Talk:Homeboy

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dul.fchlhcif

Humm, I was under the impression that "homeboy" or "homegirl" was a rural southern USA expression from waaaaay back, as in southern slang (both black and white) from civil war or earlier periods. My understanding is that this is in reference to a person you grew up with, and have known since one or both of you were children. I can see how it could transfer with blacks to the inner city in the early 20th century.

See the below cite.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=homeboy

This definition jibes with my reccolection of use of the term while I was growing up in the south, homeboy was a man (or boy) you grew up with, know him, his parents, and his character from childhood. If I say this guy is my homeboy I have known him since childhood and have a good idea of his moral character and habits and so on.

This is not a black vs white thing, however my experiance is that white folks who move out of the south tend to drop southernisms and as much as possible southern accents around other Americans as the general perception by Americans from outside the south is that southern whites are stupid, and the accent marks you and hurts employment and promotion prospects. So, white southerners would try to blend in, while this is much less possible for blacks, so they make less effort to change speech or accents.