Fact Checking The Root, “When Racism Slips Into Everyday Speech”
Shutterstock image I found to play on “jig is up” (jigsaw) + hidden racism
I recently wanted to do a language/linguistics repost for my blog. Since I love controversy, I found an article to repost from The Root. But something felt off. Some of the claims sounded a little too neat, a little too perfect. So I did what everyone does now: I asked ChatGPT to help fact check the claims and trace the etymologies.
You can read the original post here: https://www.theroot.com/when-racism-slips-into-everyday-speech
The Root is an online opinion and culture magazine that focuses largely on race and Black American perspectives. It publishes commentary, journalism, and essays on politics, culture, and social issues.
Look, I do not think truth should always get in the way of a good story. I also think the idea that everything is secretly racist is both lazy and counterproductive. If we are careless with history, people start believing all kinds of nonsense. That includes bizarre claims that Jews somehow ran the transatlantic slave trade because someone saw a misleading meme online, or equally false claims that Muslims had nothing to do with slave trading despite the long and well documented Arab slave trade that predates the Atlantic system and in some places persisted far longer.
If we care about history, we should care about accuracy.
Many of The Root’s examples come from an NPR Code Switch article. NPR is taxpayer funded media that often presents itself as objective journalism while overwhelmingly reflecting one ideological perspective. That does not automatically make the claims wrong, but it does make them worth checking.
Anyway, I am digressing.
Below are the phrases The Root claims have racist origins, followed by what the historical record actually says.
tl;dr: 5 of the 8 claims are well documented. 3 rely on weak or unsupported folk etymologies. Their post is certainly more accurate than most of the stuff you read online. My skepticism was invalid.
1. “Peanut gallery”
Claimed origin: The cheap balcony seats in theaters where Black patrons allegedly sat during segregation, associated with throwing peanuts or heckling performers.
Reality: “Peanut gallery” did refer to the cheapest seats in vaudeville theaters, and those seats were sometimes associated with rowdy audiences who threw peanuts or heckled performers. Some theaters also used explicitly racist terms for segregated balconies.
Verdict: Mostly true but somewhat overstated.
The term did exist for cheap seats and hecklers. The direct racial origin is plausible but not firmly established as the original meaning.
2. “The jig is up”
Claimed origin: Derived from lynching, supposedly by replacing the first letter of the n-word.
Reality: The phrase “the jig is up” appears in English texts as early as the 1700s meaning “the trick or game is over.” In that period, “jig” referred to a trick, scheme, or lively dance.
Verdict: False.
The lynching explanation is a classic folk etymology with no historical evidence.
3. “Call a spade a spade”
Claimed origin: Linked to a racial slur.
Reality: The phrase originates in ancient Greek literature and simply meant “to speak plainly.” The racial slur “spade” developed much later in American slang during the early twentieth century.
Verdict: Misleading.
The phrase itself predates the slur by centuries.
4. “Sold down the river”
Claimed origin: Refers to enslaved people being sold from the Upper South to harsher plantations further south via the Mississippi River system.
Reality: This is well documented. The domestic slave trade often transported enslaved people “down the river” to plantations in the Deep South.
Verdict: True.
5. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe”
Claimed origin: Older versions of the children’s rhyme used a racial slur which was later replaced by “tiger.”
Reality: Multiple historical versions of the rhyme exist, and documented versions from the early twentieth century did contain the slur in some regions before it was replaced.
Verdict: True.
6. “Cotton-picking”
Claimed origin: Derived directly from enslaved labor in cotton fields.
Reality: The phrase literally refers to picking cotton and later developed into a mild intensifier (similar to saying “damn”). Its association with slavery likely contributed to its tone, but it was not clearly coined as a racial insult.
Verdict: Partially true but exaggerated.
7. “Spook”
Claimed origin: A racial slur based on the idea that Black people “blend into the night.”
Reality: “Spook” originally meant ghost or spirit from Dutch and Germanic roots. It did become a racial slur in twentieth century American slang, but the exact reason for that shift is unclear.
Verdict: Partially true but speculative.
8. “Grandfather clause / grandfathered in”
Claimed origin: Post-Civil War voting laws that allowed white voters to bypass literacy tests if their grandfathers could vote before Black Americans gained suffrage.
Reality: This is well documented. These laws were designed specifically to disenfranchise Black voters while preserving voting rights for poor whites.
Verdict: True.
The point of this post is language carries historical baggage. We take for granted a lot of terms and phrases with dark pasts. But etymology is complicated, and catchy stories are not always correct.
In this case, most of them were correct.
Anywhoodles, I wouldn’t use any of these expressions for multiple reasons. Yes, especially because they’re offensive. Also, because they’re corny.
