Welcome People's Republic Of U.S.A. Gangs-Riots-Looting-Protests Propaganda Etc..

We Our Smartest People In The World Today Felons, Illegals And MS13 Other Gangs Riots Looting Protests Propaganda Sign. Welcome Sign Reads "Official Sanctuary State" Sign At California Border and Other Sanctuary States in U.S.A. The Following Is A True Story About Gangs-Riots-Looting-Protests Propaganda If anyone hurts you or insult you or use wrong pronoun with you or other words... the right things to do is... go home and pee in your bed and set your home on fire and later go looting and riots and set car on fire and maybe kill someone ?

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So after a night of fun like riots and looting - rape - setting fires - killing !
So now you are home... you wake-up at 11:20am and see your mom... hay mom... I got you a new PC and new TV last night and other thing nice for you mom... thanks you son... or he-she-trans-etc. so after you eat its now 12 noon... mom or dad why are you home today ? you are late for work mom ? no son i'm not late...

do you remember i work at walmart son... yes mom i do... you and other burned walmart down last night son... do you remember this son... yes a fun time too. and your dad works at 7-11 son... yes i remember we burn it down last night too. and your grandfather worked at costco son... and your grandmother worked at ? yes yes yes mom i remember we burned the whole town last night... so we need to move now son.... as your whole family is now out of work son.... etc. etc. etc.

Mom thanks again for new PC and new TV and pair of Nike shoe last night son. Its so funny now.... you pee in your own bed and wake-up wet in the morning and say why I'm I wet now. Lol maybe its because you pee on yourself last night and this why + American's Our Smartest People In The World Today... WoW

https://rumble.com/v2xhqf0-americans-our-smartest-people-in-the-world-spontaneous-education-at-its-fin.html

American's Our Smartest People In The World Be Honest. As an Observer of American Society, the thought may have crossed your mind at one time or another at least for a fleeting moment or two that the nation's dysfunctional state of affairs is the result of widespread stupidity. The people, too often misinformed and poorly educated, are getting exactly the democracy they deserve. Perhaps that thought arose last week as you watched the cringe-worthy presidential debate, which pundits have called "a disgrace" and "an embarrassment for the ages." Our public discourse has been in decline for so long that it was bound to come to this, right?

Rep. Maxine Waters called on her supporters to publicly confront and harass members of the administration in response to the “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of families at the border.

“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents,” Waters said at the Wilshire Federal Building, according to video of the event.

Because rioting achieves nothing.

The people participating are mostly aware of that. There are participants who are legitimately enraged by police brutality and feel that this public display is the only way to bring any attention to their situation, but the reality is that all riots serve to do is make the rioters look like uneducated savages who do not know how to conduct themselves in the public forum, regardless of how legitimate the original cause was.

The vast majority of those involved, particularly young rioters- at least in my belief, based on their recorded actions- are not trying to affect any form of political change. They are they because they want to break some windows for fun. It’s out of the ordinary, a chance to act a bit crazy, and basically quite exciting. Not that I’m approving of it, or saying I would be joining in, but you’re lying to yourself if you think that there isn’t a sort of abandoned fun in going around and mindlessly destroying things. Mob mentality takes over, and you don’t necessarily see any victims at the time; everyone is joining in, so why not just put that window through?

The same people are there to get a free TV. It’s the same sort of sense of careless abandon, and the chance to go wild. If asked, you bet your ass they will tell you just how evil the system and their police enforcers are, in between destroying the private property of others- innocent others, who had no hand in the killing of George Floyd- and scoring some “free” stuff for their apartment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932023_United_States_racial_unrest

America does indeed have a problem in the smarts department and it appears to be getting worse, not better.

On Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the results of a two-year study in which thousands of adults in 23 countries were tested for their skills in literacy, basic math and technology. The US fared badly in all three fields, ranking somewhere in the middle for literacy but way down at the bottom for technology and math.

This shouldn't be all that surprising as there is a well documented pattern of American school kids failing to keep up with their tiger cub counterparts in other countries. But these results are the first concrete proof that this skill gap is extending well beyond school and into adulthood. The question is, do the study's results imply, as the New York Post so delicately put it, that "US adults are dumber than your average human"? Hardly, but it does suggest that many Americans may not be putting the smarts they have to good use, or, more likely, that they are not getting the opportunity to do so. Put another way: it's inequality, stupid.

Just a quick scan of the countries that fared really well in all three categories (Norway, Sweden, Japan, Finland and the Netherlands) compared to the countries that fared really badly (America and Britain) gives a pretty good indication that the inequality that is rampant in the (allegedly) dumber nations might have something to do with their pitifully low scores. A closer look at the results is also revealing. The incomes of Americans who scored the highest on literacy tests are on average 60% higher than the incomes of Americans with the lowest literacy scores, who were also twice as likely to be unemployed. So broadly speaking, the better off the American, the better they did on the tests.

Now this is just a wild guess, but could this possibly have something to do with the fact that the kind of schools a poor American kid will have access to are likely to be significantly inferior to the kinds of schools wealthier kids get to attend? Or that because of this, a poor kid's chances of getting into a good university, even if she could manage to pay for it, are also severely compromised? And let me go one step further and suggest that the apparent acceleration of America's dumbing down might be directly connected with the country's rising poverty rates.

Before I go on, I should say that even I can see some holes in the above theory. You only have to look at certain members of congress ( Read: who forced the government to shutdown last week), for instance, many of whom attended some of the finest universities (and make bucket loads of money), to see that even an Ivy League education may be of little use to a person who is simply prone to stupidity. I should add also that many people believe that it's the large immigrant population (of which I'm a member) who are responsible for bringing down the nation's IQ, which further complicates the dumb American narrative. Indeed one could argue all day about the reasons Americans are falling behind, (Woody Allen blames fast food), but we should at least be able to agree on the remedies.

Here's the thing, most economists agree that in this technology driven age, a highly skilled workforce is key to any real economic recovery. It doesn't bode well for the future then that so many American students, particularly low-income and minority students, are graduating high school without basic reading or math skills. Nor does it inspire confidence that students who leave school without basic skills are not acquiring them as adults. So America's alleged dumbness has a lot to do with inadequate schooling for (poor) children and teenagers and a dearth of continuing education opportunities for low-income adults. By contrast, the OECD study found that in (more equal) countries that fared better in the tests, like Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands, more than 60% of the adult population have engaged in continuing education programs or on the job training.

