A conference I’m attending this week, which was produced by and overwhelmingly attended by white people started a minute early today. No surprise there. It made me think, if this was run by us, would it have started on time? For the first time in my life, I wondered about the origin of C.P. time. If you don’t know what C.P. time is, just skip today’s post. It ain’t for you. Get woke and come back.
It’s a negative stereotype, but y’all– it’s often true. At Hampton we frequently recited the quote, “To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late and to be late is unacceptable.” But did classes and events start late? Of course they did.
I googled C.P. time and Wikipedia told me the term has been used at least since 1912, but I imagine we as a people operated on C.P. time long before then. But why? It’s like a curse or something. I think C.P. time is a condition bred from generations of us not really wanting to be somewhere, like work or– just work actually, and it trickled into other areas of our lives. Many of us don’t have a problem being on time or even hate it when others aren’t prompt, but if it’s a Black function, we assume others won’t be on time, so neither are we. It’s a vicious cycle, really.
So today’s lesson? Be on time for once in your life. Sorry this ended so abruptly, I’m meeting some people for dinner and I’m running behind. Just kidding. Kinda.
itsmeashli.com 