1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:11,840 Speaker 1: Lauren bol Bomb. Here across the globe, language and history 3 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 1: are inevitably intertwined. Linguistic origins are borrowed and transformed, and 4 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: as society changes, new words or phrases are created to 5 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: reflect the current cultural understanding. Some phrases and words simply 6 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: morph into accepted usage, their origins forgotten or conveniently misplaced. 7 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: One such phrase, grandfathered in, has become common shorthand to 8 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:38,199 Speaker 1: mean that someone is exempt from following new rules or regulations. 9 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,160 Speaker 1: Although it may evoke the image of a gray haired 10 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:43,519 Speaker 1: gentleman let off the hook because of his age, the 11 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 1: term arose from something far less innocent. A deeper look 12 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 1: into the first use of the phrase reveals the political 13 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:52,200 Speaker 1: and racial climate in the United States during the late 14 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:56,080 Speaker 1: nineteenth and early twentie centuries. A person or business is 15 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: considered to be grandfathered in when they're exempt from new 16 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: rules and can continue to operate under the existing set 17 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,480 Speaker 1: of regulations, and new rules will then only apply to 18 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 1: future cases. Today, the term is widely used across various sectors, 19 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 1: most notably in real estate and health insurance. But when 20 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: the term was first coined in the eighteen nineties, it 21 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:20,880 Speaker 1: referred to only one thing, voting rights. After the Fifteenth 22 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:24,120 Speaker 1: Amendment was ratified to the U. S Constitution in eighteen seventy, 23 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,280 Speaker 1: thus banning the infringement on a citizen's right to vote 24 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 25 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:35,760 Speaker 1: Some Southern states did not readily accept the ruling. Instead, 26 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: they carefully crafted amendments on the state level that circumvented 27 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,800 Speaker 1: the federal decree in an attempt to prevent black Americans 28 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,880 Speaker 1: from accessing polling stations. Since the basis of race could 29 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:49,960 Speaker 1: no longer be used, the state amendments imposed things like 30 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:54,640 Speaker 1: poll taxes and literacy tests. These limits were powerful. Close 31 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: to of all voting age men were illiterate, a majority 32 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:02,040 Speaker 1: of whom were poor black men. But those taxes and 33 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: tests would also affect poor, illiterate white voters. Thus, a 34 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 1: grandfather clause was added to allow an illiterate man to 35 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,720 Speaker 1: vote as long as he or his lineal ancestor, that is, 36 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: his grandfather had been a registered voter before eighteen sixty seven, 37 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,079 Speaker 1: which was three years before the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. 38 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: The clauses suppressed the vote along racial lines, but party 39 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: lines were at play too. At the time, most Black 40 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 1: Americans were Republicans, the party of Abraham Lincoln, which then 41 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,639 Speaker 1: favored expansive government funded programs, and most whites were Democrats. 42 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 1: The Democratic Party then favored curbing expansion of government power. 43 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:43,920 Speaker 1: Suppressing the vote served to keep power in the hands 44 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: of the Democrats. The parties wound up switching their big 45 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: government versus small government ideologies over the next sixty years 46 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: or so, leading to the stance as we see today. 47 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,120 Speaker 1: But that's a different episode. In nineteen fifteen, the state 48 00:02:56,160 --> 00:03:00,640 Speaker 1: amendments and clauses were ruled nationally unconstitutional, but the poll 49 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:04,639 Speaker 1: taxes weren't eliminated nationally until the adoption of the Amendment 50 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, and on the state level in 51 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,280 Speaker 1: ninety six with the Supreme Court's decision in Harper versus 52 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,280 Speaker 1: the Virginia Board of Elections that meant decades of continued 53 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: voter suppression. The phrase grandfathered in is widely used today 54 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 1: without the connotation of disenfranchisement. But even as culture shifts, 55 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: whether we're aware of it or not, language holds the 56 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: power of our history, positive and negative. Today's episode was 57 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: written by Katie Carmen and produced by Tyler Clang. For 58 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 1: more in this and lots of other topics, visit how 59 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. 60 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart 61 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,320 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 62 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:51,040 Speaker 1: favorite shows.