Free, White, and 21
September 10, 2015 2:05 PM Subscribe
Sounds like - to simplify a little - it was fear that the Commies would exploit America's racism that made the phrase go away.
Makes you wonder how much worse the Anglo world would be today if the 1917 revolution hadn't been a success.
posted by clawsoon at 2:20 PM on September 10, 2015 [16 favorites]
Makes you wonder how much worse the Anglo world would be today if the 1917 revolution hadn't been a success.
posted by clawsoon at 2:20 PM on September 10, 2015 [16 favorites]
I was just thinking about this phrase the other day. My mother (born 1941, not at all prone to overt expressions of prejudice) said it to me once in the early 90's—like, "Do whatever you want; you're free, white, and 21."—and it blew my mind. I'm free, WHAT, and 21?
posted by The Tensor at 2:23 PM on September 10, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by The Tensor at 2:23 PM on September 10, 2015 [8 favorites]
You think you know a country and then, wham, nope, you didn't know anything at all.
posted by GuyZero at 2:25 PM on September 10, 2015 [16 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 2:25 PM on September 10, 2015 [16 favorites]
Wow - the casual racism is just so stunning!
posted by oceanjesse at 2:27 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by oceanjesse at 2:27 PM on September 10, 2015
Make sure you watch the video. The Belafonte scene set against the rather glib manner in which the line is tossed off – where for the characters speaking, it means individualism and freedom – makes it a really powerful 4-minute piece. "Free, white and twenty-one," sounding every bit like a motto of the idealized youth and liberty of the Golden Age of cinema, is exposed as a form of white supremacy with a couple of lines.
posted by graymouser at 2:28 PM on September 10, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by graymouser at 2:28 PM on September 10, 2015 [5 favorites]
I've heard a few people around here, where there are very few Jewish people, unthinkingly use the phrase "Jew you down" to refer to hard bargaining. When I told them it was antisemitic as hell and offensive they just stared at me as if they had never noticed the presence of the word "Jew" in that phrase.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:32 PM on September 10, 2015 [18 favorites]
posted by double block and bleed at 2:32 PM on September 10, 2015 [18 favorites]
“As the distance between the poor whites and the rich whites widens,” the Philadelphia Tribune noted in 1930, the former will have “nothing to look forward to in life save the dubious satisfaction of being free, white, and twenty-one,” a privilege that is “considerable when there is no other” but nonetheless serves primarily to keep them from growing “restive under exploitation.”
posted by junco at 2:37 PM on September 10, 2015 [15 favorites]
posted by junco at 2:37 PM on September 10, 2015 [15 favorites]
You need to watch the video, if only for the amazing Harry Belefonte side-eye.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:38 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:38 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
The first time I read that phrase was in The Bell Jar, and it seemed so weird.
posted by discopolo at 2:40 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by discopolo at 2:40 PM on September 10, 2015
Having southern parents and grandparents, I would have expected to have heard this one. I've certainly heard plenty of other casually racist terms over the years.
posted by Fleebnork at 2:41 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Fleebnork at 2:41 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
It was one of my poor, Southern grandmother's favorite sayings. In fact, I can still see the picture of her in my mind, taking a drag off of a Phillip Morris and saying, "I'm free, white, and over 21. They can go to hell if they don't like it." As a kid, it seemed like such a powerful statement of adultness and no longer being told what to do by everyone else. But like many things from my childhood, upon adult reflection it highlights a lot of really icky things about our country and the nature of equality.
I have replaced her casual racist phrase that highlights both white privilege and the restrictions that were typically placed on women with my own empowering phrase, "I'm a grown damn woman." Hopefully it will be more enduring.
posted by teleri025 at 2:44 PM on September 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
I have replaced her casual racist phrase that highlights both white privilege and the restrictions that were typically placed on women with my own empowering phrase, "I'm a grown damn woman." Hopefully it will be more enduring.
posted by teleri025 at 2:44 PM on September 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
Ugh, lots of old expressions are super-bigoted and misogynistic. I was sickened when I found out what the original definition of a broad was.
posted by infinitewindow at 2:47 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by infinitewindow at 2:47 PM on September 10, 2015
"Jew you down"
I've heard that phrasing all my life, but it was only sometime in the past decade that I saw it written down. I'd thought it was "chew you down," where chew meant talk.