The smart thing to do then surely would be to pour resources into early and continuing education opportunities so that American adults will be equipped with the necessary skills to compete in the global economy. This is where the dumb argument really gets a boost, however, because the opposite is happening. Those same congressional geniuses I alluded to earlier are also responsible for forcing through the cuts known as sequestration, which among other things cut 5% from the federal education budget. Because federal education funding is doled out according to the number of low-income students in a given school, it is poor children, the ones who most need the help, who are being disproportionately impacted by the cuts. Furthermore since 2010, almost $65m, over one-tenth of the entire budget, has been cut from adult education grants.

So are Americans dumb? The answer appears to be yes, some are. The dumb ones are not the poor minorities or low skilled adults who fared badly on the OECD tests, however, but a certain privileged and selfish elite, who have suffered from no want of opportunities themselves, yet seem to think that denying millions of struggling Americans an equal (or indeed any) opportunity to get ahead is a sensible way forward. The results are in now and clearly it isn't. The question is will enough Americans be smart enough to do something about it?

What If Everything You Were Taught Was A Lie? All Info. shared in this channel is for non-hate and non-race and historical purposes to educate, elevate, entertain, enlighten, and empower through old and new film and document allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.

Welcome To The New World Order - The Year Zero - The Real Origin of the World - National Anthem of the United States of America and Confederate States of America National Anthem and New World Order National Anthem Is "The Ostrich" Lyrics by Steppenwolf from the album 'Rest In Peace' 1967-1972 A.C.E. The Conspiracy to Rule Your Mind chronicles how the ruling elite have established global domination and the ability to effect the thoughts, decisions, and world view of human beings across the globe by systematically infiltrating the media, academia, industry, military and political factions under the guise of upholding democracy. Learn how this malevolent consortium has dedicated centuries to realize an oppressive and totalitarian rule through any means necessary, not limited to drug trafficking, money laundering, terror attacks and financial crisis within the world economy.

Worldwide tyranny is already in full effect, the food we eat and the air we breathe are not off limits. Will we be able to stop this madness before we become an electronically monitored, cashless society wherein ever man, woman and child is micro chipped? The New World Order is Upon Us - Preserve your liberty by being Prepared ! - We The People of the New World Order Thank You.

In this true video i hope that my attempts to help all viewers and all sex's to understand without hate for each other the complex biology related to sex, gender identity, and attraction and we can stop killing each other now and maybe we can live in peace and love as we are and can be on a threshold of a dream starting today !

List of ethnic slurs and epithets by ethnicity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs_and_epithets_by_ethnicity

The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or otherwise insulting manner.

Some of the terms listed below (such as "gringo", "yank", etc.) can be used in casual speech without any intention of causing offense. The connotation of a term and prevalence of its use as a pejorative or neutral descriptor varies over time and by geography.

For the purposes of this list, an ethnic slur is a term designed to insult others on the basis of race, ethnicity, or nationality. Each term is listed followed by its country or region of usage, a definition, and a reference to that term.

Ethnic slurs may also be produced as a racial epithet by combining a general-purpose insult with the name of ethnicity, such as "dirty Jew", "Russian pig", etc. Other common insulting modifiers include "dog", "filthy", etc. However, such terms are not included in this list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs
Sanctuary Cities And Sanctuary States And Federal Government U.S.A. For Sale ?

https://rumble.com/v2n4l0m-sanctuary-cities-and-sanctuary-states-and-federal-government-in-u.s.a.-for-.html

Felons, Illegals And MS13 Welcome Reads "Official Sanctuary State" Sign At California Border and Other Sanctuary States in USA have been there for long, known for protecting undocumented immigrants in USA, but do they really face a threat from anyone winning the election? Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential Elections has led to a surge across the world with the kind of words he has been saying publicly or the agendas he has propagated till date. He might be a clear winner but still has a lot of resistance on his so called would be plan for his era as the US President ahead.

Wokeism Understanding Woke Jargon And Critical Race Theory Words Definition

https://rumble.com/v2vxvc0-wokeism-understanding-woke-jargon-and-critical-race-theory-words-definition.html

Understanding Woke Jargon And School Activists employ an array of new words and phrases to describe their beliefs and goals. If you hear many of these phrases and can’t figure out what they mean, that’s because it’s by design. This vocabulary is intended to mislead – to make harmful and extreme ideas sound admirable and to conceal meaning through ambiguity. In preparation for this article I researched several actual glossaries of woke terms. My surprise wasn’t that I found so many to research, rather that the zeal of their collective efforts to fold, bend, staple and mutilate the language of common discourse has remained so resolute despite so much ridicule and parody over the past several years.

Yes Its A Great Day To Kill Each Other ? Russian's Chinese's U.S.A. Let's Kill For Peace ?

https://rumble.com/v2m2h3c-yes-its-a-great-day-to-kill-each-other-russians-chineses-u.s.a.-lets-kill-f.html

Yes Its A Great Day To Kill Each Other ? and We look back at two songs from the Vietnam War Era “Kill for Peace” and “Ballad of the Green Berets,” and the musicians who recorded them. To the war makers, the Vietnam War, which was never formally declared, was the perfect surrogate for a world war. It came along at the time when the baby boomers were of college age, perfect for cannon fodder to feed the gaping maw of the war machine. And yet, collectively, the college-aged generation seemed to say, “Wait, let’s think about this for a moment.”

Nana Akua Black Lives Matter Is A Scam Say Kanye West And Glossary of Woke Terms

https://rumble.com/v2ky11e-nana-akua-black-lives-matter-is-a-scam-say-kanye-west-and-glossary-of-woke-.html

Nana Akua Video Black Lives Matter Is A Scam Say Kanye West called the Black Lives Matter movement a “scam” after wearing a White Lives Matter shirt to his surprise Yeezy fashion show. “Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam now it’s over you’re welcome,” he wrote on his Instagram Story Tuesday morning. The statement came after the fashion designer wore the headline-making top, which featured the pope’s face on the front, alongside just-as-controversial political commentator Candace Owens at Monday’s Paris Fashion Week presentation.

