you people

English

Noun

you people pl (plural only)

1. (derogatory) Any outsiders of a clique.
2. Members of a particular group, collectively.

   That is the type of thing you people would say.

   • 2000, Joe R. Feagin, Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations, page 245:

     There's a young white woman that I work with now, and she really hasn't worked with a lot of people of color, and she uses the term, 'you people,' and I bring it to her attention. And she's like 'oh, oh', [....]

   • 2001, Kenneth S. Bordens, Irwin A. Horowitz, Social Psychology, page 120:

     In another incident, presidential candidate Ross Perot ran into trouble in 1992 when addressing the NAACP. He used the phrases like you people and your people when talking about who would suffer the most from economic problems and runaway crime.

   • 2006, Raymond M Scurfield, A Vietnam Trilogy, page 75:

     He said, I just came back from Guadalcanal. I've been fighting through the jungles. Fighting day and night. But I didn't realize there was a war on until I came back to the United States. And especially tonight. When I came back and I find out that we've now got women Marines, we've got dog Marines, and when I see you people wearing our uniforms, then I know there's a war on.
     Goddamn. You never saw so many Coke bottles fly. Knocked him down. And there was a riot that night. The first black riot in Marine Corps history.

   • 2007, Cees Nooteboom, Susan Massotty, Lost Paradise: A Novel, page 51:

     That's what attracts you people, if you don't mind my saying so. "You people" doesn't sound very polite, but I have lived for years out here in the back of beyond, where I have watched you people come in search of answers.

   • 2007, Ed Griffin, Beyond the Vows, page 107:

     He said some cleaning compound was missing and he suspects you because you people are always stealing things.

3. (US, dialectal) plural of you

Usage notes

• In North America, the term can be understood as ascribing a particular statement to an entire ethnic, racial, or religious group of the group addressed rather than only those addressed.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:you people.

Synonyms

• (plural of you): See Thesaurus:y'all

See also

• those people