Phases you shouldn't use

 I have a friend, whose family nickname is  "Peanut"   She's an awesome singer and I am part of her "support-group fan base" that she calles "the Peanut Gallery"     Now, as a child of the 60's the only reference I have to that term is the Howdy Doody Show, where the small fry in the audience who sang along and clapped and did what small kids in a group will do, were called "the Peanut Gallery".  Recently, I across an article that said the term had a racist beginning, that it referred to the theater section in the segregated south, up in the balcony.    Wikipedia makes no mention of it, simply that it was the cheap seats and that patrons would throw peanuts at the vaudeville performers from the balcony area.  The racist connotation is never mentioned.  Here is my question;  If a phase began with racial undertones, can it be reclaimed to become something that is not?  Has the use of the term for sweet kids on t TV show or a somewhat rowdy audience replaced the term in the American lexicon?   Should we be aware of the origin and not use it, or should we talk about the original context and balance it with the current pop culture reference?  Am I being tone deaf? Probably, but in my mind the term has two meanings.  

I need answers.

Have you ever used the term "Paddy Wagon"?  I remember a Flintstones episode, where the cops tossed Fred and Barney in the Paddy Wagon and hauled them off to jail.  Did you know that is a racist term?  It is.  "Paddy" is pejorative slang for anyone of Irish descent.  They used to go around on a Friday night and round up the Irish, drunk or sober and keep them in jail for the weekend, often keeping part of the money they had earned for the week as a "fine".  the police van was nicknamed The "paddy Wagon"  Years ago  LAPD had a St. Patrick's Day "free ride home" program.  Nice,  HOWEVER they called it the PADDY Wagon.  I called the head of the program and told him it was offensive to  Irish Americans ( since I AM of Irish ancestry , I felt comfortable telling him)  He ARGUED with me, told me his wife was from Ireland and she wasn't offended.   I told him that people whose ancestors  were treated to this practice were offended and no disrespect to his wife, but her family didn't live through that particular indignity.  The next year, it was called something else.

As we learn the origins of seemingly innocuous phases that are part of the lexicon, we need to examine and discard terms that are insulting or a painful reminder of the past.  We need to talk about the past, learn from it and move on from it.  We cannot change what was, only what will be, and by learning history,avoid repeating it.