Folks?

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Fruitbat

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It seems to me that I hear the term "folks" used a lot when Black people are being discussed, but rarely when White people are being discussed. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on it.
 
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Maryn

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We exercise walk in the same small number of places. There are a number of people we see often, and at least three of them greet us with "Hi, folks!" or something very similar. We're white, and the greeters are, too. I don't think any of the black people we exchange greetings with uses "folks."

So it may be regional, or its race-related usage regional. You're in Texas, is that right? I'm in New York state.

Maryn, far from NYC, however
 

Fruitbat

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Right, I'm near Houston, but it stands out to me now from reading about Ferguson. I'm from that area so I guess it could even be some difference between here and there. Thanks.
 

Hoplite

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Living in Colorado and Washington I've heard 'folks' used for any and everybody. I'm white, I use 'folks' some times to reference any group of people as I would use 'they', 'them', 'people', etc.
 

Los Pollos Hermanos

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I tend to use 'folks" in much the same way as Hoplite, but about 4,500 miles to the east.

In the UK we often say 'old folks home' instead of calling it a residential home for the elderly. Or 'going to see the folks' can mean going to see your parents - possibly because you think of them as being old?! ;) I'm not sure if this varies between ethnic groups over here.
 

Kylabelle

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I use the word 'folks' to refer to anyone but generally when I want to make the tone of what I'm saying a bit friendlier or more relaxed. Maybe that's why you're noticing it being used to refer more to African Americans in relation to the Ferguson events. I know I have heard Black speakers refer to Black folks rather often (not in this particular context but generally.) Well, and I've heard the phrase 'white folks' a lot too, come to think of it.

I don't believe it is racially derogatory in any kind of stand-alone fashion.
 

Fruitbat

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"I use the word 'folks' to refer to anyone but generally when I want to make the tone of what I'm saying a bit friendlier or more relaxed. Maybe that's why you're noticing it being used to refer more to African Americans in relation to the Ferguson events..."

Yes, that makes sense.
 

Maryn

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Yeah, that's a good explanation. It's a word you use when you want to be "folksy" (duh!), sort of friendly, casual, down-home. It's a lot warmer than "you people." (What, brunettes? Writers? People who wear sandals?)

Maryn, all of the above--and that's all, folks!
 

J.S.F.

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I'm a nice white Jewish kid from Toronto, Canada, and I always interchanged the terms 'folks' with 'parents' or, when I talk about my wife's parents, I tend to say "they're good people"--and they are.

To be honest, I've never heard the word 'folks' associated mainly with black people. I considered it a term for everyone. Guess that's what you get for growing up in Canada. (shrugs)
 

slhuang

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I use it all the time to be casual, too, regardless of race. :) Here's a hypothesis extrapolated from just me, sample size of one: it's possible the reason you feel like you see it more when talking about POC doesn't have to do with POC at all, but with gender, as I try to use "folks" as an equivalent replacement for "guys" in my speech. I kinda still use "guys" and consider it gender-neutral, but I preference "folks" and consider it a bit more all-inclusive. So it's possible other people do this too, and that in spaces that are more aware of diversity in general it's become the preferenced casual word rather than "guys"?

Just a thought. ;) May or may not have ANY merit! :D
 

maxmordon

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I tend to use it as a casual manner to refer s group of people. Ever since my Goon Show phase, I keep it hearing it as said by Neddy Seagoon.

"Hi, folks. Hello folks! It's me, Neddy Seagoon!"
"You rotten swine, you deaded me!"
 

Roxxsmom

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Everyone, from the president to self help gurus, seems to be using the word folks to refer to people in a generic sense these days. I've read some articles recently that deplore the heavy use of this word as an example of how we're sort of dumbing ourselves down. "Folks" is a word that conjures up images of informality or rustic simplicity, and we seem to like thinking of people that way, so the argument goes.