People's Republic Of United State Of America & International Maritime Admiralty Law

https://rumble.com/v2ef8n2-peoples-republic-of-united-state-of-america-and-international-maritime-admi.html

As a soldier sworn to uphold the laws of the Constitution of the USA, what do you know about these newer movements such as "Sovereign Citizens", people that sign a "Declaration of Sovereign Intent" and/or belong to the "Republic for the United States of America?" Some of these people may honestly believe in what these movements stand for and they enjoy the rights that our Constitution provides, but there are a number of domestic extremists and criminal activities associated with those groups as well. This is an open-ended question so please feel free to comment.

Riots often occur in reaction to a grievance or out of dissent. Historically, riots have occurred due to poverty, unemployment, poor living conditions, governmental oppression, taxation or conscription, conflicts between ethnic groups (race riot) or religions (e.g., sectarian violence, pogrom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_riots

Why do people start looting after a violent protest in the USA?

Reasons vary.

Speaking for southern California since the motive seems to be more pre-planned then from the midwest looting. In general, I think it’s about the opportunity to take what you want when it is difficult for someone to stop you from doing it.

The looting is most likely being planned in conjunction with the protests. The chaos just makes it more difficult to get caught. While other states have said most of their looters are out-of-towners this is the opposite for southern California. The data is still fresh, but most of the looters in LA county have been locals, students, unemployed, laborers. Which likely translates to low income and young people. These ‘protests’ are going through shopping districts, including high end places like Santa Monica, Hollywood, Beverly Hills. There is video of looters literally walking around with toaster ovens, bedding, surfboards, in hand like they just went shopping. Some are so organized they are coming in with duffle bags and clearing cash registers. My suspicion is that these people have shoplifted before, and when your friends are doing it you’re likely to join in too. The U.S. also being a consumer society doesn’t make the temptation for material things any easier.

What might have started out as adrenaline fueled, out of control protesting turned into organized theft by the time it reached the west coast.

As thousands take to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd and other unarmed Black men and women killed by police and others, demonstrators are being vilified for acts of property destruction and vandalization. Current news broadcasts are an endless cycle of images and videos of damaged storefronts. The word "looting" is becoming part of a vocabulary used to describe protestors, alleging a level of violence that practically demands police intervention. But the so-called looters who are currently acting out during these protests are doing so in response to exactly that: the police-led violence and brutality that's meant the loss of countless Black lives all in the service of a white supremacist agenda.
On Twitter, the conversation around looting took a different turn. While most Americans associate "looting" with property damage to well-known, heavily insured stores, the real looting of this country is not represented by an image of a shattered window of Chanel or a boarded-up Starbucks. It lives beyond the presumed "dangerous," curfew-inducing media story that's being peddled above George Floyd's name.
The looting of America is not the byproduct of protests, but rather it can be seen in our country's broken economic system, one that allows tax breaks for the ultra-rich, unchecked legislation that enables shareholders to get payouts even when the money comes from a federal bailout, and corporate double-dipping while employees lose their livelihood.
This type of looting has a long history, but the coronavirus pandemic has only emphasized its impact, and shown clearly who the real looters are. Amidst this, the greatest public health crisis in the last century, 40 million people filed for unemployment and the federal government scrambled to find ways to bail out companies and bolster the economy. Within the CARES Act, a myriad of programs were introduced, one of which enables adjustments to tax law which alters what certain business owners are allowed to deduct from their taxes, with a goal of allowing companies to hold onto more money during a time of uncertainty.
And, because trickle-down economics is not much more than a nice idea rather than a reality, approximately 82% of the benefits from that tax law change go to people making $1 million or more annually. This means that 95% of the individuals who benefit make at least $200,000 a year, according to an analysis conducted by Congress’ joint committee on taxation.
While many Americans struggle to pay rent, our country's billionaires saw their fortunes rise by $434 billion during the lockdown between mid-March and mid-May, according to a report from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program for Inequality. Even during what would be considered a wealth boom for millionaires and billionaires, President Donald Trump proposed a hold on capital gains taxes which almost exclusively benefits only the wealthiest of investors.
Another policy within the CARES Act is the Paycheck Protection Program. In spirit, it is meant to aid small businesses with fewer than 500 employees by providing loans so they can maintain their payroll and hire back employees who were laid off. For some companies, that is exactly what it has done, but during the rollout of the program, about 80 percent of small businesses that applied did not receive loans. The money set aside for the program ran out in two weeks.
However, data from securities filings compiled by The Washington Post show that publicly traded companies with more than 500 employees have received more than $1 billion in funds from this program that, based on clearly stated requirements, they should not be qualified for. Several loan recipients were prosperous enough from the loan to pay executives $2 million or more.
Other government subsidies offered to corporations allowed some companies to be bailed out without taking money directly. Instead, their money came from issuing bonds that are then purchased by the Federal Reserve. Because the companies were not accepting money in the form of a loan, they were not required to protect employees' jobs.
This professional-grade looting is not new. It is a time-honored tradition. Senator Bernie Sanders summarized the rampant problem on Twitter by sharing some staggering statistics. “The richest 400 Americans sit on $3 trillion — the size of the entire UK economy. The billionaire class now pays a lower tax rate than people living paycheck to paycheck,” Sanders writes. “The looting of America has been going on for over 40 years — and the culprits are the ultra-rich.”

The real lesson Americans should be learning right now is that, just because it doesn’t involve broken glass, doesn’t mean it’s not looting. The most insidious and damaging kind of looting occurs in boardrooms and executive offices at the highest levels. When property is damaged and things are stolen, people suffer, And yet, only one version of looting is consistently rebuked publicly. Even though we should know by now that not all looters wear balaclavas — most do it in designer suits.

Another night of outrage left stores smashed and looted in many American cities, as curfews failed to quell violence that replaced peaceful daytime demonstrations over the death of a black man seen on video gasping for breath as a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.

Hate speech is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thought to include communications of animosity or disparagement of an individual or a group on account of a group characteristic such as race, colour, national origin, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orientation". Legal definitions of hate speech vary from country to country.

