Massachusetts Court Won’t Use Term ‘Grandfathering,’ Citing Its Racist Origins

A wine organization announced in June that it would no longer use the term “master” to refer to its high-ranking experts.

This month, lawmakers in New Jersey said county elected officials should be called “commissioners” instead of “freeholders,” a word that dates to a time when only white males could own land.

And on Monday, an appeals court in Massachusetts said that it would no longer use the term “grandfathering” because “it has racist origins.”

As Confederate monuments and other physical symbols of racism have begun to come down across the country, some commonly used terms have begun to drop out of circulation.