-
Posts
-
I’ve suggested in another thread that there are different degrees of racist belief and racist behaviour: from deep conviction to unconscious, from personal to cultural. from casual/accidental words to malicious physical harm – even murder. Not either/or as these things can co-exist and interplay.
For some people racist language is such a part of their upbringing or environment that they can’t avoid using such language in moments of anger even though they might regret it apologise afterwards.
For others, it’s more important to hang on to racist habits, symbols or relationships than to remove them because they offend someone who they would normally describe as an important friend.
Most areas of human behaviour are complex and I think the key lies in having the will to learn and move on from outdated racist claptrap and the jargon that goes with it.
I asked a friend of a friend why he used the word paki.
He said its an abbreviation of Pakistani.
He explained it’s no different from calling British people Brits or Australian people Aussies or American people yanks or Japanese people Japs.
What do you think?
@panda12 wrote:
I asked a friend of a friend why he used the word paki.
He said its an abbreviation of Pakistani.
He explained it’s no different from calling British people Brits or Australian people Aussies or American people yanks or Japanese people Japs.
What do you think?
My initial thoughts are that your friend is either very silly or at the very least very naive. I’m surmising that your friend is either British or Australian, and in which case I’m hard pushed to see how he can’t understand the cultural context of that word here or in Australia. He might suggest that it is just a contraction of the word Pakistani, but it has been used to define certain Asian people (regardless of whether they are from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh etc) as being ‘other’, i.e. not British. It’s a term that has been used to imply that they are inferior. Generally speaking, you can’t make a similar correlation with the terms like Brit or Aussie (not too sure about Jap).
If the goal is not to be offensive then I personally don’t find this very difficult. For me it’s simply a case of identifying the terms that the people you want to describe find unacceptable and refrain from saying them. We all make mistakes sometimes, naturally, but a quick apology and willingness to adapt should more than enable us to communicate effectively with each other.
@panda12 wrote:
I asked a friend of a friend why he used the word paki.
He said its an abbreviation of Pakistani.
He explained it’s no different from calling British people Brits or Australian people Aussies or American people yanks or Japanese people Japs.
What do you think?
It’s all in the context. It’s like our recent thread on golliwogs. Nice doll – potentially dodgy word.
Any word can be used as an insult and it’s usually pretty clear when it is. A black guy might refer to his best bud, who is also black, as a “bad assed nigga” and be complementary, whilst a white cop using the same word when undertaking a stop and search might clearly be using it as an insult. Likewise the Australians call themselves Aussies, but you could easily use it as a term of abuse if you wanted to.
Because we all know that the term paki is most frequently used as a term of abuse, people should really be aware that using the word is likely to cause offence. Having said that where I grew up there were people who used it to describe an Asian owned shop but at the same time thought that using it to refer to a person was deeply insulting.
Personally I wouldn’t use the word.
@momentaryloss wrote:
. . . . . golliwogs. Nice doll – potentially dodgy word. . . . .
I’d say dodgy, freaky looking doll, definitely dodgy word.
@panda12 wrote:
I asked a friend of a friend why he used the word paki.
He said its an abbreviation of Pakistani.
He explained it’s no different from calling British people Brits or Australian people Aussies or American people yanks or Japanese people Japs.
What do you think?
Anyone with an ounce of sense knows it is offensive for obvious reasons….you can argue till you are blue in the face about the Brit comparison
I am British so why do I get called a Paki and not a Brit? Because Brit isn’t offensive…doesn’t have the same negative impact as Paki
When I am told to go back to where I came from….I say “ok I will make my way back to Dartford shortly”
When I am called a Paki I ask the abuser to go back to school and pay attention to Geography lessons more@kent f OBE wrote:
@panda12 wrote:
I asked a friend of a friend why he used the word paki.
He said its an abbreviation of Pakistani.
He explained it’s no different from calling British people Brits or Australian people Aussies or American people yanks or Japanese people Japs.
What do you think?
Anyone with an ounce of sense knows it is offensive for obvious reasons….you can argue till you are blue in the face about the Brit comparison
I am British so why do I get called a Paki and not a Brit? Because Brit isn’t offensive…doesn’t have the same negative impact as Paki
When I am told to go back to where I came from….I say “ok I will make my way back to Dartford shortly”
When I am called a Paki I ask the abuser to go back to school and pay attention to Geography lessons moreAsian, fine, Female fine. British, well that’s fine too. But Dartford? Dartford!….. never darken my jc door with your presence again.
I agree. Like i said, it would be difficult to conflate the two terms in most circumstances. I would always question the motives of someone who would want to use terms that are widely considered offensive.
@rusty trawler wrote:
Asian, fine, Female fine. British, well that’s fine too. But Dartford? Dartford!….. never darken my jc door with your presence again.
I agree. Like i said, it would be difficult to conflate the two terms in most circumstances. I would always question the motives of someone who would want to use terms that are widely considered offensive.
Oi oi Saveloy…….stop dissing da Dartford Possy!!
I agree with you regarding the friend of a friend. Suffice to say she doesn’t have anything more to do with him and his ignorance.
@jen_jen wrote:
I realise that this thread has the potential to get heated but I’m kind of hoping that we’re all adult enough to have a sensible discussion
optimism is a wonderful quality.
Could someone please explain to me why the Society of Black Lawyers AREN’T scoring a huge own goal, while creating enormous damage to the whole racism debate ?
pretty please, with sugar on top . . . . . .??
Get involved in this discussion! Log in or register now to have your say!