I am PRETTY sure I never used it, though, because, like "chewing the fat," it's kind of gross. Chewing is gross, and the word itself is gross, and I really hope that that kept me from repeating what I thought I heard.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:52 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I've heard that phrasing all my life, but it was only sometime in the past decade that I saw it written down. I'd thought it was "chew you down," where chew meant talk.
I am PRETTY sure I never used it, though, because, like "chewing the fat," it's kind of gross. Chewing is gross, and the word itself is gross, and I really hope that that kept me from repeating what I thought I heard.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:52 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
"Free, white, and 21?"
As gawd is my witness, I have never heard that phase ever in my entire life.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:53 PM on September 10, 2015 [14 favorites]
As gawd is my witness, I have never heard that phase ever in my entire life.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:53 PM on September 10, 2015 [14 favorites]
There's another old saying in the same vein: "That's mighty white of you."
I remember seeing Cary Grant utter that line in Bringing Up Baby. It means "That's a mighty admirable gesture, the kind that can only be expected from a white person as opposed to the dishonorable behavior typical of Natives Americans, Jews, blacks, and so forth."
The lovely thing about that saying is that as it fell out of favor, it became a wonderfully sardonic phrase whenever it was co-opted by a black person and deployed in the right context. Especially when a black person had a chance said it to a white person, because the meaning was unmistakable: "I'm gonna act like this is a compliment, but really you've demonstrated just the sort of asshole behavior my people have come to expect from your people for centuries now."
posted by magstheaxe at 2:56 PM on September 10, 2015 [25 favorites]
I remember seeing Cary Grant utter that line in Bringing Up Baby. It means "That's a mighty admirable gesture, the kind that can only be expected from a white person as opposed to the dishonorable behavior typical of Natives Americans, Jews, blacks, and so forth."
The lovely thing about that saying is that as it fell out of favor, it became a wonderfully sardonic phrase whenever it was co-opted by a black person and deployed in the right context. Especially when a black person had a chance said it to a white person, because the meaning was unmistakable: "I'm gonna act like this is a compliment, but really you've demonstrated just the sort of asshole behavior my people have come to expect from your people for centuries now."
posted by magstheaxe at 2:56 PM on September 10, 2015 [25 favorites]
I don't see it mentioned in the article, but I seem to recall someone saying (unsubstantiated) in film school that this was a famously cut line from a scene in the old school stop motion version of King Kong...something Fae Wray exclaims establishing her independence? I think it was supposedly in the theatrical cut at first, but then not in reissues, and never in home video. Can anyone confirm?
posted by trackofalljades at 2:57 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by trackofalljades at 2:57 PM on September 10, 2015
The saying emerged around 1828, when property ownership was removed as a prerequisite for suffrage, and voters needed only be free, white, and 21 (and also, it needn’t be said, male)
This etymology seems spurious. As far as I know, in 1828 there were not any whites who were not free, so including both terms to describe the prerequisite for suffrage would be redundant. Also, the choice of "around 1828" as the date when property ownership was removed as a prerequisite for suffrage seems arbitrary, as it was abolished as early as 1792 in Kentucky and not until 1856 in North Carolina. There was no national standard for voting rights prior to the 15th Amendment's prohibition on restricting them on the basis of "race, color or previous condition of servitude" in 1870, but non-whites (including freed slaves) had been allowed to vote in several states prior to the Civil War.
The phrase might have originated as a specific reference to the end of property ownership as a criteria for suffrage, but I haven't been able to find any cites that demonstrate that conclusively.
posted by layceepee at 3:08 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
This etymology seems spurious. As far as I know, in 1828 there were not any whites who were not free, so including both terms to describe the prerequisite for suffrage would be redundant. Also, the choice of "around 1828" as the date when property ownership was removed as a prerequisite for suffrage seems arbitrary, as it was abolished as early as 1792 in Kentucky and not until 1856 in North Carolina. There was no national standard for voting rights prior to the 15th Amendment's prohibition on restricting them on the basis of "race, color or previous condition of servitude" in 1870, but non-whites (including freed slaves) had been allowed to vote in several states prior to the Civil War.
The phrase might have originated as a specific reference to the end of property ownership as a criteria for suffrage, but I haven't been able to find any cites that demonstrate that conclusively.
posted by layceepee at 3:08 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Thorzdad: ""Free, white, and 21?"
As gawd is my witness, I have never heard that phase ever in my entire life."