However, it wouldn't surprise me if it were being used more for black people than white people in a generic sense (aka "black folks"). I can think of a couple of possible reasons, one more sinister than the other.

1. If you are white, using the term "black people" sounds sort of distancing or otherizing. Kind of like Ross Perot's "you people" from way back when (it didn't go over well, needless to say). Folks sounds more homey and friendly, maybe.

2. Since the word "folks" conjures up images of rustic simplicity, it could be used more for black people because the connotation is that they're more rustic and simple?

I'm a nice white Jewish kid from Toronto, Canada, and I always interchanged the terms 'folks' with 'parents' or, when I talk about my wife's parents, I tend to say "they're good people"--and they are.

When I was growing up in CA, it was pretty common to use the term "my folks" or "your folks" to refer to parents. "I'm going home to see my folks over the holidays" and so on. People in my generation still refer to our parents this way, if we're lucky enough to still have them with us.
 
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KTC

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I don't think I've ever heard the word used in any conversation ever here in Toronto. I've only heard it in movies. Occasionally I hear the term Old Folks' Home, but that's it.
 

heza

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I've read some articles recently that deplore the heavy use of this word as an example of how we're sort of dumbing ourselves down.

I think I might find that article offensive... I'm not sure. On the one hand, I can sort of understand the idea that people who wouldn't naturally use it might be using it now for political reasons. On the other hand, it's pretty offensive for someone to try to tell you that the shear act of using a word "folks" in your area have always used makes the world a dumber place. :/

Anyway, I'm in Houston--originally from Oklahoma--and we (myself and a lot of my friends and family) use "folks" frequently and for pretty much any group of related people. White folks, black folks, rich folks, northern folks, those folks on the corner, the folks back home... etc.
 

LJD

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I don't think I've ever heard the word used in any conversation ever here in Toronto. I've only heard it in movies. Occasionally I hear the term Old Folks' Home, but that's it.

Pretty much exactly what I was thinking. I hear the word so rarely...
 

Snowstorm

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I think I might find that article offensive... I'm not sure. On the one hand, I can sort of understand the idea that people who wouldn't naturally use it might be using it now for political reasons. On the other hand, it's pretty offensive for someone to try to tell you that the shear act of using a word "folks" in your area have always used makes the world a dumber place. :/

Anyway, I'm in Houston--originally from Oklahoma--and we (myself and a lot of my friends and family) use "folks" frequently and for pretty much any group of related people. White folks, black folks, rich folks, northern folks, those folks on the corner, the folks back home... etc.

Totally agree with you. I was raised in Kansas and use "folks" all the time too, as group of people or just "people" in general. And for someone to state that using it makes for a dumber place just smacks of arrogance.
 

shadowwalker

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I think I might find that article offensive... I'm not sure. On the one hand, I can sort of understand the idea that people who wouldn't naturally use it might be using it now for political reasons. On the other hand, it's pretty offensive for someone to try to tell you that the shear act of using a word "folks" in your area have always used makes the world a dumber place. :/

Agree! Upper Midwest here, and "folks" has been around longer than I have, and has nothing to do with race or gender - OR being dumb.
 

Ken

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To me, folk does have a connotation of simplicity. Not stupidity by any means. Simplicity in a good sense. No fancy dangled nonsense or highfalutin hoopla if you know what I mean. People can be simple and still be plenty intelligent. Hard to explain. If you want an insulting term of sorts bumpkin would be it. My 2 cents. Could be wrong.
 

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I think for me there is a possible racist connotation. Not EVERY time the word is used, but, yeah, because it is kind of simple and folksy, if someone uses the word who isn't him/herself simple and folksy, it could sound as if the speaker is talking down to the audience. So if a normally formal white person started talking about 'folks' when speaking to a black audience, I'd read it as racist.