There has been much debate over freedom of speech, hate speech, and hate speech legislation. The laws of some countries describe hate speech as speech, gestures, conduct, writing, or displays that incite violence or prejudicial actions against a group or individuals on the basis of their membership in the group, or that disparage or intimidate a group or individuals on the basis of their membership in the group. The law may identify protected groups based on certain characteristics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech

LGBT slang, LGBT speak, queer slang or gay slang is a set of English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBTQ+ people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of the LGBTQ+ community identify themselves and speak in code with brevity and speed to others. The acronym LGBT was popularized in the 1990s and stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity.

LGBT slang has played an integral part in LGBTQ+ culture for decades. Slang language initially emerged as a way for queer people to communicate with one another while avoiding detection by mainstream society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_slang

Black people are habitually exposed to harmful discourse, even by those who by all other intents and purposes are anti-racist. Odessa Hamilton developed an informal online poll to hear from black people the kinds of comments they have heard first-hand from non-blacks. She captured 101 distinct comments and here presents the 50 most heinous or recurring ones. She says that, although painful on both sides, honest conversations are necessary.

We seldom speak of how segregation in Britain (geographically, but also apropos social structures, and a curriculum that emphasises Eurocentric ideals as normative) develops into cultural ignorance. An ignorance that can restrict authentic and respectful relationships between black and non-black individuals. It can create an embarrassment and a discomfort in interactions that may cause hurt, offense, or just an utter confusion over the legitimacy of the question, and whether it stems from a sincere place of unknowing or is fully intended as a racial slur.

The putative prevalence of this issue spurred me to create an informal 12-hour online poll to quantify and qualify the experiences of a small, yet diverse selection of black people in Britain. Contributors were male and female professionals, aged 22-60, middle or working class, of an African American, Caribbean, Latinx, or East, West or South African heritage. Eligible responses were first-hand; made by non-black individuals. Results included 101 unique entries; omitting those of an explicit nature. For brevity, we report the 50 most staggering.

While I initially chuckled at some of the shared experiences, my reaction ultimately reflected an internal discomfort at their sheer absurdity, and the demonstrated oblivion to true experiences of black people in Britain. Surprisingly, despite discernible racial undertones, many contributors added that much of what was said came from the most unexpected people; who, by all other intents and purposes, were educated, kind, and even actively anti-racist. There was also evidence of message assimilation, echoing content from major media outlets and scientific discourse about societal inequalities.

Overall, contributors shared a difficultly in addressing this manner of discourse composed and straight faced, since they appeared bizarrely innocent, or were intended comically, and yet were wildly strange and grossly ill-informed. This epitomises the common misconception that people have to be racist to say or do racist things. Further, offensive comments are hard to address without causing offense to the original offender, and so often, the gravity of the situation goes unnoticed, and inappropriate comments persist.

Although some tropes may resonate with other ethnic communities, this is a small step toward making clear what things are not appropriate to say to black people (even in satire). Irrespective of race, most will have the human capacity to appreciate the absurdity, and, to some degree, the farcicality of this terrain of insults that black people are forced to traverse. Some readers may be alarmed by what is yet to come, so take a deep breath, relax… then imagine living it daily!

Appearance
1. You’re really pretty for a black girl.

2. Are you lips real?

3. You’re like black black!

4. Can I touch your hair? (OR they lunge in without asking).

5. You’re so lucky to have a natural tan.

6. I didn’t realise black people could grow real eyebrows.

7. You’re not black, you must be mixed with something, because you’re so light-skinned.

8. Any “coloured” descriptor (I’m not a box of crayons).

Education
9. You speak so articulately.

10. You’re actually really smart.

11. Who taught you how to speak English?

12. You know so many words?

13. Wow, you got into Oxford, were you a diversity candidate?

14. Don’t research race; you’ll end your career before it’s even started.

15. Are you first in your family to be educated?

16. You don’t sound black AT ALL.

17. Teach me some slang.

Work
18. We can’t attract or keep black employees, it’s like they don’t wanna work.

19. I’m SO sorry, I didn’t think you worked here (after calling security).

20. You should meet X, you’ll REALLY get on (both being black).

21. I love your hair straight; it looks so much more professional.

22. How do you make your money? (I work like everyone else).

23. We’ll address it, but just be careful not to play the ‘Race Card’ (after reporting a racial incident).

24. I like you! You’re surprisingly professional.

25. You could definitely pass as one of ‘us’.

26. You must be struggling through COVID (responding to inequality statistics).

Identity
27. Do you have a Mum AND a Dad?

28. Are you from Africa or Jamaica?

29. You’re a good mix (like a cockerpoo or labradoodle).

30. Do you snack on dry bones?

31. Where are you really from?

32. Can black people really be Muslim?

33. Do you eat with your hands at home?

34. Can we just use your initials?

35. That smells funny… What are you eating?

36. I was so shocked to see black Jews on TV.

37. (Siobhan, Saoirse and Leigh get to keep their names but…) Your name is too hard to pronounce, so I’m going to call you X (typically a Westernised adaptation).

Bizarre
38. Do you have any weed?

39. Why can’t black people swim?

40. Have you been to jail, even for a little while?

41. What colour is your blood?

42. How can I be racist, my X is black?

43. Yo my G/N*****! (or other attempts at Ebonics).

44. I’m sorry for my ancestors (when you just wanted a coffee).

45. Do have cars where you’re from?

46. What’s happening in Africa? (I’m not a newscaster)

47. I’ve always wondered what it would be like in black skin.

48. I think black people are really cool. (All black people, everywhere?).

49. I don’t see colour.

50. Why do “black Lives Matter” – don’t all lives matter? (Are all lives undervalued?)

Having made it through to the end – mostly unscathed – try to unravel those comments from egregiously racist slurs. It is uncomfortable and not straightforward. There is no expectation of an espousal of views, but rather an attunement to these common experiences, as we take preliminary steps toward honest and respectful dialogues that challenge such benighted messaging.

Words hurt. Some outdated terms should be left in the past. While the etymology on some have been debated, when words or idioms have histories rooted in inequities we should be more mindful to remove them from our everyday dialogue.

Below are the 30 most popular phrases with shockingly racist meanings.

