New York Mayor Bill De Blasio's CP Time Joke & Comments About "CP Time", "African Time" & Similar Time Concepts

Edited by Azizi Powell

A lot of media attention has been given to New York City mayor Bill De Blasio's April 9, 2016 joke about "CP time"

Here's one article about that from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/york-mayor-de-blasio-faces-criticism-joking-cp/story?id=38320320
"New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing some criticism for joking about "CP time" while performing in a comedic sketch alongside Hillary Clinton at a charity event over the weekend.

During Inner Circle's annual event in New York City that includes musical and comedy performances by local politicians and reporters, Clinton made a surprise cameo during a scripted scene with de Blasio and Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr in the Broadway show “Hamilton.”

Clinton joked with de Blasio about how long it took him to endorse her for president, to which the New York City mayor (and Clinton's former Senate campaign manager) quipped back, “Sorry, Hillary. I was running on CP time." The remark is an apparent reference to colored people time -- a phrase sometimes used as a stereotypical reference to black people supposedly being late to everything.

In a video of the skit, released by the mayor's office on Sunday night, the audience appears to laugh awkwardly at the remark. One man in the crowd can be heard shouting, “No!"

"That’s not -- I don’t, I don’t like jokes like that, Bill,” Odom, who is African-American, said.

Clinton then interjected. “Cautious politician time," she explained. “I’ve been there.”

De Blasio, whose wife is black, explained the joke during an interview on CNN on Monday night. "It was clearly a staged show. It was a scripted show. The whole idea was to do the counter-intuitive by saying cautious politician time. Every actor thought it was a joke on a different convention. That was the whole idea," he said. "I think people are missing the point here."...

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YOUTUBE VIDEO OF MAYOR DE BLASIO'S "CP TIME" JOKE

Hillary Clinton and Bill de Blasio Joke About CP Time



The Benjamin Dixon Show, Published on Apr 11, 2016

1 Question for you: What if Sanders participated in this sketch?
-snip-
"Sanders" in the video publisher's comment refers to Senator Bernie Sanders, who is competing against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the designation of Democratic candidate for President of the United States.

That video's publisher and -I think- a lot of commenters in that video's discussion thread were Bernie Sanders supporters. Putting aside the political pros and cons about whether people should support Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, or another person for President of the United States, I agree with some commenters that it was a political gaffe for Bill de Blasio (a Clinton supporter) to refer to "CP time" and for Hillary Clinton to change the meaning of that term to "cautious politician time". I get that that joke was supposed to allude to the fact that it took de Blasio some time before he endorsed Clinton. But, I believe that the use of "CP time" phrase in an attempt to be "witty" and/or "funny" gave ammunition to people who were alert for reasons to criticize their favored candidate's competitor.

Do I (as an African American) think that the use of "CP time" means that either Bill de Blasio or Hillary Clinton or both are racist? No. Did I find the joke offensive? No, but as a joke I rate it a fail.

Also, I was struck by the number of commenters in that video's YouTube discussion thread that took umbrage at (African American) Leslie Odoms Jr.'s participation in that joke. At least one commenter used a four letter form of what is commonly now called "the n word" as a referent for Leslie Odoms, Jr. And several commenters wrote that Odoms Jr. was "dressed as a slave". A couple of commenters corrected that erronneous assumption with the information that Leslie Odom, Jr. is a star of the hit Broadway show "Hamilton" and was dressed as the early 19th century United States Vice President "Aaron Burr".

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COMMENTS AND INFORMATION ABOUT WESTERN & NON-WESTERN CONCEPTS OF TIME
While "CP time" can be categorized as an offensive phrase, as an African American, I think it can be helpful to consider why it is (or it may be) offensive.

"CP time" is a stereotype because it states or implies that "all Black people act the same way", "Black people are always late", and "Black sponsored events will always start after their designated starting time." None of these statements are true. That said, in my experience, it's common for a number of African American social events to start later than the announced starting time.

I think that one reason why the term "CP time" may be considered offensive is because the referent "Colored People" in and of itself is problematic. "Colored people" is a dated, old time referent for African Americans that was retired by at least the mid 1960s. I'm not sure if African Americans even use the term "CP" time anymore, or if many African Americans even remember that "Colored People" was once the preferred referent for Black Americans. Perhaps because the term "Colored People" is offensive in and of itself, I've read that the term "CP time" has been changed to "BP time" or "Black people's time". However, I've never heard either of those terms used.

