- Have you ever used a weird figure of speech and thought,
I wonder where that came from?
Well, I hate to burst your bubble,
but some of those phrases have very racist beginnings.
(energetic music)
Here are six phrases you never knew were racist.
OK, OK, everybody settle down.
That's enough from the peanut gallery.
Whether it's joking around too much in class
or making comments that interrupt a presentation,
"the peanut gallery" describes heckling,
or some sort of unwanted disruption.
In the 1920s, the peanut gallery was the theater balcony
where black folks were forced to sit due to segregation.
In some places, it was even called the n-word gallery.
Well, tell us how you really feel.
So why peanuts?
Well, today we celebrate George Washington Carver
as the pioneer of the peanut,
but back then being a black scientist was taken as a joke.
Peanuts were also a popular cheap theater snack,
so associating black people with peanuts was meant
as an insult.
Ooh, five o'clock? Sorry, no can do.
If something's not gonna work out,
no can do is one of the simplest ways
to get the message across.
But this phrase started in the early 20th century
as a bad Chinese impression.
It's not uncommon for immigrants
to speak what's known as pidgin languages,
which are simplified versions of a language
in order to help people communicate.
Instead of respecting how difficult it is
to pick up another language,
Westerners mimicked Chinese pidgin English,
and now centuries later, no can do has stuck.
Well, hey there, stranger! Long time no see!
When you run into an old friend,
long time no see is shorthand for,
"It's taken way too long, but I am so happy to see you."
Similar to no can do,
long time no see is also a mimicry of pidgin English,
but this time it's the indigenous people
who are the butt of this nasty joke.
Ugh, I told Cheryl not to tell Jason
that I couldn't make his party,
and she totally sold me down the river!
When you've been sold down the river,
it essentially means that you've been betrayed,
and as it turns out, this phrase's origin is pretty literal.
So, during slavery,
slaveowners would punish disruptive slaves
by selling them to plantations in the Deep South,
where conditions were much harder.
And how do you think they got there?
Why, the Mississippi River, of course.
Oh, you're gonna ruin another phrase for me?
Hip hip hooray.
Hip hip hooray is the Americanized version
of hep hep hoorah,
which is meant to be a celebratory exclamation,
but the original was used as a Nazi rallying cry
when raiding Jewish ghettos during the Holocaust.
There are a few different theories as to where hep came from
before that, but it's said to be the Latin acronym
for "Jerusalem is lost."
Pre-Holocaust, the Hep-Hep riots
of 1819 left countless German Jewish businesses destroyed.
Ugh, I tried to buy an extra ticket
for the concert out front,
and the guy totally (bleep) me.
Now, this is phrase you've probably
heard a million times before,
so why are we censoring it?
Well, the g-word is actually a racial slur.
Hold up, (bleep) is a racial slur?
Hold up! Who is beeping me?
Yeah, so the g-word means to cheat
or take advantage of someone, but it started
out as a nasty nickname for the Romani people.
The Romani are a nomadic Eastern European group
that originated from India,
but these days they live all around the world.
Throughout history, the Romani have been stereotyped
as untrustworthy, which has been used
to justify their mistreatment.
When they first came to Europe,
Europeans incorrectly assumed they were from Egypt,
and thus the g-word was born.
Oh, so now I have
to give up my sexy (bleep) Halloween costume?
Ugh, OK, enough with the beeps!
Oh, you mean that low-rent pirate costume?
Romani people don't even dress like that.
Here's the thing.
The g-word does not mean someone who's free-spirited
or likes to travel a lot.
Similar to the n-word, the g-word is a racial slur
that's been historically used to uphold the oppression
of an entire group of people, in this case, the Romani.
Unlike the other phrases on this list,
the consequences of the g-word are still felt today.
Romani continue to face discrimination worldwide.
In 2009, France deported over 10,000 Romani people,
and these days many are no longer nomadic,
because of laws that target them.
The last Romani regulation law
to be repealed in the U.S. was in 1998.
And across Europe they're often denied housing,
jobs, or forced into substandard segregated schools,
and are too often victims of hate crimes.
And that's not even touching on the movies
and the reality shows that use this nasty slur
to misrepresent the Romani.
Ugh, so now I have to give up every phrase
that has a terrible history?
Not exactly.
The g-word still hurts the Romani people today,
so I'd hope we can agree to live without it.
But nowadays the other phrases are pretty harmless.
Look, I'm not here to tell you how to talk,
but understanding where these words
and phrases come from is an important part
of understanding how racism
and oppression have shaped the world we live in today.
So, do you know of any common words or phrases
that have not-so-happy origin stories?
Share a few in the comments and we will see you next week,
right here on Decoded.
Last week we did a sketch about Donald Trump.
Here's what you had to say.
Yeah, HeirOfGlee, he was so good and super punchable.
You called it, MsAniManiac. Contour on fleek!
You might wanna check the video description box, bio2020,
'cause we linked where all of those quotes came from,
and they didn't come from the book,
so accuracy on point.
Cloe, we really tried to capture the bad Trump hair,
but they just don't make wigs like that.
(energetic music)