Updating Our Language - Day 9
“Grandfathered in”
This phrase has roots in the systematic racist attempts to keep Black people from voting, buying houses, marrying white people, and exercising any of the freedoms they were promised once released from being enslaved.
Beginning with Louisiana in 1898 states passed laws stating that unless one’s grandfather was eligible to vote then one was not. These laws quickly spread and were not struck down until 1915’s Supreme Court ruling in Guinn v. United States.
Throughout July we will be making posts about updating our language.
We live in a society that has normalized using many words and phrases with racist origins.
Part of the anti-racist work involves acknowledging you have used them, beginning the process of eliminating them from your vocabulary, and gently correcting others when you hear them used.
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