Search results
Jun 16, 2020 · Many common phrases often found in American English actually have racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive origins. The popular term "peanut gallery," for example, was once used to refer to people...
- Deadnaming – It’s not so much the word as the practice. Deadnaming occurs when you refer to a person who’s transgender by the birth or given name they used before they transitioned.
- Misgendering – This also is more a practice than word choice. It occurs when someone describes a transgender person with pronouns that do not align with the gender to which they identify.
- Transgenderism, transgendered, transwoman, transman – These terms are offensive to many in the transgender community. The proper terms are transgender (no -ism or -ed) and trans woman or trans man.
- Homosexual – The preferred word for people attracted to members of the same sex is gay or lesbian.
- Ice Cream Truck Song
- Uppity
- Jimmies
- Master Bedroom
- Sold Down The River
- Cakewalk
One of the iconic tunes that ice cream trucks play nationwide to alert neighborhood children of their arrival is a sign of summer for many. But few may have considered the song's origins.Actor Harry C. Browne released the song in March 1916 with Columbia Records under the name “N----- Love A Watermelon, Ha! Ha! Ha!” The song borrows heavy inspirati...
Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “above oneself, self-important,” the word “uppity” has a sordid past when used in reference to a Black individual. Originally found in Joel Chandler Harris’ “Uncle Remus” books, the word was used among Black people but became popular among white society intending to demean Black folks. One article on the ...
If you are a New Englander, you have likely been asked if you would like “jimmies” on your ice cream. It’s simply another way to ask for chocolate sprinkles. There are competing opinions on the origin of the term. According to Wright, these brown sprinkles were called jimmies as a form of "othering" from the regular sprinkles. The fact that they ar...
The word “master” harks back to the time of slavery in the United States when white male plantation owners were addressed with the term. But the word also suggests that a master is a man. Oxford English Dictionary lists numerous definitions, and nearly all of them mention the word denotes a man in power. The first printed use of “master bedroom” ca...
The phrase refers to the practice during the time of slavery in the United States when plantations in the Upper South would sell troublesome enslaved people to the brutal plantations in the Deep South in states like Mississippi. Oftentimes, it was viewed as a death sentence. According to the Mississippi Encyclopedia,the “river” in question almost a...
A word often used to denote a task that is easy to perform, the truth behind this word has to do with a different kind of performance that was not so easy. Oxford English Dictionary writes that a “cakewalk” was a dancing contest judged by plantation owners — with a cake as the prize. Unbeknownst to those who held people in slavery, it allowed the e...
Nov 29, 2021 · CBC Ottawa compiled a small list of words, submitted by readers and some of our journalists who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour, and put them to anti-racist and language experts.
Jul 10, 2023 · What is a microaggression? 15 things people think are fine to say at work — but are actually racist, sexist, or offensive.
- Marguerite Ward
Jul 6, 2020 · CNN — The words and phrases permeate nearly every aspect of our society. “Master bedrooms” in our homes. “Blacklists” and “whitelists” in computing. The idiom “sold down the river” in our...
profanity, language that is considered socially offensive due to being vulgar, obscene, or irreverent. The term profanity is often used in a religious sense to refer to language that is blasphemous, sacrilegious, or sometimes merely secular.
