List of racist idioms

The English idioms listed below are generally or sometimes considered to be racist. Some idioms express negative ethnic stereotypes, some invoke white supremacy, some trivialize painful historical memories, and others have innocent origins but may be interpreted as racist. While racism in idioms is sometimes explicit, some may be covertly racist.

Idioms

  • Call a spade a spade, meaning to speak frankly. The idiom originates from classical Greek and has been used in English since the mid-16th century. It is sometimes considered racist in modern contexts, after "spade" emerged as a racial slur (meaning an African American person) in the 1920s.[1]
  • Chinaman's chance, used in the United States, meaning little or no chance of success. The idiom carries pejorative connotations, alluding to the low probability of success resulting from "the endless social barriers that were thrown up against Chinese immigrants seeking opportunities to advance".[2]
  • Circle the wagons, used in the United States, meaning to unite a group for a common purpose. Some Indigenous people view the term as offensive based on its literal meaning stemming from the manifest destiny era when many tribes were driven off of their land by settlers arriving by wagon.[3] Some critique the term on the basis that it is culturally insensitive and evokes racist images of Native Americans.[4][5]
  • Long time no see, an American greeting, is an imitation of Native American Pidgin English (or perhaps Chinese Pidgin English) meant to imitate and mock its speakers.[6]
  • Mighty white of you, and variations thereof, used in the United States, meaning "thank you for being fair."[7][8] For example, a character in Erle Stanley Gardner's 1937 mystery novel, The Case of the Dangerous Dowager, says: "It was damn white of him."[9] Since the 1970s, it's almost only used ironically.[10]
  • Off the reservation, used in the United States to mean acting outside of accepted boundaries. It refers to policing Native American people who were restricted to living on Indian reservations, and could only travel "off the reservation" with permission from a government agent.[11]
  • Play the white man, used in parts of Great Britain, meaning that someone is attempting to be decent and trustworthy in their actions.[12] The phrase implies that white people are inherently more honorable than people of other races.[13]
  • The pot calling the kettle black, meaning to accuse hypocritically, has been used in racist contexts (e.g. in reports from the Boer War), and is sometimes avoided because of the concerns that it covertly conveys "negative ideas about individuals and groups" (i.e. blackness).[14] Folklorist Patricia Turner says that the idiom is widely used by both Black and non-Black Americans, and that Black Americans are less likely to assign racist connotations to the phrase.[15]
  • Sold down the river, used in the United States, meaning that one was betrayed. It originated as a lament of eastern slaves being split apart from their families and forcibly transported to plantations in the Deep South, where conditions were even worse.[16][17] Users of the idiom may seem to be trivializing or minimizing the suffering of the enslaved people it evokes.[18]
  • Speak white!, an imperative idiom used in Canada, ordering someone (typically a Francophone) to speak in English.[19] The phrase is an example of linguistic imperialism.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ Gandhi, Lakshmi (23 Sep 2013). "Code Switch: Is It Racist To 'Call A Spade A Spade'?". NPR. Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  2. ^ Zimmer, Ben (April 26, 2018). "'Chinaperson' and the Sanitization of a Racial Slur". The Atlantic. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  3. ^ Stollznow, Karen (2020). On the Offensive. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108791786. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  4. ^ Logan, Shawn (2 November 2017). "Calgary Circle the Wagons festival strikes racist chord as organizers vow rebranding". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  5. ^ "'It's the right thing to do': Circle the Wagons festival changing its name". CBC Radio Canada. 3 August 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  6. ^ Dishman, Lydia (27 September 2018). "The problematic origins of common business jargon". Fast Company. Retrieved 28 February 2026.
  7. ^ "White". Merriam-Webster online. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  8. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, cited at Dave Wilton (18 February 2007). "that's white of you". Wordorigins. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  9. ^ Grosset and Dunlap edition, 1937, page 177
  10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1992). Dictionary of Catch Phrases. Scarborough House. p. 60. ISBN 978-0812885361.
  11. ^ Eubanks, Olivia (30 July 2020). "Here are some commonly used terms that actually have racist origins". ABC News.
  12. ^ "Complaint made over Mayor of Erewash's 'racist comment' at council meeting". Nottingham Post. 14 November 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
  13. ^ Stuart-Hamilton, Ian (2007). An Asperger Dictionary of Everyday Expressions. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 182. ISBN 978-1-84310-518-3.
  14. ^ Waldman, Katy (22 December 2014). "Is It Kosher to Talk About the "Pot Calling the Kettle Black"?". Slate. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  15. ^ Turner, Patricia A. (2002). "Pots, Kettles, and Interpretations of Blackness". Western Folklore. 61 (1): 5–19. doi:10.2307/1500286. ISSN 0043-373X. JSTOR 1500286.
  16. ^ Guy Mendes, "Kentucky's Underground Railroad" Archived October 20, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, KET, accessed April 22, 2009
  17. ^ Wilma A. Dunaway, "Put in Master's Pocket: Interstate Slave Trading and the Black Appalachian Diaspora" Archived August 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, in Appalachians and Race: The Mountain South from Slavery to Segregation, ed. John Inscoe, Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2000, republished on filebox.vt.edu, accessed April 21, 2009
  18. ^ Andrew, Scottie; Kaur, Harmeet (6 July 2020). "Everyday words and phrases that have racist connotations". CNN. Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  19. ^ Martin, Gabriel (June 2025). "L'histoire de speak white : entre mythe et réalité". Histoire Québec (in Canadian French). 30 (4): 37–39.
  20. ^ Cassin, Barbara, ed. (2023). Le Livre d'une langue. Paris: éditions du Patrimoine, Centre des monuments nationaux. p. 104.
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