The history of term “Grandfathered in”
Racism Score: 0.8
When new rules or policies are implemented, some organizations allow members or customers to maintain the previous standard. Most people refer to it as “grandfathered in.”
Do you know how racist the term “grandfathered in” is and how it came to be? NPR does a great job explaining the history and we will summarize for your reading pleasure (although we highly encourage reading the full article).
In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified to prohibit racial discrimination for voting. Unsurprisingly, Black people still did not receive full voting rights until well after that.
To combat illegal voting inequality, various states created arbitrary literacy tests, poll taxes, and constitutional quizzes were developed to prevent Black people from registering to vote.
The challenge states ran into is that poor white men would also be unable to pass the tests and quizzes or pay the taxes. To keep the peace with poor white men, plenty of states enacted laws that retained eligibility for those already eligible to vote prior to Black men gaining eligibility. This was called the grandfather clause!
Essentially, the grandfather clause protected whites from voter registration restrictions meant to apply to Black people, a legal form of discrimination at the time.
However, the purpose of the grandfather clause was not limited to Black people. Due to Black people predominantly voting Republican, Abraham Lincoln’s party; Democrats used the clause against white Republicans. Spencer Overton is the author of Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression stated the following:
“The whole objective of excluding African-Americans was not just white supremacy,” Overton says. “It was, ‘We’re Democrats; they’re Republicans; and we’re going to exclude them.’ I’m not saying there weren’t racial overtones, but there were significant partisan overtones as well.” He also adds “This term ‘grandfather’ has been kind of deracialized,” Overton says. “It’s really a very convenient, shorthand term.
This is a tough one. Knowing the racial connotations can be uncomfortable. At the same time, ignorance is bliss. This falls into the category of stripping a word of its racist power and understanding the deracialized linguistic intent. We do not have a problem with the term grandfathered.
