call-booty-call.html. "Six YouTube Examples Of "Booti Call", "Booty Call" Line Dances (2007-2025)." The link to Part II of that pancocojams series is given in that post.
Here's a portion of that 2011 (and 2026) pancocojams post about the words "African booty" in children's rhymes:
"The term "African booty"
In African American Vernacular English term "African booty" means "a really big butt". While males can be said to have an "African booty", that term is usually reserved as a descriptor for teenage girls and women.
The reason that many Americans (and probably many people in some other nations outside of Africa) have been informally socialized to believe that all African women naturally have big butts is because of White racism. The story of Sarah Baartman is one example of the consequences of that racism. Sarah Baartman c. 1789 – 29 December 1815), was a South African woman who had a big, protruding butt. She was taken from her country and exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus, a name that was later attributed to at least one other Black woman who was similarly exhibited. [re-worded from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Baartman."
[The references to Sarah Baartman were added on October 27, 2026 to those pancocojams posts about children rhymes that include the words "African booty" rhymes. I also added the link to this "Revisitng my post about the words "African Booty"... publication.
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In the context of children's recreational rhymes, people (usually girls ages 6-12 years) who are chanting "Policeman Policeman Do Your Duty" and similar rhymes while playing long jump rope are complimenting the person who is jumping in the middle of the rope. I don't believe that African Americans have ever given any negative connotations to the term "African booty" in these children's rhymes or elsewhere.
That said, I believe that most children who say the words "African booty" as part of the rhyme that they are chanting do so from rote memory i.e. they don't give any thought to the meaning of the words that they are chanting. However, children who know the African American Vernacular English meaning of the words "African booty" would consider that descriptor to be a compliment because in the United States and in other Western nations it's considered preferable for a teenage girl or a woman to have a big butt rather than a small butt or a flat butt.
To emphasize this point, the term "African booty" doesn't appear to be commonly used in American English. It's much more likely for contemporary African Americans (and other Americans regardless of their race/ethnicity) to say that someone (particularly a woman) has "a big butt" or "a big booty" (with the word "butt" used more often than the word "booty")."
-end of that portion of that 2026 "African booty" pancocojams post [revised from the 2011 pancocojams post.]
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Little did I know on September 29, 2026 when I published that post on the words "African booty" in African American children's rhymes that United States President Donald Trump would devote a portion of his speech at a political rally to declare that a Nicki Minaj, Black Trinidadian rapper who emigrated to the United States, has a "beautiful ass" that "is hard to miss". Trump then told Nicki Minaj, who had earlier given some remarks on the stage at that rally and had returned to her seat in the audience, to stand (presumably so that the other people at that rally could see her "beautiful ass".
The words "beautiful ass" are very close in meaning to the words "African booty". However, who vocalizes those words and the context for that vocalization are quite different.
Here are three online examples of reactions to Trump's "beautiful ass" remark:
These examples are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
SOURCE #1
From https://ew.com/donald-trump-praises-nicki-minaj-beautiful-ass-during-rally-speech-12193459 "Donald Trump praises Nicki Minaj’s ‘beautiful ass’ during rally speech: ‘It’s hard to miss’"
Minaj has publicly supported Trump since 2025, but spoke
positively about the businessman turned reality star turned politician as far
back as 2010.
Photo caption:
"Donald Trump and Nicki Minaj at a rally in Port Huron, Mich. on Oct. 25.[2026]
KEY POINTS
President Donald Trump made a lewd comment about Nicki
Minaj’s anatomy during a Michigan rally appearance.
“By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before
— Nicki Minaj,” Trump said behind the lectern at Port Huron’s McMorran Place
Arena. “That’s hard to miss.”
Trump was referencing another derriere-related compliment he gave to Jon Husted, a Republican Senator from Ohio, which recently went viral.
[…]
[text] "Headquarters
@HQNewsNow
Trump: I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before, Nicki
Minaj. That's hard to miss. Stand up."
-end of text-
The comment appeared to come from nowhere, but was likely a
reference to another derriere-related compliment Trump recently rained on one
of his political allies.
