******* Milk
I've never heard this before...
However, I think it may derived from racist, Jim-Crow imagery that depicted caricatured Black children drinking from a ink bottle. "******* Milk"
http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/caricature/more/ink.htm
You're elders, perhaps having seen this imagery, may have substituted ink with coffee (a potable, dark liquid) and then make a joke out of it. (lest you be confronted with the images yourself.)
Just speculating...
Destee said:... does anyone know the origin of this phrase, what it really means?
I've never heard this before...
However, I think it may derived from racist, Jim-Crow imagery that depicted caricatured Black children drinking from a ink bottle. "******* Milk"
http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/caricature/more/ink.htm
You're elders, perhaps having seen this imagery, may have substituted ink with coffee (a potable, dark liquid) and then make a joke out of it. (lest you be confronted with the images yourself.)
Just speculating...