I was surprised to read it in the post as well. I don't think I've ever heard it before. I know I've never said it. I might have read it and glossed over it. Regardless it's certainly disturbing.
posted by Splunge at 3:10 PM on September 10, 2015
As gawd is my witness, I have never heard that phase ever in my entire life."
I was surprised to read it in the post as well. I don't think I've ever heard it before. I know I've never said it. I might have read it and glossed over it. Regardless it's certainly disturbing.
posted by Splunge at 3:10 PM on September 10, 2015
I came across it in Australia, but I don't recall the context. It's more likely to have been in a book than a movie, though, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:13 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:13 PM on September 10, 2015
As far as I know, in 1828 there were not any whites who were not free
There definitely were.
posted by asperity at 3:13 PM on September 10, 2015
There definitely were.
posted by asperity at 3:13 PM on September 10, 2015
It amazing how white culture managed to sweep the term under the rug then pretend like it never was there. And in denial of the horror of how shitty the racist behaviors are, white people (myself included) try to erase our complicity with our racist society in an effort to not feel so bad, and white people can do that because, well, we're..."free...
posted by Annika Cicada at 3:14 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Annika Cicada at 3:14 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
asperity, you linked to an article about free blacks, but I didn't see anything in it that identified enslaved whites in 19th century America. What am I missing?
posted by layceepee at 3:17 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by layceepee at 3:17 PM on September 10, 2015
In my late teens, I had a few friends (of varying ethnicities) who were big on ironic use of the phrase, "In front of God and three other white men." It could be devastating when it worked, but IMO, the misfire rate was unacceptably high.
Eventually, some of them switched over to "In front of God and six other old ladies named Esther."
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 3:22 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Eventually, some of them switched over to "In front of God and six other old ladies named Esther."
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 3:22 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
I heard it growing up from family who were raised in Jim Crow east Texas (including my parents), more usually in the form of "he/she is (etc).". Having said that, the context was always what they described about the women in the movies: "they can do that stupid thing but they're going to be sorry they did it".
posted by immlass at 3:32 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by immlass at 3:32 PM on September 10, 2015
Well . . . I'm pretty surprised at the general unfamiliarity with the phrase here, but you all should still go and see The World, The Flesh, and The Devil right away.
posted by Herodios at 3:35 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Herodios at 3:35 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
This is interesting to me because I have used the phrase "young male white and free" as in what are you complaining about you have all the advantages of unfairness. Its not "I deserve" but rather "I get" even if I don't deserve. It is meant as an aknowledgement of unpleasant reality and a bit of a demand for awareness.
posted by Pembquist at 3:43 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Pembquist at 3:43 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Regarding the "free" part, convicted/imprisoned people don't get to vote either.
posted by blnkfrnk at 3:50 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by blnkfrnk at 3:50 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
asperity, you linked to an article about free blacks, but I didn't see anything in it that identified enslaved whites in 19th century America. What am I missing?
I was thinking the other day of the phrase "sold into white slavery" and how weird it is. Looks like [content warning for discussions of sexual assault on that link] the concept was strongest in the US in the 1910s, so I wonder if that plays into the phrasing of "free, white, and 21," too. That would also tie into the article's point that it seems mostly women using the phrase onscreen.
posted by jaguar at 4:04 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I was thinking the other day of the phrase "sold into white slavery" and how weird it is. Looks like [content warning for discussions of sexual assault on that link] the concept was strongest in the US in the 1910s, so I wonder if that plays into the phrasing of "free, white, and 21," too. That would also tie into the article's point that it seems mostly women using the phrase onscreen.
posted by jaguar at 4:04 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Sounds like - to simplify a little - it was fear that the Commies would exploit America's racism that made the phrase go away.
Tangled web, that. I mean, given when the movies were made, it was likely Commies who wrote the lines in the first place.
In my late teens, I had a few friends (of varying ethnicities) who were big on ironic use of the phrase, "In front of God and three other white men." It could be devastating when it worked, but IMO, the misfire rate was unacceptably high.
Never heard this one. I get three google hits, one of them yours. Is it regional? What time period? Genuinely curious.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:06 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Tangled web, that. I mean, given when the movies were made, it was likely Commies who wrote the lines in the first place.
In my late teens, I had a few friends (of varying ethnicities) who were big on ironic use of the phrase, "In front of God and three other white men." It could be devastating when it worked, but IMO, the misfire rate was unacceptably high.
