I’m always intrigued by language, the history of phrases and how they came to be. Of course there are many blatant racist and derogatory words and phrases that have come from the past but some have slipped into our daily use because their original meaning was lost, despite it being racist!

ATTN fleshed out a few with their back story and particularly these two caught my eye! I thought it was extremely interesting so decided to share.

Would this stop you using these? Do you know any other sayings with racist origins?

No Can Do
The phrase was originally a way to mock Chinese people, according to Oxford Dictionaries.

The widespread use of the phrase in English today has obscured its origin: what might seem like folksy, abbreviated version of I can’t do it is actually an imitation of Chinese Pidgin English. The phrase dates from the mid-19th to early-20th centuries, an era when Western attitudes towards the Chinese were markedly racist.

Former enslaved people, C.1914

Grandfather Clause
The idea of a grandfather clause usually means that a person or entity is allowed to continue operating under old rules that were in place, but that going forward everyone else will have to abide by new rules. Let’s say a building is rezoned from a business use to a residential use, and while existing businesses won’t be kicked out all future tenants have to use the building as a residence.

Yet, as the Encyclopedia Britannica explains, the grandfather clause was born from a racist post-Reconstruction political strategy:

It provided that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1866 or 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting. Because the former slaves had not been granted the franchise until the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, those clauses worked effectively to exclude black people from the vote but assured the franchise to many impoverished and illiterate whites.

Learn about the origins of some more Common Words and Phrases That Have Seriously Racist Roots here on ATTN.