Racial Epithet Assessment

NOW SMACK HER UP.

I don't see why it's so awful -- it's emasculating with its ending, much like "frenchie". Possibly the hard "k" makes it more of an epithet?

But having lived in the UK, I can attest it is the equivalent of dropping an N bomb over there.

-have you met wilfred?
-no, what's he look like
-[describes numerous things about wilfred except that he's black -- one of about eight black people at the university]
-dunno, still not sure...

Instead of totally lambasting her online (which would be fun, easy, and FULL of hilarity), suffice it to say that this woman is full of contradictions, inconsistancies, and blatantly obnoxiousness, all stemming from severe self-confidence issues. This is the first thing that she has done that really offended me, although a good friend of mine who I also work with has had some serious problems with this person's oversight on projects. So glad my tenure there will cease next May.

I mean, in the US immigration from the subcontinent is obviously less pronounced, and I think the perception here just lumps everyone together as "Indian" -- except for whatever Sikhs and Muslims stupid people like to pretend are Arabs. Is it just sheer numbers and cultural significance that would have the UK differentiating this? But then if so why would a racial slur for Pakistan be way more visible than some potential racial slur for India or Bangladesh? (Is it religion, or is the UK just slightly more cool with Indians, or what?)

oh lord. this made me feel so uncomfortable when i lived in sydney! despite repeated assurances from aussie friends, it never came comfortably out of my mouth.

in fact, even though my best aussie mates were technically wogs - one an ABC (Australian Born Chinese) and one a second-gen Italian - and cheerfully used the term to justify all manner of little idiosyncracies ("why do we have a massive sack of rice in the kitchen? it's a wog thing!" etc) I never felt quite right saying it.

I guess it's like the N bomb in that if you *are* a wog (Italian, Greek, Turkish, er, some other nationalities too), you can use it, but if you're not...boom.

paki, i think, is exactly the same in the uk. i think it's virtually impossible for a white person to use it in any way that won't sound at the very least pejorative, and more likely just plain offensive.

I cannot deny that Americans are really low on specific details about a place like Pakistan. People know India and have plenty of touristic images of it, but I think plenty of Americans' mental maps kinda have a big blob called "Arabs" and then a big blob called "India," and then run into total confusion in the area between -- Persians become "Arabs," Afghanistan becomes "Arab," and Pakistan becomes, well, Indian or Arab depending on how they're dressed and what they're doing. And forget about any sense of history; I've been in lit-course discussions of Midnight's Children where people thought Rushdie made up partition.

I dont like being called "white", but that shit isnt going to change any time soon.

i was guilty of the 'using Arab as catch-all' thing the other day on the 'trick or treaters in blackface' thread re that spoof National Geographic cover thing. it wasn't really a conscious thing, i just wanted to highlight how putting a lighter skin tone on doesn't seem to cause as much ire as when it's darker, but that's another issue.

I was involved in a conversation with a militant black guy one time and it went about like this:

"Why do all you white people call us black? We arent black, we're african americans."

The fact that he called me "white" but thought it was offensive for someone to call him "black" was ironic. I dont know. I just dont like racial double standards and how people like to use the issue of race when it best suits them. But then again, Im a white male, and have no opinion.

One thing that I won't ever miss: Whiny people in the early nineties who insisted that I should use "People of Color" to describe non-whites. It was like living inside that Bloom County cartoon all day long.

Possibly "Paki" rolls off the anglo-saxon tongue in a more satisfyingly offensive

Almost all words roll off the anglo-saxon tongue in a more offensive way. ;)

So didn't want to start a whole new thread but also didn't know where to post this.

Started a new job recently where I'm working with young ppl most of whom are latino and/or black. Pretty sure this week was the first time I've ever been called "my nigga". Was also asked today if I know that I'm white. No shit, really?

Should clarify that the person was asking to make sure that I was aware of the fact that this was going to be an issue with a lot of the kids. I am aware that it is going to be an issue with some of them but it was a strange question to be asked even though, in the end, I was glad she opened up that line of discussion.

start all interactions with "i'm white btw"

lolll

I would save time and just wear a t-shirt every day that reads that.

Right now I'm doing a lot of shadowing of the other ppl in my position so last night I went along with one of my co-workers to visit one of his kids at the kid's house. While we were outside talking to him, his sister came out and yelled hi to my co-worker and then asked "Hey, where's the white girl?" He was like, "Oh D is back at the office but look - we got a new white girl" and then introduced me. It was pretty funny.

Was driving two kids home the other night and they were trying to get me to say nigga just to hear how it would sound etc. Got into a discussion about why it's not a racist term when used in a certain way and they told me that's it's not spelled nigga but nikka. They said this like this was the most obv thing ever but I'd never heard that before? Is this a thing that I just didn't know about? Nikka? Really? I had no idea.

Completely unrelated but spent about an hour schooling a 20 yr old kid on old school rap/hip hop last night. He had never heard of Tribe or Public Enemy. O_O Was really into it though and now wants me to burn him a CD. ha.