Never heard this one. I get three google hits, one of them yours. Is it regional? What time period? Genuinely curious.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:06 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I've absolutely never heard this phrase before. I think the universe just had one of those Bearenstein/Bearenstain forking moments.
posted by dr_dank at 4:06 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by dr_dank at 4:06 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Not quite as sarcastically put as Louis CK's "Thank god I'm healthy, young, and white."
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 4:10 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 4:10 PM on September 10, 2015
What am I missing?
Oh, you're missing my poor late-afternoon reading comprehension, apparently.
posted by asperity at 4:36 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh, you're missing my poor late-afternoon reading comprehension, apparently.
posted by asperity at 4:36 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
“As the distance between the poor whites and the rich whites widens,” the Philadelphia Tribune noted in 1930, the former will have “nothing to look forward to in life save the dubious satisfaction of being free, white, and twenty-one,” a privilege that is “considerable when there is no other” but nonetheless serves primarily to keep them from growing “restive under exploitation.”
I couldn't believe a newspaper was this self-aware of whiteness in 1930. Sure enough, the Philadelphia Tribune was (is?) an Af-Am paper. :-/
posted by BinGregory at 4:36 PM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
I couldn't believe a newspaper was this self-aware of whiteness in 1930. Sure enough, the Philadelphia Tribune was (is?) an Af-Am paper. :-/
posted by BinGregory at 4:36 PM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
Well damn, I'll file this one with the others under "shit my grandma said that I thought was incoherence due to senility but was actually a now obscure racist catchphrase."
Interesting post!
posted by Matt Oneiros at 4:43 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Interesting post!
posted by Matt Oneiros at 4:43 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Regarding the "free" part, convicted/imprisoned people don't get to vote either.
I had the sense from context that it was free as opposed to married?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:53 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I had the sense from context that it was free as opposed to married?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:53 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Never heard this exact phrase, but because I can basically recite John Waters' Polyester line by line, I've always known this... version of it I guess.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 5:03 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by Hal Mumkin at 5:03 PM on September 10, 2015
By calling something casual racism, you're softening a blow that has no business being softened.
I like having a language complex enough to say that a Ku Klux Klan member is much worse than somebody's grandmother who used an outdated expression, even though they're both doing something wrong. It's no different than having two categories for "animal cruelty" and "non-vegetarian." (It's easy enough for a vegetarian to remain friends with someone who eats meat, but probably not with someone who kicks puppies.)
posted by Rangi at 5:10 PM on September 10, 2015 [6 favorites]
I like having a language complex enough to say that a Ku Klux Klan member is much worse than somebody's grandmother who used an outdated expression, even though they're both doing something wrong. It's no different than having two categories for "animal cruelty" and "non-vegetarian." (It's easy enough for a vegetarian to remain friends with someone who eats meat, but probably not with someone who kicks puppies.)
posted by Rangi at 5:10 PM on September 10, 2015 [6 favorites]
I have always taken casual racism to be the just under the surface kind that you have to look out for. It's not just the explicit hate speech that almost everyone recognizes and disapproves of. It's little turns of phrase and unconscious assumptions and subtle double standards that people do casually, without explicitly or even intentionally advocating racism.
"Free, white, and 21" is far enough out of date that I don't think I've ever heard it outside of movies before, so it's going to sound shocking to most people I suspect, but terms like 'gyp,' and 'Jew down' and people displaying the Confederate flag and things like that sometimes are perpetuated unintentionally and casually by people who either don't know the origins or have just never thought about them.
In a lot of ways, casual racism is worse, because it is so much more common and so much more accepted than explicit racism, and because it has this little veneer of plausible deniability. Pointing it out, and acknowledging that racism is so often casual, and not all white hoods and burning crosses, actually chips away at that veneer and calls it what it is.
posted by ernielundquist at 5:40 PM on September 10, 2015 [20 favorites]
"Free, white, and 21" is far enough out of date that I don't think I've ever heard it outside of movies before, so it's going to sound shocking to most people I suspect, but terms like 'gyp,' and 'Jew down' and people displaying the Confederate flag and things like that sometimes are perpetuated unintentionally and casually by people who either don't know the origins or have just never thought about them.
