buppie

English

Alternative forms

• buppy

Etymology

Blend of black +‎ yuppie or an abbreviation of black urban professional, modelled on yuppie (“young urban professional”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʌpi

Noun

buppie (plural buppies)

1. (US, slang) A black urban professional; an African-American professional or executive in their late twenties or early thirties.
   • 1991 June, Ella Taylor, “Identity crises”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     In Spike Lee’s story of interracial romance, Jungle Fever (June), Wesley Snipes plays a young buppie New York architect whose affair with his Italian-American secretary (Annabella Sciorra) threatens his marriage and her relationship to her family.

Usage notes

The term is sometimes used in derogatory fashion to discuss Black Americans who place an extreme emphasis on materialism. Jobs associated with buppies include consultant, investment banker, doctor, lawyer, accountant, and engineer.

References

• Official Buppie Handbook (Black Urban Professional), by Thayer William Staples and Katherine McMillan Staples. (1985) →ISBN
• "Meet the buppies: A decade into democracy, South Africa's elite blacks prosper. But their glitz and glam hide a world-class inequality that only gets worse", by Jenifer Abrahamson, salon.com, April 29, 2004.
• Jonathon Green (2024) “buppie n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• Eric Partridge (2005) “buppie”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 1 (A–I), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 303.