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Just shut up and color

Posted by Smokey Stover on October 16, 2007

In Reply to: Just shut up and color posted by Duke on October 16, 2007

: Where does: "Just shut up and color" Come from?

Where? The U.S., I imagine. More specifically, coloring (sometimes with crayons, or within the lines) is the quintessential or emblematic activity of kindergarten. At least so I've heard, not having attended kindergarten myself. So "shut up and color" is rather like, "sit down and shut up," but meant to show that you think the person whose opinions or activities you are dismissing is on a level with a kindergartner. One of the uses of the phrase that I found interesting was the following:

Published on Friday, September 10, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Shut Up and Color: The Politics of Bullying
by Paul Rogat Loeb/

A former Air Force Colonel I know described the Bush administration's attitude toward dissent as "shut up and color," as if we were unruly eight-year-olds.

SS

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