My recollection of hearing the term "CP time" being used (by African Americans) and using that term myself (probably not since the 1990s) was that it was a mild joke as well as a self-fulfilling statement of fact, i.e. since people's experience was that many Black sponsored social events would start late, they purposely didn't arrive at the event until later than the announced starting time.

However, for me and for some other (mostly afrocentric) Black people I knew who also used the term "CP time" or heard it used, "operating on "CP time" not only might be viewed as a given, but being later than the designated time might just be a different way of conceptualizing time and a different way of reacting or responding to the passage of time than the rigid way that Western society (i.e. White folks) view/ed time.

Here are some excerpts from several articles about "CP time" and other similar concepts of strict time adherence & being late [I've assigned numbers to these excerpts for referencing purposes only.]

Excerpt #1:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_People%27s_Time
"Colored People's Time, or CPT, or CP Time (also referred to as Black People Time) is an American expression referring to a negative stereotype of African Americans as frequently being late. [1][2][3][4].

The expression is often described as a racist and negative stereotype[5][6][7][8]

In media
The phrase or initialism has been referenced numerous times in various types of media, including the films Bamboozled, Undercover Brother, Let's Do It Again, House Party and several television series: The Mindy Project, Prison Break, The Boondocks, The Wire, Weeds, Where My Dogs At?, Reno 911, 30 Rock, Everybody Hates Chris, The PJs, Bridezillas, Mad TV and Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Empire, and reality series The Real Housewives of Atlanta. In the Black Jeopardy sketch aired during the March 29, 2014 episode of Saturday Night Live, host Alex Treblack (Kenan Thompson) says upon the sound of the final bell, "As usual, we started late."...

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Excerpt #2:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardiness#Tardiness_stereotypes
"Tardiness stereotypes
There are several stereotypes which associate tardiness with certain categories of people. African time (or "Africa time" or "Caribbean time") is the perceived cultural tendency, in parts of Africa and the Caribbean[4] toward a more relaxed attitude to time.[5][6][7] This is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, about tardiness in appointments, meetings and events.[8] This also includes the more leisurely, relaxed, and less rigorously-scheduled lifestyle found in African countries, especially as opposed to the more clock-bound pace of daily life in Western countries.[9][10]

Colored People's Time (also referred to as Negro Time) is an American expression referring to a stereotype of African Americans as frequently being late.[11][12][13][14]

Other terms referring to a loose attitude to time include "Hawaiian time" and "island time". [15]

A similar term can also apply to South Asians in the form of Indian standard time or IST.[16][17][18][19]"...

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Excerpt #3
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_time
"African time (or Africa time or Caribbean time) is the perceived cultural tendency, in parts of Africa and the Caribbean[1] toward a more relaxed attitude to time.[2][3][4] This is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, about tardiness in appointments, meetings and events.[5] This also includes the more leisurely, relaxed, and less rigorously-scheduled lifestyle found in African countries, especially as opposed to the more clock-bound pace of daily life in Western countries.[6][7] As such, it is similar to time orientations in some other non-Western culture regions...

Aspects of African time
The appearance of a simple lack of punctuality or a lax attitude about time in Africa, may instead reflect a different approach and method in managing tasks, events, and interactions. African cultures are often described as "polychronic,"[8][9] which means people tend to manage more than one thing at a time rather than in a strict sequence. Personal interactions and relationships are also managed in this way, such that it is not uncommon to have more than one simultaneous conversation.[9] An African "emotional time consciousness" has been suggested which contrasts with Western "mechanical time consciousness".[10]

In the Caribbean, "...[t]hings just won't always happen as quickly or as precisely as you may be accustomed to." Due to the cultural influence of "Caribbean time" or "island time", locals do not have the sense of time pressure that is part of Western culture.[11]"...