“Peanut gallery”: Critics
Why you should stop using it: It’s a classist phrase that refers to the cheapest, worst seats in a theater. It can also be construed as racist since the cheap seats were the only seats Black Americans were allowed to purchase in the early- to mid-1900s. Cheap balcony seats were reserved for or largely made up of African American patrons, thus since the phrase implied that the opinions expressed by those from the gallery were unsolicited and unhelpful.
Alternative: “Audience or heckler”
“Grandfathered in”: An old law continues to apply in certain situations instead of the new law
Why you should stop using it: The original grandfather clause was used in the American South to deny black people the right to vote, stating that only people who could vote before 1866 and their descendants were exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting.
Alternative: “The old rules apply”
"Picnic": An outing or occasion that involves taking a packed meal to be eaten outdoors
Why you should stop using it: Although not taught in American learning institutions and literature, it is noted in most Black history professional circles and literature that the origin of the term “picnic” derives from the acts of lynching African-Americans. The word “picnic” is rooted in the whole theme of “Pick A Ni**er.” This is where individuals would “pic” a Black person to lynch and make this into a family gathering. There would be music and a “picnic.” (“Nic” being the white acronym for “ni**er.”)
Alternative: “Gathering or barbeque”
“Blacklist”: To avoid or exclude
Why you should stop using it: Any language that reinforces the symbolism of white as pure and good, and black as dirty and bad, needs to be re-examined.
Alternative: “Boycott or ostracize”
“Uppity”: Self-Important or Arrogant
Why you should stop using it: During Segregation racist southerners used "uppity" to describe Black people "who didn't know their place," socioeconomically speaking. Originally, the term started within the Black community, but the racists adopted it pretty quickly.
Alternative: “Audacious or impudent”
“The itis”: Drowsiness after eating a big meal
Why you should stop using it: “The itis” originates from the word “ni**eritis”. It is used to describe the lethargic, sleepy feeling an individual gets after eating a large meal. It helped reinforce the stereotype that black Americans were lazy.
Alternative: “Food Coma, postprandial sleepiness, or somnolence”
“Inner City”: The area near the center of a city
Why you should stop using it: It may sound like a simple geographic reference—“he’s from the inner city”—but in America, this phrase is often used as coded language to describe African-Americans, with the implication of laziness, poverty, criminality, and dependence on welfare. In other words, it’s racist, judgmental, and unkind.
Alternative: Refer to the actual city or state someone lives in
“CakeWalk”: A dancing contest among African Americans in which a cake was awarded as a prize.
Why you should stop using it: Rooted in enslavement in the prewar South, some Black slaves were forced to spend Sundays dressing up and dancing in a way of ridiculing enslavers and the white upper classes. They competed for a cake, hence the name. Regarded as fun and leisurely weekend activity, “cakewalk” became associated with easy tasks.
Alternative: “This is simple or I got this”
“Crack the whip”: Behave in a domineering and demanding way toward one's subordinates.
Why you should stop using it: The main method used to control the behavior of slaves was the threat of having them whipped. The number of lashes depended on the seriousness of the offense. As they knew that as blacks were unable to give testimony against white people in court, overseers knew that they were fairly safe in handing out these whippings.
Alternative: “Let’s get to work”
“Cracker/Redneck”: A derogatory term to describe white people
Why you should stop using it: This insult was first noted in the mid-18th century, making it older than the United States itself. It was used to refer to poor whites, particularly those inhabiting the frontier regions of Maryland, Virginia and Georgia. It emphasized that a person is poor and uneducated and comes from the backwoods with little awareness of and interaction with the modern world, while "white trash" – and the modern term "trailer trash" – emphasizes the person's supposed moral failings, without regard to the setting of their upbringing.
Alternative: “White person”
“Gyp” or “Gip”: Evolved as a shortened version of "gypsy"-more correctly known as the Romani, an ethnic group now mostly in Europe and America.
Why you should stop using it: The Romani typically traveled a lot and made their money by selling goods. Business disputes naturally arose, and the masses started thinking of Romani as swindlers.
Alternative: “Bamboozle or rip off”
“Go back to the Plantation”: An estate on which crops such as coffee, sugar, and tobacco are cultivated by resident labor.
Why you should stop using it: It was not until the 1600's that the word was defined as estates where the enslaved labored in bondage and were forced to grow crops. "Using the word 'plantation' romanticizes the old South, a slave economy when white people hear the word 'plantation' they may think of a big white house with pillars and southern oak trees. But when a Black person hears that word, it evokes a past of abuse and slavery."
Alternative: “Go back to the office or home”
“Ghetto”: Low class or acting poorly
Why you should stop using it: Physical ghettos were neighborhoods where Jewish people were segregated from the greater population. But “ghetto” also describes deficient manners and behavior, often referring to Black people.
Alternative: “Uncouth” or “unpolished”
“Guru”: A spiritual guide or leader
Why you should stop using it: In the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, the word is a sign of respect. Using it casually negates its original value.
Alternative: “Expert” or “teacher”
“Off the reservation”: To leave an Indian reservation to which one was restricted. To engage in disruptive activity outside normal bounds.
Why you should stop using it: Used during the 19th and 20th centuries in American politics, refers to Native Americans who were forced into treaties that limited their mobility by placing them on reservations, so off the reservation would suggest they were placing themselves outside their allowed their legal, or social, parameters. The phrase has very offensive roots as the Native American's who were found 'off the reservation' was killed.
Alternative: “Overstepped the limits” or “walked out”
“Paddy wagons”: Originated in the late 1700s as a shortened form of "Patrick," and then later a derogatory term for any Irishman. "Wagon" naturally refers to a vehicle. "Paddy wagon" either stemmed from a large number of Irish police officers or the perception that rowdy, drunken Irishmen constantly ended up in the back of police cars.
Why you should stop using it: The idea of 'paddy' is a police car that comes around to grab up Irish people who are no good drunk criminals, so it deals with a historical stereotype of Irish people as low lives.
Alternative: “Police car”
“Bugger”: Used to express annoyance or anger. Used as a term of abuse, typically for a man.
Why you should stop using it: When you call someone a "bugger," you're accusing them of being a sodomite, at least according to the original meaning. The term stemmed from the Bogomils, who led a religious sect during the Middle Ages called "Bulgarus." Through various languages, the term morphed into "bugger." Many considered the Bogomils heretical and thus, said they approached sex in an "inverse way."
Alternative: Nuisance, pest or irritant
“Chop Chop!”: Hurry up
Why you should stop using it: This phrase, comes from the Cantonese word kap, or “make haste.” It is generally used condescendingly to someone the speaker considers to be below them in status, which only worsens the fact that it’s making fun of the pidgin English spoken by Chinese immigrants.
Alternative: “We need to get this done quickly”
"Eskimo": Comes from the same Danish word borrowed from Algonquin, "ashkimeq," which literally means "eaters of raw meat."
Why you should stop using it: Either way, when we refer to an entire group of people by their perceived behaviors, we trivialize their existence and culture. It is a name given to a group by another group and its continued use an perpetuate harmful stereotypes.
Alternative: Let's start using the proper terms, like Inuit.
"Sold down the river": "Betrays or cheats you”.
Why you should stop using it: The phrase has a much darker and more literal meaning. During slavery in the US, masters in the North often sold their misbehaving slaves, sending them down the Mississippi River to plantations in Mississippi, where conditions were much harsher.
Alternative: “Betray” or “mislead.”
"Eenie meenie miney moe": This phrase comes from a longer children's rhyme: Eenie, meenie, miney, moe / Catch a tiger by the toe / If he hollers let him go / Eenie, meenie miney, moe.
Why you should stop using it: This modern, inoffensive version comes from a similar, older one, where ni**er replaces tiger.
Alternative: Sing a different song
“Long time no see”: What it means: It has been a while!
Why you should stop using it: It derives from the broken English used by non-native English-speakers. Meant to be funny, this particular phrase mocks the way that Native Americans and Chinese speak English.
Alternative: “It has been too long!” or “We haven’t spoken in ages!”
“No can do”: I can’t do it.
Why you should stop using it: This short, snappy phrase, often used as a lighthearted negative response to a request, originated as a racist way for people to mock the broken English spoken by Chinese immigrants to America in the early 20th century.
Alternative: “I’m unable to do it.”
“Mumbo Jumbo”: Confusion or bewilderment.
Why you should stop using it: This expression derives from the name of Maamajomboo, a character often portrayed by a male dancer in West African Mandinka cultural ceremonies. British explorers in the 1730s got his name wrong and found him terrifying and grotesque and the rituals meaningless, hence the derogatory use of the name to indicate that something is “unintelligible nonsense.”
Alternative: “I cannot understand”, “Gibberish”, “Nonsense”.
“Fuzzy Wuzzy”: Refers to curly textured hair
Why you should stop using it: Sounds cute and cuddly, like the teddy bear in the nursery rhyme, right? British colonial soldiers in the 1800s used this racist expression to refer mockingly to East African nomads, who had curly hair and dark skin.
Alternative: “Cute, Cuddly, Soft”
“Cotton-picking”: Cotton harvester
Why you should stop using it: “Just a cotton-picking minute!” Even Bugs Bunny used this expression, but its history is bleak as cotton was picked almost exclusively by black slaves in the southern United States.
Alternative: “Blasted or Damn”
“Jew him Down”: Get him to lower the price
Why you should stop using it: Anti-Semitism, unfortunately, certainly hasn’t disappeared since the horrific events of the Second World War. The phrase “Jew (him or her) down” is still used to refer to bargaining with someone for a lower price; it comes from very old, offensive stereotypes of Jewish people as shrewd moneylenders who always haggled over the cost of something.
Alternative: “Negotiate or bargain”
“Oriental”: Eastern
Why you should stop using it: The problem with referring to people from East Asia as “Oriental” is that it implies that they are different: not Western, not white, and somehow “lesser than.” East Asians have never referred to themselves as Orientals: nor should anyone. Rugs are oriental, not people.
Alternative: “Asian or their specific nationality”
“Thug”: Gangster or Criminal
Why you should stop using it: Although this word originated in India and meant “ruffian” or “troublemaker,” it’s now used primarily in a negative context by white people to label younger black people, particularly men, as violent, irrational, untrustworthy, or gang members. The label is often applied based on how the person dresses, looks, or speaks, rather than by their actions.
Alternative: “Troublemaker, rowdy or bully”
“Hip hip hooray”: An exclamation of praise, congratulations or celebration
Why you should stop using it: "Hip-hip hooray" developed from the German "hep hep," (which was a harmless call shepherds would use when herding their sheep). But during the Holocaust, German citizens started using it as a rallying shout when they would hunt down and kill Jewish citizens. And the phrase's anti-Semitic undertones go as far back as 1819, with the Hep Hep riots, a time of both Jewish emancipation from the German Confederation and communal violence against German Jews.
Alternative: “Bravo or congratulations”