So, not always, by all means. But possibly.
 

shadowwalker

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I think for me there is a possible racist connotation. Not EVERY time the word is used, but, yeah, because it is kind of simple and folksy, if someone uses the word who isn't him/herself simple and folksy, it could sound as if the speaker is talking down to the audience. So if a normally formal white person started talking about 'folks' when speaking to a black audience, I'd read it as racist.

So, not always, by all means. But possibly.

"Normally formal" people around here use "folks". It's not some kind of quaint ruralism. As several others have mentioned, in many areas it's normal to use it, regardless of speaker or audience. I would hope, before anyone would assume anything racist, they would first observe the local manners of speech. As is said on AW, assume good intentions.
 
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Roxxsmom

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I think I might find that article offensive... I'm not sure. On the one hand, I can sort of understand the idea that people who wouldn't naturally use it might be using it now for political reasons. On the other hand, it's pretty offensive for someone to try to tell you that the shear act of using a word "folks" in your area have always used makes the world a dumber place. :/

I had the same reaction. I'm all for being highbrow and and as against the dumbing down of America (and everywhere else) as the next person, and I even saw the point the author was trying to make, but yeah. It sounds a bit preachy.

It's really more about context.

Sometimes you do want to conjure up a sense of benign and gentle and homey. Then the use of the term folks seems to apply.

Interesting that the term isn't used much in Canada. It may be very regional.

If the term is indeed more prevalent in the Southern US, I wonder if its rise to national prominence is because the South has had such a prominent role in national politics in recent decades, with the Clinton and GW Bush presidencies, and also with the need for northern (and especially for more liberal) politicians to pick up at least a couple of Southern states in order to win elections.

I think the assumption of good intentions is important, however. Unless there's something that arouses suspicion that it is being used in a non symmetric or racist way by some, erm ... folks. :)
 
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Ari Meermans

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I've used folks when addressing groups my entire life. I use it with everyone because, to me, "people" sounds cold and soulless. So, when family is here, it's "Folks, dinner's on the table." At work: "All right, folks, we have to be out of this room by ten o'clock."
 

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"Normally formal" people around here use "folks". It's not some kind of quaint ruralism. As several others have mentioned, in many areas it's normal to use it, regardless of speaker or audience. I would hope, before anyone would assume anything racist, they would first observe the local manners of speech. As is said on AW, assume good intentions.

Obviously you'd have to look at the region it's being used in. In my region, and that of several other posters, "folks" is folksy.

I'm not running around searching for racism. But that doesn't mean I'm going to make myself insensitive to micro-aggressions, and I think there are situations in which the use of "folks" could be one of them, or at least part of one of them. That's all.
 

frimble3

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I've used folks when addressing groups my entire life. I use it with everyone because, to me, "people" sounds cold and soulless. So, when family is here, it's "Folks, dinner's on the table." At work: "All right, folks, we have to be out of this room by ten o'clock."
That's the way I've generally heard it used around here, when the speaker is trying to sound, well, 'folksy': warm and 'we're all in this together' and so on.
Evoking that 'family' feeling. Generally, a positive thing.
It's really more about context.

Sometimes you do want to conjure up a sense of benign and gentle and homey. Then the use of the term folks seems to apply.

Interesting that the term isn't used much in Canada. It may be very regional.

I think the assumption of good intentions is important, however. Unless there's something that arouses suspicion that it is being used in a non symmetric or racist way by some, erm ... folks. :)
We use it up here, but I think it's not as commonly used as it is in some U.S. regions. You're spot-on about the context, I think.

I think for me there is a possible racist connotation. Not EVERY time the word is used, but, yeah, because it is kind of simple and folksy, if someone uses the word who isn't him/herself simple and folksy, it could sound as if the speaker is talking down to the audience. So if a normally formal white person started talking about 'folks' when speaking to a black audience, I'd read it as racist.
By the same token, if a normally (or abnormally) formal white person starts talking about 'folks' when speaking to a white audience, I read it as classist. One step above 'you people' or 'peasants'. Definitely on the 'talking down' axis. Again, context.
 
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