The Racist Origins of 7 Common Phrases

Even the most nonsense expressions in the English language language I grew up somewhere. some conditionsHe loves Silver lining and absurdityhas benign roots, while other sayings go back to the darkest chapters of US history. While these common phrases are rarely used in their original contexts today, knowing their racist origins casts them in a different light.

1. The turning point

This common phrase describes the tipping point when change that was once possible becomes inevitable. When it was generalized, according to Merriam-Webster, it was applied to one phenomenon in particular: White flight. In the 1950s, as whites left urban areas for the suburbs in droves, journalists began using the phrase Turning point For the proportion of non-white neighbors, it was necessary to elicit this reaction from the city’s white residents. Turning point It was not coined in the 1950s (it first appeared in print in the 19th century), but it entered everyday discourse during the decade thanks to the topic.

2. Long time no see

Saying long time no see It could be Tracked To the nineteenth century. In a Boston Sunday Globe An article from 1894, the words are applied to a Native American speaker. The broken English phrase was also used to invoke white people’s stereotypes about Native American speech in William F. Dranan, published in 1899 Thirty-one Years on the Plains and Mountains, or The Last Voice of the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Lifetime of Indian Hunting, Trapping, Scouting, and Fighting in the Far West.

It is unlikely that Native Americans were saying that long time no see During this era. according to According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this type of isolated construction was unusual for the indigenous languages ​​of North America. Rather, it arose as a way for white writers to mock Native American speech, and the speech of non-native English speakers from other places such as China. By the 1920s, it had become a regular part of American vernacular.

3. Mumbo Jumbo

Previously, this phrase was synonymous with jargon or other confusing language Jumbo jumbo It originated with religious ceremonies in West Africa. In the Mandinka language the word Country House Jumbo She described a masked dancer who participated in the celebrations. Former Royal African Company clerk Francis Moore transcribed the name as Jumbo jumbo In his book of 1738 Travels to the interior parts of Africa. In the early 19th century, English speakers began to separate the phrase from its African origins and apply it to anything that confused them.

4. Sold down the river

Before the phrase Sold down the river It means treason, and it originated as a literal practice of the slave trade. Slaves from the northern territories were sold to cotton plantations in the Deep South via the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. For enslaved people, the threat of being “sold down the river” meant being separated from family and guaranteed a life of hard labor and brutal conditions. Journal entry from April 1835 Little A person who “after being sold to go down to the river, first attempted to cut off his legs, but failing to do so, cut his own throat, and, not quite committing suicide, went a short distance and drowned himself.”

5. I can’t do it

Similar to long time no see, I can’t do it I grew up as jab For non-English speakers. According to the OED, this example was likely directed at Chinese immigrants in the early 1900s. Today, many people who use the slang phrase meaning “I can’t do it” are unaware of its cruel origins.

6. The Indian Muti

Merriam-Webster He specifies Indian Muti “Like someone giving something to another and then taking it back.” It was one of Thomas Hutchinson’s first film appearances History of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the mid-eighteenth century. In a note, She says “The Indian gift is a proverbial expression, denoting a gift which is expected to produce a similar return.” In the nineteenth century, the stereotype shifted from the gift to the giver, and the idea of ​​“equivalent consideration” was abandoned and used as an insult. 1838 N.-Y. mirror condition Little “Distinctive Types of Crimes and Virtues” for schoolchildren, explaining: “I have seen the finger pointed at the Indian giver. (One who gives a gift and demands it back.)”

Even as this stereotype about indigenous people faded, the phrase remained Indian Muti It continued until the twenty-first century. The word Indian in Indian Muti It also indicates falsehoodas in the old phrase Indian summer.

7. Cake walk

In the antebellum South, some enslaved black Americans spent their Sundays dressing up and performing dances in the spirit of mocking the white upper classes. The enslaved people did not know they were The butt of the jokeThey even encouraged these performances and rewarded the best dancers with cakes, hence the name.

Maybe because this was seen as a fun weekend activity, that phrase picnic I become attached to easy tasks. “Cakewalks” did not end with slavery: for decades, they (along with cakewalks) remained a part of black American life — but at the same time, white actors in blackface incorporated the act into Minstrel showsturning what began as a mockery of white elites into a racist caricature of black people.

A version of this story was published in 2020; Updated for 2023.