In a lot of ways, casual racism is worse, because it is so much more common and so much more accepted than explicit racism, and because it has this little veneer of plausible deniability. Pointing it out, and acknowledging that racism is so often casual, and not all white hoods and burning crosses, actually chips away at that veneer and calls it what it is.
posted by ernielundquist at 5:40 PM on September 10, 2015 [20 favorites]
I had a couple of older relatives who used to use this phrase -- Boston Irish, and when they said it, they always meant "you have no excuses," like, "You're free, white, and 21 -- get a job." "Um ... I'm fourteen? And also slightly uncomfortable now?"
layceepee: " As far as I know, in 1828 there were not any whites who were not free, so including both terms to describe the prerequisite for suffrage would be redundant"
When my older relatives said it, "free" it had the connotation of "not like in the old country." Sometimes it came with a bonus side lecture of "our family didn't emigrate to America so you could be lazy and stupid."
It was a sort-of self-mocking, self-aware admission of privilege with the thing about "white," since it was exclusively used in a "you have no excuses for failure" way. I also think they were quoting/memeing it a little bit and being sort-of ironic with it. That said, I'm pretty sure none of them would have used the phrase in racially-mixed company, so I think they must of known it ... wasn't cool, and that saying it ironically didn't make it okay. (They're dead, though, I can't ask.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:45 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
layceepee: " As far as I know, in 1828 there were not any whites who were not free, so including both terms to describe the prerequisite for suffrage would be redundant"
When my older relatives said it, "free" it had the connotation of "not like in the old country." Sometimes it came with a bonus side lecture of "our family didn't emigrate to America so you could be lazy and stupid."
It was a sort-of self-mocking, self-aware admission of privilege with the thing about "white," since it was exclusively used in a "you have no excuses for failure" way. I also think they were quoting/memeing it a little bit and being sort-of ironic with it. That said, I'm pretty sure none of them would have used the phrase in racially-mixed company, so I think they must of known it ... wasn't cool, and that saying it ironically didn't make it okay. (They're dead, though, I can't ask.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:45 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I was just thinking about this phrase the other day. My mother (born 1941, not at all prone to overt expressions of prejudice) said it to me once in the early 90's—like, "Do whatever you want; you're free, white, and 21."—and it blew my mind. I'm free, WHAT, and 21?
My mother is a similar age and also said that to me exactly once. I think she realized how wrong it sounded as soon as she said it.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:20 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
My mother is a similar age and also said that to me exactly once. I think she realized how wrong it sounded as soon as she said it.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:20 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Interesting! I've only ever heard this phrase second-hand as "Free, white and British", but very rarely and not without some sense of the inappropriateness and archaism.
posted by comealongpole at 6:49 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by comealongpole at 6:49 PM on September 10, 2015
I've been hearing that phrase used all my life. Not constantly, mind, but often enough to know it. I guess I'm surprised more people haven't ever heard of it.
posted by wallabear at 7:30 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by wallabear at 7:30 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
In a lot of ways, casual racism is worse, because it is so much more common and so much more accepted than explicit racism, and because it has this little veneer of plausible deniability.
Yes, when I say something is casual racism, I don't mean that as a softening qualifier. I mean that as an intensifier. I'm not calling out a person, I'm calling out the person and the whole set of norms and culture they're operating in. They're not just racist, they're so comfortable in their racism and confident that everyone else is too, they don't even think about it.
I notice this visiting the East Coast sometimes. We have a couple of shipyards back there and every time I'm back there I hear things daily/hourly that make my jaw drop from imagining the screeching record-scratch halt our yard would come to if anyone said here out loud*. Doesn't mean people aren't thinking them back home, but at least they know that shit's unacceptable. When I've said something, I either get a look like I've got two heads, or the "whattaya gonna do" shrug. I hate having to work at the East Coast yards. Reason: not just racism, casual racism, a whole other level of wtf.
* such as the phrase "free, white, and 21."
posted by ctmf at 7:56 PM on September 10, 2015 [11 favorites]
Yes, when I say something is casual racism, I don't mean that as a softening qualifier. I mean that as an intensifier. I'm not calling out a person, I'm calling out the person and the whole set of norms and culture they're operating in. They're not just racist, they're so comfortable in their racism and confident that everyone else is too, they don't even think about it.
I notice this visiting the East Coast sometimes. We have a couple of shipyards back there and every time I'm back there I hear things daily/hourly that make my jaw drop from imagining the screeching record-scratch halt our yard would come to if anyone said here out loud*. Doesn't mean people aren't thinking them back home, but at least they know that shit's unacceptable. When I've said something, I either get a look like I've got two heads, or the "whattaya gonna do" shrug. I hate having to work at the East Coast yards. Reason: not just racism, casual racism, a whole other level of wtf.