Racist Language and Origins I Didn’t Always Know

Overt racism is easy to detect and has been brought to the surface for decades. It includes racial slurs like the “n” word, hate crimes, burning crosses, painting swastikas, violence against immigrants, dressing up in blackface or brownface, blatant use of stereotypes, and more. However, there are things I never knew about racist language which have come to the surface while I am learning to be an antiracist.

Ibram X. Kendi, in his book, How to Be An Antiracist, defines antiracist as “one who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.” He says, “A racist idea is any idea that suggests one racial group is inferior or superior to another racial group in any way. Racist ideas argue that the inferiorities and superiorities of racial groups explain racial inequities in society.”

In the alternative, “An antiracist idea is any idea that suggests the racial groups are equals in all their apparent differences—that there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group. Antiracist ideas argue that racist policies are the cause of racial inequities.”

To be an antiracist, thus means that we all have an obligation to understand how language shapes racist beliefs. While I already knew that some of the terms listed herein are inherently racist, such as “the pot calling the kettle black” and “cotton picking,” there are others whose origins are new to me such as “low hanging fruit” and “urban.”

Master Bedroom, Blacklist, Whitelist and Sold Down the River

A July 2020 story by Scottie Andrew and Harmeet Kaur for CNN, Everyday words and phrases that have racist connotations, sheds light on everyday language that has its origin in racist history. They call attention to “master bedroom,” “blacklist,” “whitelist,” and “sold down the river.” While I have never used the latter in my lexicon, I certainly have called our largest bedroom and adjoining bathroom the “master bed and bath;” the preferred language today is “primary bedroom.” I have asked our IT partner to blacklist hundreds of emails that pose as cyberthreats, and on the flipside, I have requested that they whitelist every client and partners’ domain.

