From: RazzMaTazz (POOL BOY) [#1] 7 Feb 18:12 To: ALL
WHO DAT....Spent the day in the French Quarter yesterday. Ate lunch at Deanies' Seafood...One really big party...impromtu parades breaking out, coffee and french king cake at Croissant d'or...sitting back and watching crazy, wild people...Should the Saints win--this place ain't never gonna be the same.
I wondered the same until I saw highlights of the celebrations in NO with a guy rapping in a bar. IIRC
"Who Dat.....think they going to beat the Saints"
Just like numerous other words/sayings/expressions, it's only racial when a WHITE person uses them. When a black person uses them, well........ that's perfectly acceptable.
Of course, I'm sure that plenty of white people have used the "Who dat" expression without any intent of being racial, but the question remains, what the hell does it mean and where did it come from?
From: walkDMC [#6] 8 Feb 22:37 To: Charlie (CHARLIED6) [#4] 9 Feb 14:57
from Wikipedia
Who dat? is a chant of team support by sports fans, used especially by fans of the New Orleans Saints, an American football team. The entire chant is: "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gunna beat dem Saints?"
The chant of "Who Dat?" originated in minstrel shows and vaudeville acts of the late 1800s and early 1900s and was taken up by jazz and big band performers in the 1920s and 30s[citation needed]. Later, the New Orleans Saints, an NFL team, adopted the chant "Who Dat?", similar to the saying of the Cincinnati Bengals, "Who Dey?". ("Who Dat?" would translate into standard English as "Who is that?")
"Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gunna beat dem Saints?"
"Who Dat" became part of a chant for fans cheering on their favorite team. It has been debated exactly where it started, but some claim it began with Southern University fans either in the late 1960s or early 1970s and went "Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Jags" - Southern University being nicknamed the Jaguars.[3] Another claim is that around the same time it began at St. Augustine High School, a historically African-American all boys Catholic high school in New Orleans, and then spread to the New Orleans Public Schools. Another claim is that the cheer originated at Patterson High School in Patterson, Louisiana (home of Saints running back Dalton Hilliard).[2] In the late 1970s fans at Alcorn State University and Louisiana State University picked up on the cheer.[4] By 1983, the New Orleans Saints organization officially adopted it during the tenure of coach Bum Phillips, and Aaron Neville (along with local musicians Sal and Steve Monistere and Carlo Nuccio) recorded a version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" that incorporated the chant (performed by a group of Saints players) that became a major local hit, due in part to the support of sportscaster Ron Swoboda and the fact that Saints fans had been using the chant already.[2]
After the Saints won the NFC Championship Game on January 24, 2010, against the Minnesota Vikings in the Superdome, fans from all across New Orleans, including fans who were exiting the game, started a Mardi Gras-style "Who Dat" on Bourbon Street with modified lyrics, chanting, "Who Dat, Who Dat, Who Dat in the Super Bowl!" in reference to the Saints advancing to the Super Bowl for the first time ever in their 43-year history.[5][6]