'Cakewalk,' 'o Can Do' and other harmful language we must stop using

NBCU Academy ^ | October 6, 2022 | Claire Wang

[Fiji Hill]

As journalists, it’s our job to choose our words wisely and not perpetuate stereotypes.

n the 13 years that I’ve lived in the US, I’ve heard the words “No can do” on so many occasions — from teachers, comics, news anchors, Hall & Oates — that I’ve always thought it was simply a cheeky way to say “alas.”

But the phrase, I learned several days ago, emerged in the late 19th century, around the time the US passed the Chinese Exclusion Act banning immigration from China, the country of my birth. Some white Americans popularized the saying to mock the accented, sometimes ungrammatical English of Chinese immigrants.

Sign up for our newsletter! Right Arrow There are many common sayings we take for granted that have racist histories and inferences, some more obvious than others. Take “open the kimono” (which describes corporate transparency) and “kabuki” (a stand-in for political theater). While innocuous in corporate-speak and among media pundits, phrases like “open the kimono” still evoke the image of a bared body that draws on harmful stereotypes against Asian women, said Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, the executive director of Asian American Journalists Association.

“A term like this acts like ‘death by a thousand cuts’ in that it isn’t outright malicious, but it perpetuates the hypersexualization of Asian women,” she said. “We have to acknowledge the fact that it does have historical roots in the western gaze on Asia.”

As journalists, we have an ethical obligation to choose our words wisely, particularly when describing people from underrepresented groups. It’s important not to glaze over words and phrases — often not English in origin — that perpetuate stereotypes and trivialize historical trauma against marginalized communities.

“In journalism, our goal is to build trust and credibility,” said Karen Yin, editor and founder of the Conscious Style Guide, a digital library of resources and newsletters on crafting inclusive language. “If our word choices repeatedly veer into insensitive territory, we’ll end up insulting and alienating our audience.”

What’s more, Yin said, clichés and idioms that draw on racist, sexist or ableist tropes often obscure prose and wind up confusing the reader.

“The fix is simple: Say what you mean,” she said. “Using clear, precise and plain language goes a long way. And always consider the context, because context and content work together.”

Below are some examples of insensitive language to look out for.

Language that’s harmful to the disability community Words like “insane,” “crazy” and “hysterical,” better known as “disability euphemisms,” have become common parlance to describe shocking occurrences, and are often found in headlines and sprinkled throughout reporting. The same goes for “crippled” and “lame” and metaphors like “turning a blind eye.” Experts say such language, while generally non-malicious, can be damaging to people with disabilities by underplaying the seriousness of their conditions.

“For many people with disabilities, the cumulative effect of this sort of ‘innocuous’ language is that it ignores their existence,” said Kristin Gilger, director at the National Center on Disability and Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Gilger said the challenge with conducting sensitivity training is that language evolves quickly, particularly in the disability community. To address that, the NCDJ created a style guide with dozens of commonly used terminology that reporters should avoid when describing people with disabilities. Rather than policing language, Gilger said, the point of the guide is to encourage reporters and editors to write about disability issues with more confidence.

“One of the biggest issues now is that people are afraid to report on this community because they don’t know the right language to use, or they’re worried their mistakes are going to affect somebody,” she said. “What we’re doing is trying to tell people, ‘Look, we want you to try because there is not enough coverage of disability.”

Language with racist roots A number of clichés in the English language are rooted in racist notions and “otherness.” Often, they twist a word taken from another culture to mean something unflattering. Some draw on the grotesque treatment of enslaved Africans; others misrepresent Indigenous traditions celebrated by tribes that suffered irreparable harm under western colonialism. And many will make you go, “Oh, yeah, that usage does look a little sketchy,” if you think about it long enough.

Here are some harmful sayings to avoid:

• “Bottom of the totem pole” — A totem pole is a sacred Native American monument; in some tribes, carvings of animals and other symbols on the bottom of a pole are, in fact, a mark of honor. The idiom in mainstream culture, however, suggests that someone or something is of the least importance or lowest social standing. Non-Native people who use the phrase in this way, Indigenous activists say, are not only engaging in cultural appropriation but also desecrating tradition.
• “Let’s have a powwow” — To Native American tribes, a powwow is a social gathering for ceremonial purposes where people sing, dance and engage in healing rituals. In American parlance, “powwow” is used casually as a substitute for “meeting” or “discussion.”
• Spirit animal — In some indigenous traditions, like the Potawatomi and Shawnee tribes, part of a belief system called “totemism” includes spirit animals that operate as spiritual guides through a person’s life. However, the pop culture adoption of the term has come to mean a creature that embodies one’s inner personality.
• Cakewalk — “Cakewalks” were dances enslaved Africans performed on plantations mocking the mannerisms of their enslavers. It has since been twisted to mean “easy victory.” Uppity — “Uppity” traces back to the Jim Crow South as an epithet white people reserved for Black people who didn’t show them enough respect.
• “Sold down the river” — The saying derives from the practice of selling slaves down the Mississippi River to cotton plantations in the South. It’s now deployed as a substitute for “profound betrayal.”
• Grandfathering/Grandfathered in —The phrase has its origins in Jim Crow-era laws that put requirements, like literacy tests and poll taxes, on voting. The idea was to prohibit Black people from casting their vote. But when some feared the laws would also disenfranchise poor white Southerners, several states made it legal for those who had voted in elections prior to vote moving forward. Now, “grandfathered in” means a provision in which an old rule applies to some, but a new rule applies to others.
• Gyp/gypped/gypsy —”Gypsy” is a pejorative used to describe the Romani people, and carries many negative connotations, including being “swindled” or “cheated.”
• “Call a spade a spade” — For most of its history, “call a spade a spade” was simply a metaphor for “tell it like it is.” But the saying took on racist overtones in the early 20th century when it became a derogatory term for Black people.
• Gung-ho — The term traces back to 1930s China, as an abbreviated translation for the “industrial cooperative movement,” which organized unemployed workers and refugees to produce public goods during the war. Years later, it was adopted by the US military, which mistakenly thought the concept meant “teamwork.” Today, gung-ho has become a zinger to mock someone who’s too enthusiastic, a try-hard.