Blackball / Black Mark / Black Market / Blacklist / Black Sheep

In July 2020, Twitter announced that it would drop the terms “master,” “slave” and “blacklist” from its code. The words “master” and “slave” have become “leader” and “follower” or “primary” and “replica,” while “blacklist” has become “denylist.” I like “denylist,” and would go so far as to call it a “blocklist.”

An article by Brittany Wong for Huffington Post says it best:

The symbolism of white as positive and black as negative is pervasive in our culture. Watts-Jones has highlighted many terms with negative meanings that reference blackness. In the English language, she wrote in 2004, color is “related to extortion (blackmail), disrepute (black mark), rejection (blackball), banishment (blacklist), impurity (‘not the driven snow’) and illicitness (black market).”

“The Black power movement brought front and center the way the term ‘black’ is used with rare exception to convey a derogatory, devalued meaning,” she told HuffPost. “The meaning of these phrases is always something undesirable — evil, depression, gloomy, immoral.”

Recently, while having a socially distanced conversation about religion with two Black friends, I referred to someone as the “black sheep of the family” because she defected from the preferred religion of her parents. I immediately caught myself and apologized, vowing to try never to use the term again. While they both said that they had not taken offense, I offended myself. I am grateful, at least, that I have become aware of racist language and am trying to do better.

Cakewalk

Rooted in enslavement in the antebellum South, some Black slaves spent Sundays dressing up and dancing in a way of ridiculing enslavers and the white upper classes. They competed for a cake, hence the name. Regarded as a fun and leisurely weekend activity, “cakewalk” became associated with easy tasks. Cakewalks didn’t end with slavery. For decades, they remained (with cake prizes) a part of African American life, but at the same time white actors in blackface incorporated the act into minstrel shows, turning what began as a satire of white elites into a racist caricature of Black people.

Cotton Picking

In 2018 Fox News commentator, David Bossie, had to apologize for using the racist remark, “you’re out of your cotton-picking mind.” A native of Philadelphia, I must admit that before I married my husband, I had no idea that “cotton picking” was racist. In fact, 20+ years ago, I had never seen cotton growing on farms. I used the phrase, like so many others, because I had heard it while growing up. I remember the day that I said “cotton picking” in front of my husband and his Texas-born mother, both of whom shot me a look and then simultaneously asked me if I knew the phrase was racist. Since then, I never have used it again.

The phrase “cotton picking” has racial overtones, particularly against southern Black slaves who were the pickers of cotton for much of American history. According to JR Thorpe’s article, 5 English Phrases with Serious Racist History, “Cotton-picking is usually used as a stand-in for ‘damn,’ to make it more socially acceptable than swearing (ironically enough).” He notes, “If you’re not from the South, you may have heard the adjective “cotton-picking” for the first time from a Bugs Bunny cartoon from 1952.”

Crack the Whip / Whip-Cracker

According to the Boston Globe, “Crack the Whip is an expression for using one’s authority to urge subordinates to work harder or behave better. The article notes that the phrase has origins in 17th-century horse-drawn wagon drivers. The belief that “crack the whip” is not racist was upheld by a British employment tribunal in May 2020, in a case where a Black nurse claimed that she had been discriminated against when the expression was used by her London-based boss.

While the origin of the saying remains in dispute, it is safe to say that the phrase also has ugly associations with chattel slavery.

Another similar phrase is “whip-cracker” which is suspected to be the longer form of “cracker” which also has negative connotations. Jelani Cobb, a historian at the University of Connecticut told NPR that “cracker,” a word used for Anglo insults, was first noted in the mid-18th century. It was used to refer to poor whites, particularly those inhabiting the frontier regions of Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia. It is suspected that it was a shortened version of “whip-cracker,” since their manual labor involved driving livestock with a whip (not to mention the other brutal arenas where those skills were employed.) Over the course of time it came to represent a person of lower caste or criminal disposition.

Freeholder

A term commonly used in the New Jersey government, Governor Philip D. Murphy, recently renamed the office of “freeholder” to “commissioner.” The term “freeholder” dates to the state’s 1776 Constitution when only white men could own land. Murphy Tweeted, “As our nation tears down symbols of injustice, let us tear down words born from racism.”

Grandfathered In / Grandfather Clause

While the meaning is to be exempt from a law that has recently been adopted, the terms “grandfathered in” and “grandfather clause” have their origin in America’s racial history. While the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited racial discrimination in voting, Blacks were kept from exercising their constitutional right due to states’ literacy tests, poll taxes and constitution quizzes. These “tests” were designed to disenfranchise Blacks. If they did not pass or pay the tax, they could not register to vote. These laws also hindered poor American whites. As a result, several states passed laws that made men (yes, I said men) eligible to vote if they were descendants of men who were eligible to vote before 1876 (a.k.a. white men). This was called the grandfather clause. In Aug. 2020, a Massachusetts Appeals Court decided to stop using the term “grandfathering” which was detailed in the footnote of a zoning dispute opinion.

Gypped / Gyp / Jipped / Jip

The term, gypped, comes from the word Gypsy which is a derogatory name for the Romani people (also known as Roma) who originated in northern India and migrated around the world for more than a millennium. This culture has been stereotyped as thieves and child abductors which led to the use of the word “gypped.” Alternatives include ripped off or cheated – neither of which has its origins in racism.

Jimmies

There has long been a debate in the Northeast as to whether we call those sugary ice cream toppings “jimmies” or “sprinkles.” In Philadelphia, where I grew up, and in Southern New Jersey, were we vacationed every summer, I always asked for my chocolate custard with “jimmies.” While scholars don’t agree on the origin of the word, I once again had no idea that “jimmies” could have a negative origin. Some believe that the brown sprinkles “looked like little Black people” while others believe “this comes from the Jim Crow laws used to segregate the South, with jimmies representing those Black people bound by these laws.” No matter the origin, I have started to refer to those sugary treats as “chocolate sprinkles” – my preferred choice over rainbow sprinkles.

Long Time, No See / No Can Do

This one is another eye opener for me. It is traced back to a Boston Sunday Globe article in the late 1800s. The phrase applied to a Native American speaker with broken English and was meant to stereotype natives as unintelligent. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “this type of isolating construction would have been unusual for the indigenous languages of North America.” Rather, it originated as a way for white writers to mock Native American speech, and that of non-native English speakers from other places like China. By the 1920s, it had become an ordinary part of the American vernacular.

