Question

Jane wrote:

Good point Draculina…..Pakistani shortened to Paki is insulting and racist….Shortening British to Brit isnt…Scottish to Scot….American to Yank…Someone from NZ to Kiwi. Mind you some Aussies call us poms for some strange reason. Never did see the insult in that myself. Seems to me it all boils down to skin colour in the end. For the record I dont give two stuffs what anyone calls me. Water off a ducks back and all that. Defendant thanks for the info about Golly. Never knew that. Interesting. Cheers.

Don’t forget french to froggy cheese eating surrender monkey

1 member liked this post.

Jane

Actually Defendant get your facts right! The doll was created by Florence Kate Upton an American- born engish cartoonist . Enid Blyton born 25 years after Florence Upton chose to depict golliwogs in a number of her stories as rude and untrustworthy or stupid. Other authors took a similar tack. The name “golliwog” came to be used as a degrading term for anyone who wasn’t white-skinned, and new origins were suggested for the word. Florence Upton despaired, ‘I am frightened when I read the fearsome etymology some deep, dark minds can see in his name and she was right!  This ubiquitous reclamation of the golliwog is neither fun nor nostalgic. It is less an ironic nod to our racist past than a stark reminder of our racist present. Some people are stupid as well as racist

draculina wrote:

kent f OBE wrote:

even if they are not in the slightest bit racist…will never understand that feeling of being made to feel like a piece of dirt on their shoe just because of their colour

A quick follow up point, do you think that racist abuse is comparable to homophobic abuse? I definitely understand what that is like. I have actually recieved ‘racist’ comments before, but I just laughed at them. Mostly because they were made under the assumption that I was Mexican, which i’m not.

You make some good points, drac. I’m with Ms K and Sophia here, but I’m glad you’re at jc, because my strong disagreements with you are met with argument (not always relevant argument, imho) rather than shrill personal abuse.

I think homophobic is equated with racist.

The reason being that an individual is being attacked merely for belonging to a marginalised, minority social group, not because s/he has done anything individually wrong or inviting abuse.

You as a lesbian, or Ms K as Asian-British, may be tough enough to disregard the insult, to see the insulting one as stupid/vicious, but not everyone can, and sometimes people are murdered. That’s why they are hate-crimes. It’s not because any one murder is worse than any other; they’re obviously not. But just as there are crimes of passion, so there are hate-crimes. Someone detests Polish immigrants so much that they kill one of them in Harlow. They don’t kill him by accident, or because they know him, or because he as a person offended them, but because he was Polish. The same goes for black people, or gays.

Racism isn’t the same when you talk about Brits in Britain, or even when you’re denounced as a Mexican (you wear a bandolier like Pancho Villa? andere, andere, andere) for a number of reasons – in the USA to denounce you as a Mexican could well be racist. But I don’t want to get in the way of a very good discussion, so will say why later, depending on how the argument develops.

kent f OBE wrote:

I’ve said enough times on these boards why paki is offensive and used differently to say the word Brit or scot……I’m not going to repeat it again…..and for the ones who cant see the difference I will put my neck on the line and say you are being bloody minded and deliberately pedantic with your play in words to admit you don’t know the difference……you don’t know how paki Is used negatively? My @rse

There is no difference, other than the intention with which it is used.

Oh and the Krauts of course