Words and phrases you may want to think twice about using


Nov 29, 2021

Historical, cultural context important for phrases like 'grandfathered in' and 'spirit animal'

Have you ever casually used the terms "spirit animal," "first-world problem," or "spooky"? It might be time to rethink your use of these phrases and remove them from your daily lingo.

CBC Ottawa compiled a small list of words, submitted by readers and some of our journalists who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour. We ran some of the words by anti-racism and language experts, who said some of these phrases can be hurtful to various groups of people for their historical and cultural context.

"Being an English speaker doesn't entail that you necessarily know the racist etymology automatically," said Ai Taniguchi, a linguist and an associate language studies professor with University of Toronto Mississauga, in an email to CBC.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...uage-1.6252274