[ExI] usage question

[Damien Broderick]

What hypersensitive literal-mindedness is this?

<Crowley said Gates referred to Crowley's mother as a way of showing 
his displeasure.

When the officer repeatedly asked Gates to speak with him outside, 
the professor responded, "Ya, I'll speak with your mama outside," 
Crowley wrote in a police report.

"I'm still just amazed that somebody of his level of intelligence 
could stoop to such a level, and berate me, accuse me of being a 
racist or racial profiling," Crowley said Thursday with WEEI-AM. "And 
then speaking about my mother, it's just -- it's beyond words." >

What am I missing? I've never heard this expression, but I'd guess it 
means "You're acting like a bad child, I'll have to report you to 
your mother and have her perform some severe correction." Or could it 
mean, "I see your mama the crack ho is out on the street hustling her 
booty"? Or is it just that for (white?) working class USians, mothers 
are sacred and must *never* be so much as *mentioned* by *anyone* 
except in tones of deepest respect.

Damien Broderick





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