2. It means lying.

For example, the Rev. Cecil Williams used it in a December 1970 article in The Black Scholar titled, "Black Folks Are Not for Sale." Williams wrote, "The church is shuckin' and jivin'. By shuckin' and jivin' I simply mean talking out of both sides of its mouth."

3. But it also means making yourself look subservient to authority figures.

In 1990's Ribbin', Jivin', and Playin' the Dozens: The Persistent Dilemma in Our Schools, Herbert L. Foster explains:

Shuckin' and jivin' is a verbal and physical technique some blacks use to avoid difficulty, to accommodate some authority figure, and in the extreme, to save a life or to save oneself from being beaten physically or psychologically. Gestures, facial expressions, speech pronunciation, and body poses are all used to provide the authority figure with the appearance deemed acceptable and subservient to placate him. Shuckin' and jivin' also often requires an ability to control and conceal one's true emotions.

4. And it does often refer to communication between blacks and whites.

Foster says jiving plays off the expectations of white people. He cites this passage from Eldridge Cleaver's book Soul on Ice, when Cleaver is pulled over by a cop for running a red light.

'Say, Boy,' he said to me, 'are you color-blind?' I didn't want a ticket so I decided to talk him out of it. I went into my act, gave him a big smile and explained to him that I was awfully sorry, that I thought that I could make it but that my old car was too slow. He talked real bad to me, took me on a long trip about how important it was that I obeyed the laws and regulation and how else can a society be controlled and administered without obedience to the law. I said a bunch of Yes Sir's and he told me to run along and be a good boy.

And here's an example from the book Airtight Willie & Me by Iceberg Slim, the assumed name of Robert Beck, a former Chicago pimp whose books were turned into blaxploitation films: "I was having one bitch kitty of a time tuning out the interracial sewer mouth shucking and jiving and playing the 'dozens' from cell to cell on our tier."

And here's an example from the Associated Press on April 3, 1987, when there was controversy in the South Carolina state senate over whether to accept invitations from segregated clubs. (Yes, I know: 1987!) State Sen. Kay Patterson, who is black, sponsored a controversial resolution to stop accepting those invites, and said, "Let's stop shucking and jiving. I brought you a simple resolution. All it says is that we will not accept invitations to any segregated clubs. What's so bad about that?" (State Sen. Charlie Powell, who was white, responded by referring to the Black Caucus and saying that if Patterson "would permit whites to join his club then I'll also vote to let blacks come join our clubs.")