The Man

This article is about the phrase. For The Man (disambiguation), see The Man (disambiguation).

"The Man" is a slang phrase that refers to the government, leaders of large corporations, and other authority figures in general, rather than a specific person. "The Man" is colloquially defined as the figurative person who controls the world. The phrase is also often used as a symbol of racial oppression, as well as the boss of a blue-collar worker, and the enemy of any counterculture.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe perceived oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist".

History

The term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to about 1948, when it was commonly used as a code word for the warden of a prison. According to conservative African-American writer and professor Thomas Sowell, the term "being hassled by the man" was used by poor farmers in the post American Civil War South to refer to the "Bank Man" who would hassle them about the late payment of debts. In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. The phrase was also an underworld code word for police or other law enforcement or penal authorities. It was also a term for a drug dealer. It came to be applied by blacks to whites, especially in the role of oppressors; see for example, Newsweek, August 3, 1964: "It is time to let The Man know that if he does something to us, we are going to do something back." The use of this term was expanded to other counterculture groups and their battles against authority, such as the Yippies, which, according to a May 19, 1969 article in U.S. News and World Report, had the "avowed aim ... to destroy 'The Man', their term for the present system of government". The term eventually found its way into ironic usage, such as in a December 1979 motorcycle ad from the magazine Easyriders which featured the tagline, "California residents: Add 6% sales tax for The Man."

The use of the term 'the man' as a form of praise has an older provenance. One example of this usage dates to 1879 when Otto von Bismarck commented, referring to Benjamin Disraeli's actions at the Congress of Berlin, "The old Jew, he is the man."

See also

• New World Order (conspiracy theory)
• Ruling class
• The Establishment
• The Power Elite
• I'm Waiting for the Man (for usage of "The Man" to refer to a drug dealer)

References

• Lighter, J.E. (Ed.). (1997). Random House Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Random House.
• Sowell, Thomas. (2005). Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Encounter Books.
• The Man was made man of the year by The Onion in 1997.