lawn jockey

A derogatory term for an African-American. A traditional feature of a Southern front yard was a statue of a diminutive black man painted in the colors of horseracing silks. His hand was outstretched, as if to hitch a horse's reins (the hand often ended in a ring for just that purpose). As an expression connoting subservience in the sense of “slave” or “mascot,” “lawn jockey” deserved to be consigned to the linguistic scrap heap.