* such as the phrase "free, white, and 21."
posted by ctmf at 7:56 PM on September 10, 2015 [11 favorites]
I remember seeing this in some movie from the late 50s/early 60s - don't remember what but I didn't see it here. I remember being a little stunned to see anyone from a film at the time or earlier refer to themselves as white, rather than default.
posted by zutalors! at 8:02 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by zutalors! at 8:02 PM on September 10, 2015
More anecdata: I hadn't heard this phrase until I moved to central Indiana in my mid-20s (let's call that the late '80s and early '90s). It was fairly common to hear during my decade there. When I moved to NE Kansas, I found the phrase in regular use there for another decade. I'm in another part of Kansas now and don't get out all that much, but the phrase is once again off my radar.
posted by bryon at 10:48 PM on September 10, 2015
posted by bryon at 10:48 PM on September 10, 2015
I'm free, WHAT, and 21?
It's probably a reflection of the time I grew up in, but I didn't have this visceral reaction to the phrase at all. In fact, it's somewhat refreshing to hear white people openly admit that the system is rigged in their favour. People's casual prejudice and, more importantly, their reaction to being called out on it helps to remove any doubt as to whether they are operating on simple ignorance or a nasty crypto-racism.
In an ideal world, such declarations would be in the context of acknowledging the negative effects of racial privilege on black people and other minorities. But alas, one can hope.
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 11:49 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
It's probably a reflection of the time I grew up in, but I didn't have this visceral reaction to the phrase at all. In fact, it's somewhat refreshing to hear white people openly admit that the system is rigged in their favour. People's casual prejudice and, more importantly, their reaction to being called out on it helps to remove any doubt as to whether they are operating on simple ignorance or a nasty crypto-racism.
In an ideal world, such declarations would be in the context of acknowledging the negative effects of racial privilege on black people and other minorities. But alas, one can hope.
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 11:49 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I expected to give it a quick scan but it was chock full of stuff that was totally new to me.
The goverment efforts to stamp it out of films must be one of the earliest examples of political correctness gone mad?
posted by bonobothegreat at 4:25 AM on September 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
The goverment efforts to stamp it out of films must be one of the earliest examples of political correctness gone mad?
posted by bonobothegreat at 4:25 AM on September 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Another one who's never heard this phrase before.
posted by octothorpe at 5:26 AM on September 11, 2015
posted by octothorpe at 5:26 AM on September 11, 2015
I've heard my mother say this, in the 2000s.I think I just thought, "wow you don't hear things like that anymore." Casual racism is like a Turing test for real racism.
posted by PHINC at 6:48 AM on September 11, 2015
posted by PHINC at 6:48 AM on September 11, 2015
The first time I heard it was on the TV series version of Fame, sometime in the 1980's. There was an episode with an older white dance teacher who was discriminating against Black students, and it came up in a conversation where Debbie Allen called her out on her racism.
I do still occasionally hear the Bowderlized version, "Free and 21," usually in the context of "free" meaning "single."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:43 AM on September 11, 2015
I do still occasionally hear the Bowderlized version, "Free and 21," usually in the context of "free" meaning "single."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:43 AM on September 11, 2015
Pointing it out, and acknowledging that racism is so often casual, and not all white hoods and burning crosses, actually chips away at that veneer and calls it what it is.
An added benefit of pointing out the racist origins of casually racist sayings and modes of thought is that, in some cases, it shows to the offender how total, systemic, and institutional the racist modes of thought, speech and action are: this makes it easier to explain things like affirmative action, reparations, and the inherent paradox of the modern Justice System (ie, there is no justice in it).
posted by eclectist at 9:03 AM on September 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
An added benefit of pointing out the racist origins of casually racist sayings and modes of thought is that, in some cases, it shows to the offender how total, systemic, and institutional the racist modes of thought, speech and action are: this makes it easier to explain things like affirmative action, reparations, and the inherent paradox of the modern Justice System (ie, there is no justice in it).
posted by eclectist at 9:03 AM on September 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
The French equivalent of that expression is "Majeur et vacciné". Not offensive now, but who knows what will happen when the anti-vax generation comes of age.
posted by Freyja at 9:05 AM on September 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Freyja at 9:05 AM on September 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
I've been hearing that phrase used all my life. Not constantly, mind, but often enough to know it. I guess I'm surprised more people haven't ever heard of it.
