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While the competition on its face is usually light-hearted, smiles sometimes mask real tensions. In its purest form, the dozens is part of an African-American custom of verbal sparring, of "woofin'" calling (fuck shit mother fucker mix) and "signifyin'", ostensibly intended to defuse conflict nonviolently, descended from an oral tradition rooted in traditional West African cultures. "Yo' momma" is a common, widely recognized retort in African-American slang. It is a cryptic and sometimes comical allusion to the dozens. The term the dozens is believed to refer to the devaluing on the auction calling (fuck shit mother fucker mix) block of slaves who were past their prime, deformed, aged, calling (fuck shit mother fucker mix) or no longer capable of hard labor after years of back-breaking toil. These slaves often were sold by the dozen. In "Still Laughing to Keep from Crying: Black Humor", African-American author and professor Mona Lisa Saloy writes: The dozens has its origins in the slave trade of New Orleans where deformed slaves—generally slaves punished with dismemberment for disobedience—were grouped in lots of a 'cheap dozen' for sale to slave owners.
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