  Many of us have uttered at least one of these sayings in our lifetime. Bringing attention to offensive language isn’t about scolding or shaming people; it’s about guiding them toward better practices. A good rule to consider: If you’re questioning whether a saying is insensitive, just go ahead and avoid it.

[aspasia]

[Organic Panic]

One has to attend many years of college and live a life of total luxury to be offended by every day idioms. (Can I say idiom?) I still call Oriental people Oriental. “Asia” is not a race.

[Organic Panic]

I am offended by her last name of “Wang.” My wang is not to by mocked....

[Organic Panic]

A foreign Oriental whitesplaining the red man..... You can’t make this crap up...

[sauropod]

.

[simpson96]

Here she is, the Towering Intellect.

Mouth breather, it seems - or maybe she's posing her mouth like that for the guys...

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

The author of this article is probably an absolute kill joy in life. None of those phrases are the least bit harmful to anyone except a snowflake looking to be offended.

[Fiji Hill]

Golliwog's Cakewalk--Claude Debussy (1913)

"Golliwog" is a "racist" term, as is "cakewalk." The composer of the classic tune Clair de Lune (Moonlight) was a vile white supremacist!

[Fiji Hill]

I still call Oriental people Oriental. “Asia” is not a race.

"Asian," a term that includes everyone from Israelis to Yakuts, most certainly does not refer to a "race." And "Orientals" are, more or less, those whose ethnic origin lies between the Adriatic Sea and the Bering Strait--also not a "race."

[Trump_Triumphant]

I thought the cakewalk was a dance done by Simon the Pieman in the old Batman cartoons.

[Wuli]

“Not relevant. See negro demands for reparations from the same 99%.”

The “reparation” demands do not come from the common folk. They originate with Leftist academics and are picked up by political activists trying to earn street creda for themselvews. They are an Leftist elitist top down idea, not an idea that moved from the bottom up.

[Gaffer]

..........China, the country of my birth

She needs to go back to it.

[Gaffer]

Yes. MANY times... usually only when talking with other service members or veterans. It means showing your opponent you have no hidden weapons or in a milder context, no ulterior motives, etc. Think of it like “all cards on the table.”

[Hot Tabasco]

Bringing attention to offensive language

Is it really offensive if no one knows the origin of the phrases?

[Gaffer]

I think ‘oriental’ became a tabu wokeism because of the old Charlie Chan movies....the Inscrutable Oriental...

The wokeists don’t like it that the role was played by a non-Asian.

[Fiji Hill]

If “Oriental” is taboo, shouldn’t “Occidental” also be? My alma mater, Occidental College, is as woke as North Korea, but there has been no movement there to change the name.

[Gaffer]

It’s all idiot wokeism if you ask me. It’s easier to say ‘Asian-American’ than ‘Oriental American’ I guess. Hyphenated Americanism is wokeism, period.

[Albion Wilde]

Girl, please! Race hustlers will never be happy with the organic growth of non-race-focused people who adapt and have a good time. She says herself that the Cake Walk was invented by blacks to "mock" the way whites dance. Looking at these old videos below, it looks to me like a cultural fusion going on, just as today whites are adopting black dances associated with break dancing and hip hop:

Library of Congress archive: Cake Walk

Uncle Tom's Cabin [film] - Group and Solo Cakewalk dance (1903)

Here is another video by a dance historian who sneers at the "slave masters" who apparently enjoyed or even profited by sponsoring black entertainers, even though the Cake Walk emerged a half-century after Emancipation:

Cakewalk Origins

But she inadvertently shows how this dance invented by blacks (ostensibly for some congenial mockery of the whites who were underwriting their performances, in one way or another) would eventually "become the rage" with whites in the U.S. and Europe, who tried to learn the agile moves of the black dancers. The Cake Walk's cultural popularity emerged around midway between Emancipation and the end of Jim Crow. This is the long timeline of peaceful cultural revolution.

I totally get how the starving artists who invent new art forms are taken advantage of financially by the establishment, and that many blacks want to attribute this age-old human phenomenon strictly as motivated by evil racism; but taking the long view, exploitation has often been part of the emergence of every new art form. We have seen it in the pre-internet 20th century rock and pop culture with music producers exploiting recording artists of any color. It had traditionally happened to painters, who had to share up to 60% of the price of their art work with the gallery owner who displayed it.

I'm not discounting the severe impact that race and class differences had in our history—it was not nearly as possible for a black originator of dance or musical art forms to freeing him/herself from financial exploitation by an agent once their work became widely known with the same speed that a white originator could. It takes a lot longer for a society to change than for a single artist from within the "elite" community to negotiate better deals once their work hits it big. But a parallel can be inferred.

[dfwgator]

She’d really hate these.

The Rat Pack’s Most Bigoted Songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaNeh5UXDEU

[Fiji Hill]

She would hate this one, too--for "cultural appropriation."

Mecca--Gene Pitney (1963)

"Each morning I face her window
And pray that our love can be.
For that brownstone house where my baby lives
Is Mecca to me."