WEBVTT - Where Did the Phrase 'Grandfathered In' Come From? 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:07.400 Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:11.840 Lauren bol Bomb. Here across the globe, language and history 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:17.239 are inevitably intertwined. Linguistic origins are borrowed and transformed, and 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.599 as society changes, new words or phrases are created to 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.880 reflect the current cultural understanding. Some phrases and words simply 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.920 morph into accepted usage, their origins forgotten or conveniently misplaced. 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.600 One such phrase, grandfathered in, has become common shorthand to 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.199 mean that someone is exempt from following new rules or regulations. 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.160 Although it may evoke the image of a gray haired 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.519 gentleman let off the hook because of his age, the 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:47.159 term arose from something far less innocent. A deeper look 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:49.760 into the first use of the phrase reveals the political 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.200 and racial climate in the United States during the late 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:56.080 nineteenth and early twentie centuries. A person or business is 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.080 considered to be grandfathered in when they're exempt from new 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.200 rules and can continue to operate under the existing set 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.480 of regulations, and new rules will then only apply to 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:10.520 future cases. Today, the term is widely used across various sectors, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.160 most notably in real estate and health insurance. But when 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:16.679 the term was first coined in the eighteen nineties, it 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.880 referred to only one thing, voting rights. After the Fifteenth 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.120 Amendment was ratified to the U. S Constitution in eighteen seventy, 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.280 thus banning the infringement on a citizen's right to vote 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.880 on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.760 Some Southern states did not readily accept the ruling. Instead, 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.760 they carefully crafted amendments on the state level that circumvented 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.800 the federal decree in an attempt to prevent black Americans 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.880 from accessing polling stations. Since the basis of race could 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.960 no longer be used, the state amendments imposed things like 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.640 poll taxes and literacy tests. These limits were powerful. Close 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.320 to of all voting age men were illiterate, a majority 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.040 of whom were poor black men. But those taxes and 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.000 tests would also affect poor, illiterate white voters. Thus, a 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.280 grandfather clause was added to allow an illiterate man to 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.720 vote as long as he or his lineal ancestor, that is, 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:17.400 his grandfather had been a registered voter before eighteen sixty seven, 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.079 which was three years before the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.280 The clauses suppressed the vote along racial lines, but party 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.560 lines were at play too. At the time, most Black 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.200 Americans were Republicans, the party of Abraham Lincoln, which then 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.639 favored expansive government funded programs, and most whites were Democrats. 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.400 The Democratic Party then favored curbing expansion of government power. 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:43.920 Suppressing the vote served to keep power in the hands 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:46.960 of the Democrats. The parties wound up switching their big 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.000 government versus small government ideologies over the next sixty years 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:52.160 or so, leading to the stance as we see today. 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:56.120 But that's a different episode. In nineteen fifteen, the state 0:02:56.160 --> 0:03:00.640 amendments and clauses were ruled nationally unconstitutional, but the poll 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.639 taxes weren't eliminated nationally until the adoption of the Amendment 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.760 in nineteen sixty four, and on the state level in 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.280 ninety six with the Supreme Court's decision in Harper versus 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.280 the Virginia Board of Elections that meant decades of continued 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.560 voter suppression. The phrase grandfathered in is widely used today 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:24.520 without the connotation of disenfranchisement. But even as culture shifts, 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.560 whether we're aware of it or not, language holds the 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:36.760 power of our history, positive and negative. Today's episode was 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.720 written by Katie Carmen and produced by Tyler Clang. For 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:41.480 more in this and lots of other topics, visit how 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.840 stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:47.360 For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.320 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:51.040 favorite shows.