Entry · catalog no. 1278
black card
/ blæk kɑrd /BLAK kard
noun · national · 2010s
✓ Verified
1.
The imaginary membership card every Black person is presumed to carry, invoked in play to police cultural competence. To have it revoked, pulled or suspended is to be ribbed for failing some in-group test — not knowing a canonical song, film or dish, talking or dressing in a way read as white, or embarrassing Black people in public. Said among Black people, almost always joking, with an edge: the bit enforces a shared canon and quietly mocks the idea that Blackness can be certified at all.
“You ain''t never had a Sunday plate? They taking your black card for that.”
2.
Used in the positive to claim belonging.
“My black card is intact, thank you.”
Origin & Attribution
Black American in-group speech, national rather than tied to any city. It belongs to an older family of Black terms about authenticity and standing — the ghetto pass, acting white — that sharpened after integration, when class and geographic spread made intra-racial arguments about belonging a live thing. The comedy circuit and the early Black internet are where the formula hardens. Search results are dominated by the American Express Centurion Card, launched 1999 and nicknamed the Amex black card, which is an unrelated sense; the cultural term is not derived from it.
2015
Latesha Williams and Jay Bobo release the card game Black Card Revoked
2017
NPR Code Switch covers the game, 16 March
2019
Chris L. Terry publishes Black Card, a novel built on the premise of a revoked card
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
national · 2010s
Spoken by
Black American speakers nationally
$BLACKCThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady11 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
76/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2015
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Black Card Revoked, Cards for All People, Latesha Williams and Jay Bobo — card game · 2015
submitted
■
NPR Code Switch, "Who''s The Blackest Of Them All?", 16 March — radio · 2017
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceChris L. Terry, Black Card: A Novel, Catapult — novel · 2019
submitted
See also