When compiling a list of Scots phrases a while back, it was clear some phrases were racist, sexist, homophobic and so on. The once-common comeback ‘D’ye think I came up the Clyde in a banana boat?‘ is a good example. As a Facebook poster put it very well;
“Times change and our awareness of the world and oppression changes and we can find ourselves using phrases that we have lost the original meaning of. Banana boats were fast ships that transported bananas from Africa and the Caribbean etc. and also carried passengers from these places. So “D’ye think I came up the Clyde in a banana boat?” means ”D’ye think A’m a newly arrived migrant from Africa?” Etc. and the connotation was that such migrants were uneducated and unsophisticated etc. and a range of racist stereotypes that we wouldn’t like to invoke today.”