hamfat

plural hamfats

1. USobsoleteoffensiveslangA black person.
2. USobsoleteblack slangSomething average; a mediocre thing or person, especially a jazz musician.

   Around the poolroom I defended the guys I felt were my real brothers, the colored musicians who made music that sent me, not a lot of beat-up old hamfats who sang and played a commercial excuse for the real thing.

   1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Quit Foolin’ with That Comb”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 49

3. USslangactingA low-grade actor; a ham or hamfatter.