Hello everybody!
It’s the first time I write on Agora so forgive any stupid thingh I may do! :-[
I really need your help. I’m translating ( into Italian ) a short story by Bessie Head, a South African writer, but I can’t find anywhere an explanation of the expression "black or blue". Is it common in English? when is it used? I will quote you in my degree thesis!Thx!!!!!!

The only thing I can think of is when I was an unruly child my mother would threaten me with the idea that "I’ll knock you black and blue if you don’t stop". This was a common term used by mothers from the southern US. Luckily, the threat was seldom carried out.

I am unable to think of a black or blue expression.

Luckily, the threat was seldom carried out.  ;D

In fact I found a lot about black and blue but nothing about black or blue. I think I’ll have to make something up!

Thanks a lot for your help!

The answer to this question lies in the provenance of the luckless Bessie Head, the unwanted progeny of a liaison between a white woman and a black South African.  Her mother, for her “sins” was consigned to a madhouse, where she died, and Bessie, an unwanted and unloved social outcast, was eventually forced to flee to Botswana.  She spent her life in a desperate struggle against poverty, seeking to lift herself out through writing.  Ultimately she failed, and died young.

If lu2x had given some context, it would be easier to answer, but it seems as though “black or blue” was more of a Hobbsian choice for Bessie’s existence than the more prosaic bumps and bruises that would otherwise be construed.  Bessie, ostracised for being of mixed race, found no consolation in her parentage, nor solace in her persipacity.

http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&id=F1gM3pGNBPsC&dq=bessie+head&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=tja8_4JUrq&sig=nZ6zSVkKPPT-LFN5eeb02dqzoy0#PPA13,M1