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Excerpt #4:
From http://asb4.com/floor/teaching/timeafr/timeafri.html Bert hamminga The Western versus the African Time Concept
""Future" is a word that both Westerners and Africans know. I have learnt from the African philosopher John S. Mbiti (African Religions and Philosophy, London: Heinemann 1969) how the African "future" differs from the Western one. Mbiti successfully explained it to me in his book "African Religions and Philosophy", because he took the trouble of learning the Western concept of time, and thus understood how to explain the African concept of time to Westerners. A very good result, deserving respect!

To Westerners, time is a set of stripes drawn on the tarmac that is on the road on which we drive. They believe to drive at exactly constant speed, so they think they know exactly when we will cross these stripes. There is one big stripe every hour, a small one every minute, a very small one every second, and so on....

Instead of hours and numerical dates, Africans traditionally rely on emotional marks of time, like when you were born, when you married, when you had you first child, when there was a war. But as far as the future is concerned these marks are still to be made, and the African typically considers his or her influence on that as small.

The difference between the Western mechanical and African emotional time consciousness is a highly instructive one: it explains a lot of intercultural differences and problems of intercultural contact in any kind of business. Of course, also Westerners experience emotional time. Important events in your life, say a new job in another town, a marriage, a baby "mark" your past in that some things will later be experienced as before or after this or that important event. The typical holiday experience is that after a few days you feel you left home ages ago, while upon return it feels you just left. In waiting for something time "goes slowly", in hurrying for something time "goes fast". The difference between Western and African time consciousness is that a Westerner asks: "when did your grandfather die". The answer is "15 years ago". The African asks "When was 15 years ago". And the answer is "When your grandfather died". What is the difference? That is far less obvious than it seems at first sight...

European cultural superstition is that time runs regularly, and the future points in time come near in the same regular speed as past points in time withdraw: exactly 1 second per second by definition. Traditionally, Africans do not believe this....

The African interpretation of time starts thus: events occur in some order: there is "before" and there is "after". In African languages, there is a number of tenses that indicate roughly "how much" before, and how much after. There usually is a tense for "at that time", for "after that", for "a considerable time after that", and "a very long time after". That does not sound strange to a Westerner. He also has such rough ideas on events. But the Westerner's clock and calendar gives him the option of filing the event as having occurred at a certain numerical date-time. The Westerner deems that more "precise". He wants to have trains running on schedule and fly to the moon. Africans have different aims in life. They want to "live" their own way. Traditionally, Africans have no concept of historical progress: in every life of every person the same happens. There is no thrive to change things. They have another idea of preciseness: emotional preciseness. The past is a chain of events. It has its places that are marked in memory, just as when you travel far through an unknown area. You will remember the river crossed, the mountain pass climbed. In time, you remember your eldest brother getting his first child, your great grandfather dying, your harvest spoiled by torrential rains, a war. Those are the tops of the "hours" in the memory of the African. Between them are the minor events as "minutes". Westerners would say these hours do not have equal length. Africans are not interested at all in such considerations. By talking en passing over history orally to one another, they cut themselves a wooden past that feels like a comfortable place well connected to the present. A history to rest upon comfortably. Not so Westerners, who run puffing after the time they created to be their master!"..

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Excerpt #5:
From http://www.chicagonow.com/becoming-nikki-lynette/2009/12/cp-time-does-my-black-race-indicate-ill-always-be-late/ "CP Time": Does my Black race indicate I'll always be late? by Nikki Lynette, December 2, 2009
..."CP Time" (Colored Peoples' Time), is a term attributed to the belief that people of color operate on their own sense of time, which doesn't adhere to the clock. The generalization that black people are fated to be tardy sounds like a pretty lame stereotype. Yet, I have to admit, when I do business with African American people, it rarely EVER starts on time. I know that tardiness can happen to anybody, but it has become so thoroughly engrained into African American culture that we often use the term amongst ourselves. And we use it as an excuse for not being timely as well. So is it a myth? Or has CPT become a fact of life?

I asked my followers on Twitter if they believe CPT is a fact or a myth. Some of their responses were really surprising.

Colored People's Time, CP Time, or CPT, is actually a commonly used American expression that refers to the stereotype of African Americans or Latinos frequently being late. Aside from the obvious problems with using the word "Colored" in the 21st century, CPT is not inherently a negative thing. Its actually an inside joke, because many people of color use the term themselves, making light of when they're late. I just can't help but wonder if the joke has been taken too far."...

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