Personally, I call them sprinkles. But that is not the point here, to get into a heated debate about what they are actually called.
This girl in my Pop Culture class claims the term is demeaning and racial. She claims "a guy in New England" told her that jimmies/sprinkles once only came in chocolate flavor, making them brown. (those of you quick on the uptake can see where this is going).
She is saying the term jimmies comes from the Jim Crow laws, set to segregate former slaves...ergo making the term offensive.
If I strech my imagination faaaar enough, I could see the connection. But I have never heard of this orgin before, and neither has The Dictionary of American Hertiage, which is slightly more reliable then "a guy in New England."
Anyone else hear of this origin?
Anyone find this offensive?
Discuss