C-SPAN, Jun 5, 2024 #cspan
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL):
"It has come to my attention that a so-called leader has made the
factually inaccurate statement that Black folks were better off during Jim
Crow. That's an outlandish, outrageous, and out-of-pocket observation...How
dare you make such an an ignorant observation. You better check yourself before
you wreck yourself."
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This post also presents an excerpt of a newspaper article about Byron Donalds' comments about Jim Crow and Black families and provides information about the meaning and early published use of that "check yourself before you wreck yourself" saying.
The content of this post is presented for political, socio-cultural, and linguistic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to C-Span for publishing this video and thanks to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for his statement. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/06/byron-donalds-gets-disrespectful-with_11.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Byron Donalds Gets Disrespectful With Rev. Al Sharpton While Trying To Defend His "Jim Crow And Black Families" Comments"
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TRANSCRIPT\OF THIS CLIP
This is the complete auto-generated transcript of United States House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (Democratic- New York)'s congressional statement about this statement from Representative Byron Donalds (Republican-Florida).
I added punctuation, capitalization, corrected spelling errors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHquX0OFf5k&t=1s
"Mr. Speaker, [it] has come to my attention that a so-called leader has made the
factually inaccurate statement that Black folks were better off during Jim Crow.
That's an outlandish outrageous and out of pocket observation. We would not better off when a young boy named Emmitt Till could be brutally murdered without consequence because of Jim Crow.
We were not better off when Black women could be sexually assaulted with without consequence. because of Jim Crow.
We were not better off when people could be systematically lynched without consequence because of Jim Crow.
We were not better off when children could be denied a high quality education without consequence because of Jim Crow.
We were not better off when people could be denied the right to vote without consequence because of Jim Crow.
How dare you make such an ignorant observation.
You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.
I yield back [my time]."
-snip-
What is ironical-although I'm sure that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was aware of this, is that the saying "Check yourself before you wreck yourself" was popularized by the Ice Cube's hit 1992 Hip Hop record "Check Yo Self". And Ice Cube is now a public supporter of Donald Trump.
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EXCERPT ABOUT BYRON DONALDS' JIM CROW AND BLACK FAMILIES REMARKS
From https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/byron-donalds-defends-comments-jim-crow-fiery-exchange-joy-reid-rcna155969
June 6, 2024, By Zoë Richards
"Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida on Thursday defended comments
he made this week that invoked Jim Crow — a period of racial violence and
segregation — as an era when “the Black family was together.”
"I never said that it was better for Black people in Jim Crow," Donalds, a Florida Republican, told MSNBC's Joy Reid during an interview with "The ReidOut" on Thursday night.
The comments came after Donalds, who is sometimes mentioned
as a potential running mate for Donald Trump, drew outrage after saying at a
campaign event in Philadelphia for the former president on Tuesday that fewer
Black families were fractured during Jim Crow.
“Don’t try to impose the fact that the marriage rates were
better in the — higher, higher, I want to be clear — higher in the Jim Crow era
to mean that I think Jim Crow is great," Donalds said. "That is a
lie. That is gaslighting. I would never say such a thing."
At Tuesday's event aimed at outreach to Black voters in battleground Pennsylvania, Donalds, a Trump campaign surrogate, suggested that by embracing Democrats, circumstances have worsened for Black people. He pointed to programs enacted by President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s that included expanding federal food stamps, housing, welfare and Medicaid for low-income Americans.
“You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively,” Donalds told the audience Tuesday."..
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WHAT "CHECK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YOURSELF" MEANS
(with information about early published examples of that saying)
Pancocojams Editor's Note: These statements about which use of this saying came first aren't necessarily correct.
These sources and quotes are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Source #1
From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/check_yourself_before_you_wreck_yourself
"check yourself before you wreck yourself"
(colloquial) Consider the consequences of your actions
before you end up in trouble."
-snip-
"Check yourself before you wreck yourself" is from African American Vernacular English.
****
Source #2
From https://www.quora.com/What-does-check-yourself-before-you-wreck-yourself-mean-What-are-the-origins-of-this-phrase
1.Jon Pennington, 2015
"The original version of this phrase from the 1970s was “check
it before you wreck it” which was used as a slogan by Nationwide Saft-Breaks Centers
in order to encourage people [to] get their brakes on their cars checked by
mechanics before causing an auto wreck."
**
2. Dennis Mulgannon, 2017
"Originally Answered: What does the phrase "check
yourself before you wreck yourself" mean?
It is a variation of the old saying: Look before you leap.
As in, don't dive into the water unless you know you won't hit your head on a
rock."
**
3. Dennis Mulgannon, 2017
"The oldest example I’ve seen is in Dion and the Wanderer’s
Two Ton Feather which was released in 1966.
CHORUS:
And I say jump back, baby, jump back, baby
Check yourself, don't you wreck yourself
You know it may look like I'm crazy, baby, but I know better
Don't try to hand me no 2-ton feather
What he means with “check yourself, don’t wreck yourself” is
take a step back and reconsider your actions before you get yourself in
trouble."
-snip-
Dion was a popular White American Pop singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A lot of his song material was from the African American culture.
**
4. Bot, May 2024
"Check yourself before you wreck yourself" is a
popular saying that is often used to advise someone to think carefully about
their actions or behavior before they end up in trouble or make a serious
mistake. It essentially means to pause and consider the consequences of one's
actions before proceeding.
While the single version of the song (also titled Radio
Remix "The Message") has been censored, the longer, uncensored
version of The Message remix is featured on Ice Cube's Bootlegs & B-Sides
album and was later released on his Greatest Hits album. The clean version of
"Check Yo Self (The Message Remix)" appeared in the soundtrack of the
movie Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
The phrase originated from a song called "Check Yo Self" by the American rapper Ice Cube, released in 1993. The song's lyrics contain the line "You better check yourself before you wreck yourself," which became a well-known catchphrase. The message behind the phrase is to encourage self-awareness and caution to avoid negative outcomes or consequences.
Over time, the phrase has become a common expression used in various contexts to warn someone to be mindful of their actions and behavior to prevent undesirable outcomes. It is often used in a lighthearted or humorous way to remind someone to reconsider their choices before proceeding.
****
Source #3
From - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_Yo_Self
" "Check Yo Self" is the third and final single from
American rapper Ice Cube's third solo album, The Predator (1992). It was
released on July 13, 1993 by Priority Records, and features New York City
rappers Das EFX. It topped both the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop and Rap charts
while also reaching number 20 on the Hot 100 chart.[1] The song retains two
main versions, the original and a remix which utilizes the same beat as
Grandmaster Flash's "The Message", titled "Check Yo Self (The
Message Remix)". The original mix includes a sample from the intro of the
Beastie Boys' track "The New Style", which uses the phrase
"check it" throughout the chorus.
While the single version of the song (also titled Radio
Remix "The Message") has been censored, the longer, uncensored
version of The Message remix is featured on Ice Cube's Bootlegs & B-Sides
album and was later released on his Greatest Hits album. The clean version of
"Check Yo Self (The Message Remix)" appeared in the soundtrack of the
movie Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay."
-snip-
A lot of online sources erroneously credit the saying "Check yourself before you wreck yourself" to Ice Cube. It is correct that Ice Cube's 1992 record "Check Yo Self" popularized the African American vernacular saying "Check yourself before you wreck yourself."
Warning- Ice Cube's "Check Yo Self" record contains a lot of profanity, sexually explicit lyrics, references to violence, and the "n word".
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