When Racism Slips Into Everyday Speech

[Warpy]

59. Most of those are wrong

because the words existed before race was ever applied to them.

For instance, "spook" is adopted from the Dutch "spooc," which means ghost and has existed since the Middle Ages, before anti black slang in the US was thought of.

"The jig is up" means the music has finished and the fiddler wants to be paid. It's also a very old expression that has absolutely nothing to do with "jigaboo," a word that mimicked what African languages sounded like to ignorant outsiders.

"Calling a spade a spade" has to do more with card playing than 1920s racism.

"Eeny meeny" has been updated to the point that I haven't heard a kid use the original since the 1950s--and I didn't leave the south until the late 60s.

This article was written by an ignorant person sniffing out filth where none exists.