Lawyers for Christie administration seeking documents, interview with Hoboken mayor

[JDPriestly]

25. I have never heard that in my life. Maybe that is the Southern or Texas version, but I never

heard that anywhere. And I lived in the South for some years.

As generally understood, the person accusing (the "pot&quot is understood to share some quality with the target of their accusation (the "kettle&quot . The pot is mocking the kettle for a little soot when the pot itself is thoroughly covered in the same.

An alternative interpretation, recognised by some,[1][2] but not all,[3] sources is that the pot is sooty (being placed on a fire), while the kettle is clean and shiny (being placed on coals only), and hence when the pot accuses the kettle of being black, it is the pot’s own sooty reflection that it sees: the pot accuses the kettle of a fault that only the pot has, rather than one that they share. This is also an outdated statement, since most pots & kettles are of metallic or ceramic materials. (See also: Psychological Projection)

The following poem can be found in the schoolbook Maxwell's Elementary Grammar from 1904.

"Oho!" said the pot to the kettle;
"You are dirty and ugly and black!
Sure no one would think you were metal,
Except when you're given a crack."

"Not so! not so!" kettle said to the pot;
"'Tis your own dirty image you see;
For I am so clean – without blemish or blot –
That your blackness is mirrored in me."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pot_calling_the_kettle_black

It's about a pot and a kettle and has no racist connotations in the usages I have heard. It is an extremely common expression. Nor every reference to "black" is racist. Far from it.