“I looked at his ass. I’ve never done that with a man
before. Off the record — women, yes. Men, no,” Trump said on Tuesday at a rally
in Greenville, N.C. He was speaking about Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who
was elected in 2025 to the seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance and is
currently up for re-election. “I’m studying his body. I’ve never studied the
body of a man before. It’s not my thing. Nothing wrong with it, of course.”…
SOURCE #2
From
"President Donald Trump's public remark about rapper Nicki
Minaj’s body during an October 25, 2026, rally in Port Huron, Michigan, drew
comparisons on social media and from cultural commentators to the historical
exploitation of South African Sarah Baartman.
The Event and the Comment
• The Rally: While speaking at McMorran Place Arena, Trump
remarked, “By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before — Nicki
Minaj. That's hard to miss,” and asked her to stand up for the crowd.
• The Reaction: Minaj appeared unbothered, joined him on
stage, and expressed continued support.
The Comparison to Sarah Baartman
• The Historical Parallel: Critics and commentators—such as writer Charles M. Blow—drew a line to Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman from South Africa who was taken to Europe in 1810 and exhibited as a public spectacle because of her physical features.
• The Arguments Made:
• Critics
argue that a powerful figure publicly singling out and inviting an audience to
ogle a Black woman's body echoes a centuries-long history of objectifying and
hypersexualizing Black women's bodies for predominantly white audiences,
drawing comparisons to historical freak shows and slave inspections. Some also
expressed discomfort that Minaj willingly participated in the moment on stage.
• Defenders and other observers note the vast difference in context: Baartman was a victim of severe, forced human exploitation and colonial abuse in the 19th century, whereas Minaj is a consenting, highly successful independent celebrity and willing political surrogate with a long-standing public persona.”
SOURCE #3
From https://www.facebook.com/CharlesMBlow/videos/the-degradation-and-perversion-of-a-sitting-president-or-any-person-inviting-an-/1348387953911556/
Charles M. Blow, October 26, 2026
“The degradation and perversion of a sitting President — or any person — inviting an arena of people to publicly ogle a Black woman’s body has too many echos to slave inspections and #sarahbaartman to ignore. And, #NickiMinaj obliging her own objectification adds stinging insult to horrific injury. #ThereIsNoBottom"
-snip-
This facebook comment is one of the sources for the AI Overview results given for the AI Overview results quoted as Source #2
The tag " in African American reporter Charles M. Blow's text refers to Sarah Baartman. Here's an excerpt from a Wikipedia page about that South African woman:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Baartman
"Sarah Baartman c. 1789 – 29 December 1815) ... was a Khoekhoe woman who was exhibited as a
freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus, a
name that was later attributed to at least one other woman similarly exhibited.
[...]
"Venus" is sometimes used to designate
representations of the female body in arts and cultural anthropology, referring
to the Roman goddess of love and fertility. "Hottentot" was a
Dutch-colonial era term for the indigenous Khoikhoi people of southwestern
Africa, which then became commonly used in English, and was shortened to
"hotnot" as an offensive term; the term "Hottentot" refers
to the tribe, like the Zulu or Xhosa. The Sarah Baartman story has been called
the epitome of racist colonial exploitation, and of the commodification and
dehumanization of Southern African people.[3]"...
-snip-
A number of African Americans have compared Trump's objectifying Nicki Minaj to what happened to Sarah Baartman. For example, in an October 26, 2026 YouTube video entitled "Please Stop With This Nonsense | Nicki Minaj Is NOT The
Modern Day Sara Baartman!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grrIuVXMBRc TabithaSpeaksPolitics strongly criticizes this comparison in large part because Sarah Baartman was a victim and Nicki Minaj is a willing participant.
With regard to my 2011/2026 post about the words "African booty" in children's rhymes, I regret that I didn't note that the reason that many Americans (and probably many people in some other nations outside of Africa) have been informally socialized to believe that all African women naturally have big butts is because of White racism. Examples of that racism was the horrendous treatment of South African Sarah Baartman and other women who had big, protruding butts and were objectified because of that in "freak shows" in England and elsewhere.
I believe that few Americans (especially American children) know the name "Sarah Baartman" and don't know the negative connotations that her body was/is associated with. I recognize that the children who are chanting recreational rhymes that include the words "African booty" are doing so as part of their fun, leisure activities. Nevertheless, because I believe that it's important for me to do so, I've added a reference to Sarah Baartman in those 2011 and 2026 posts along with the link to this post.
Rest in Peace and Power Sarah Baartman.
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