15 California Phrases With Questionable Origins

You may have never said any of these common phrases if you are young, but you have probably heard your parents or grandparents say them.

They may sound strange to you but to grandma and grandpa, they’ve been saying them for decades without questioning what they really mean or where they came from.

You Might be an Accidental Racist if You Say These 15 Phrases in California

Most of these common phrases seem innocent if you don’t know the backstory. Some of them only take a moment to realize that we never should have been saying them at all. So, get ready to have your vocabulary turned on its head because you’re going to question what you say and Grandpa is going to seem a lot more racist than normal.

Commonly Used Phrases That Are Historically Racist

You'd have to look long and far to find an example of someone using these as they were originally intended today. As they were first coined to oppress, they've become universally accepted as ordinary, everyday greetings and phrases in this modern day.

Gallery Credit: Kelso

California’s Everyday Phrases That Happen to be Racist

Not all the phrases in that list feel racist or make sense even with an explanation. So, you don’t have to change up your vernacular and omit them from your daily vocab…but it is fun to know random information.

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Others on the list, like ‘Off the Reservation’ and ‘Jew Him Down’ should probably disappear from your common sayings if they are something you still say.

At the beginning of the year, California instituted a new alert for missing Black kids and Black young women called it ‘Ebony Alert’. This has left a lot of people questioning the word choice and feeling a bit racist when it is used. This isn’t the first alert designation that doesn’t feel like the best choice, as the alert for missing Indigenous people is called ‘Feather Alert’.