“No can do” has similar origins in making fun of non-native English speakers.

Low Hanging Fruit

I never knew that the phrase “low hanging fruit” could be considered racist. I have always equated it with picking fruit from an orchard – literally. Recently, after using the phrase, a lawyer brought it to my attention. I am grateful.

According to Mary-Frances Winters of The Inclusion Solution:

“Low hanging fruit has a very different meaning. Some synonyms for the phrase from a business perspective include quick wins, no-brainers, easy rewards, easily accomplished work, and high return, low risk item. However, perhaps we can understand for someone who witnessed lynching or who knew of loved ones who were lynched, the term might remind them of these dreadful practices.

Winters also notes that while there is “no direct connection to lynching,” she recommends “that we begin to be more sensitive to what we say because seemingly innocuous phrases can conjure up very different meanings for some.”

Off the Reservation

The Wall Street Journal refers to “Off the Reservation” as a Phrase with a Dark Past. Journalist, Ben Zimmer, noted in 2016 that “Hillary Clinton made a regrettable choice of words in a CNN interview last week, when she was asked about Donald Trump’s attacks on her. ‘I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak,’ she told Jake Tapper.”

Suzan Shown Harjo of Indian Country Today used Clinton’s faux pas as a teachable moment. She notes that the term is “hurtful or offensive to many Native Peoples today.”

The context of its original meaning comes from Native American peoples being restricted to reservations created by the U.S. government, and their freedom being severely limited by the terms of the treaties they were often forced to sign.

Paddy Wagon

Racism comes in many forms and includes negative language against immigrants as well as Black, brown and indigenous populations. Police van and patrol wagons were nicknamed “Paddy Wagons” in the 1930’s when prejudice against Irish immigrants was common. “Paddy” is a slang word for a person of Irish decent. The phrase refers to Irish people being arrested.

Peanut Gallery

Used to describe hecklers, individuals sharing unwanted criticism, or younger people with contrary opinions, “peanut gallery” has roots in the era of vaudeville. The vaudeville theaters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries referred to the cheapest seas, which often were occupied by Black and poor people, as the peanut gallery.

Pot Calling the Kettle Black

As a youngster, I heard this idiom time and time again. It was used when people wanted to draw attention to hypocrisy. In researching the origin of the phrase, most scholars agree it dates to the early 1600s. At that time, most pots and kettles were made with cast iron, a material that acquires streaks of black smoke when heated over a flame.

There is, however, a valid argument that the use of the word “black” in the phrase casts the color as a negative attribute, connoting that blackness is undesirable. Many thus believe that this negative connotation creates a stigma attached to blackness.

Slave

There is no question that the term “slave” refers to people who have been taken against their will and forced into servitude. While the word “slave” is not racist per se, instead of referring to someone as having been a slave, the language choice that gives power back to a given person is to say “enslaved person.”

While people have been enslaved for millenniums, the history of slavery in the Americas dates to the 1600s when the Portuguese took human cargo from Africa to Mexico. For centuries thereafter, Black and brown people were subject to forced labor, being bought and sold like livestock. If you are not familiar with the history of slavery in America, The New York Times Magazine goes into great detail in A Brief History of Slavery That You Didn’t Learn in School.

Tipping Point

The title of a book, this phrase is used often when describing the point of no return – that critical moment in time when change becomes inevitable. According to Merriam-Webster, it was applied to one phenomenon in particular: white flight. “In the 1950s, as white people abandoned urban areas for the suburbs in huge numbers, journalists began using the phrase tipping point in relation to the percentage of minority neighbors it took to trigger this reaction in white city residents.”

Uppity

According to a 2011 article in The Atlantic, “uppity” is a “term that racist southerners used for Black people who didn’t know their place.” A pejorative term, uppity conveys racism much like “hysterical” is used to connote an overly reactive woman. This term also was used by whites as an epithet during the Jim Crow era to describe newly freed Blacks who were not differential enough.

Urban

The term “urban” was one that I used to use to describe the inner-city where I grew up. I would say that I grew up in an “urban environment.” Today, I choose to say that I grew up in a “metropolitan area,” “city,” or “metropolitan environment.”

In recent months, major record labels such as Warner Music Group, the Grammys and radio stations are distancing themselves from the category of “urban music” amid demands for racial equality in the music industry. In June 2020, they announced that they would both stop using “urban” to categorize music made by Black artists and will use “hip-hop” or R&B instead.

NPR’s Cate Young noted, “On June 5, in response to the rapidly increasing momentum behind the fight for Black lives in the U.S. and around the world, Republic Records announced that it would remove ‘urban’ from the label’s verbiage in describing departments, employee titles and music genres, citing their belief that ‘over time the meaning and connotations of ‘urban’ have shifted and developed into a generalization of Black people in many sectors of the music industry, including employees and music by Black artists.”

In his chapter on “Space,” Ibram X. Kendi describes space racism as a powerful collection of racist policies that lead to resource inequity between racialized spaces or the elimination of certain racialized spaces, which are substantiated by racist ideas about racialized spaces. One of those racialized spaces is referred to as “urban” areas.

Kendi received his PhD from Temple University’s African American studies department. A transplant to Philadelphia, he chose to live in the “poor Black neighborhoods of North Philadelphia” where Temple is located. He wanted to live among people who looked like him. He wanted to understand the plight of the Black urban resident. In so doing, he admits that his thinking was flawed and inherently racist.

Wetback | Mojado

The slur, wetback or “mojado” as it is known in Spanish, is one I never heard growing up in Philadelphia. I heard it for the first time during a visit to Texas in the late 1990’s. I had no idea what it meant and literally though the person was talking about alligators. Much to my surprise, the slur does not refer to large reptiles. The word “wetback” refers to immigrants who illegally crossed into the U.S. According to the Los Angeles Times, “The term, originally coined after Mexicans illegally entered the U.S. by swimming or wading across the Rio Grande, evolved to include a broader group of immigrants who snuck into the country on foot or in cars. The Spanish translation espaldas mojadas, is typically shortened to just mojado or mojada, depending on the person’s gender.” This particular slur has a long history in politics in the United States.

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