I've lived on both coasts of the U.S., with parents from the Midwest & South, and I try to keep my ears attuned to stuff like this ...and now I find myself feeling like those people who chime in on threads about pop music to say they've never heard [whatever song that's currently blasting from everywhere whenever I go outside]. Totally new to me.
posted by psoas at 9:52 AM on September 11, 2015
I've lived on both coasts of the U.S., with parents from the Midwest & South, and I try to keep my ears attuned to stuff like this ...and now I find myself feeling like those people who chime in on threads about pop music to say they've never heard [whatever song that's currently blasting from everywhere whenever I go outside]. Totally new to me.
posted by psoas at 9:52 AM on September 11, 2015
As ctmf says, I don't say "casual racism" to mean"lesser racism." I say it to mean casual racism - expressed without hesitation or apology.
posted by atoxyl at 12:29 PM on September 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 12:29 PM on September 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
The first time I saw this phrase, I was a fourth-grader reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter. And, in pulling out my copy, here it is, in Chapter 25, "Free and Independent":
As an adult, I have often wondered about motivations of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, noted libertarian Rose Wilder Lane, in altering Almanzo's age/situation thusly and having him say that.
As a child, I remember being gobsmacked that "free, white and 21" was apparently something that people thought was perfectly acceptable, because it seemed so obvious to me that "free, white and 21" disenfranchised so many people. It was healthy and useful to learn that fictional characters and authors could be misguided.
posted by sobell at 12:46 PM on September 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
"Almanzo," Royal said solemnly, "If I let your fool self out on these prairies, what'll I say to Mother and Father?"This book was written in 1940. What adds a weird layer of meaning to it is the fact that the Almanzo of the book 19 or 20 years old during the winter of 1880-1881 (in the book, he lies to the homesteading claim agent, reasoning that the government has no right to put an age restriction of 21 on settling a homestead claim) but the historically accurate Almanzo was actually 23 at the time. There was little to no reason to futz with Almanzo's age, and certainly far less to include the "free, white and twenty-one" phrase as uttered by someone who only meets two of those three criteria.
"You tell 'em you had nothing to say about it, Roy," Almanzo answered. "I'm free, white and twenty-one ... or as good as. Anyway, this is a free country and I'm free and independent. I do as I please."
As an adult, I have often wondered about motivations of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, noted libertarian Rose Wilder Lane, in altering Almanzo's age/situation thusly and having him say that.
As a child, I remember being gobsmacked that "free, white and 21" was apparently something that people thought was perfectly acceptable, because it seemed so obvious to me that "free, white and 21" disenfranchised so many people. It was healthy and useful to learn that fictional characters and authors could be misguided.
posted by sobell at 12:46 PM on September 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's used in the 'no country for old men' book, but omitted in the movie.
Moss tells Carla Jean, you are free, white and 21. She says, I'm not 21. He says, well, whatever you are. (she is actually 19).
I think this was a popular phrase not just because of racism but becaue it's such a snappy, crisp rejoinder. It's offensive to non-whites but I can see how people would have rationalized it as meaning, don't treat me like I'm powerless, because I'm not.
posted by rainy at 10:05 PM on September 11, 2015
Moss tells Carla Jean, you are free, white and 21. She says, I'm not 21. He says, well, whatever you are. (she is actually 19).
I think this was a popular phrase not just because of racism but becaue it's such a snappy, crisp rejoinder. It's offensive to non-whites but I can see how people would have rationalized it as meaning, don't treat me like I'm powerless, because I'm not.
posted by rainy at 10:05 PM on September 11, 2015
There was little to no reason to futz with Almanzo's age, and certainly far less to include the "free, white and twenty-one" phrase as uttered by someone who only meets two of those three criteria.
I had the impression the "21" part of it was supposed to mean "21 or over," the same way signs in some bars or stores will say "You have to be 21 to purchase alcohol" when they really mean that you have to be 21 or over to purchase alcohol. It's a stand-in for "legal adult," not a declaration of one's actual age.
I agree that there's no reason to ever use the phrase, however!
posted by jaguar at 8:20 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
I had the impression the "21" part of it was supposed to mean "21 or over," the same way signs in some bars or stores will say "You have to be 21 to purchase alcohol" when they really mean that you have to be 21 or over to purchase alcohol. It's a stand-in for "legal adult," not a declaration of one's actual age.
I agree that there's no reason to ever use the phrase, however!
posted by jaguar at 8:20 AM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by Xavier Xavier at 2:11 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]