Urban Angst

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Sit, Lady!

The black man often turns out to be be someone famous, those mentioned include Reggie Jackson, Wilt Chamberlain, Lionel Ritchie, Eddie Murphy, O.J. Simpson (before the murder of his wife), Joe Greene, and Magic Johnson. The UL ends with free dinner, roses, or concert tickets for the ignorant women.

This is one of the classic urban legends. It appears in a number of variations--the name of the celebrity changes, sometimes the dog is named "Whitey," etc. The UL is dealt with in detail as "The Elevator Incident" in Brunvand's book "The Choking Doberman."

This UL took the country by storm in 1982, appearing in numerous press reports that year. The UL is probably somewhat older--Reggie Jackson remembers first being asked about it circa 1979. It has since subsided in its frequency of appearance.

There is a similar story about American tourists visiting parliament. The Keeper of the Woolsack, garbed in ceremonial robes, while passing the tourists in the hall spies an MP named Neil and calls out to him. The tourists promptly kneel, thinking it was a command. Again, this one has several variants with various MPs with the name Neil playing the key role. It is almost certainly untrue, especially since they don't give tours of Westminster when parliament is in session.

An earlier, dating to the 1960s, variant of the elevator incident has no dog and ends with two black men (who are not celebrities and remain anonymous) urinating on the unfortunate woman.

This is an interesting UL that contains many of the themes found in ULs in general: fear of strange places, racism, and the ignorant protaganist being punished. It is also illustrative how the UL has mutated to eliminate the most distasteful aspects and unpleasant ending, yet maintain the subtexts of fear and racism.

Debunked: Several suburban white women visit the big city. They nervously enter elevator which has a black man and a dog. He says "Sit Lady!" The women promptly sit on the floor, but the man was talking to the dog, who is named "Lady."

References:

• http://tafkac.org/misc/kneel.html
• "The Choking Doberman," by J. H. Brunvand