How offensive is the word 'pikey'?

[Haggisdj]

From the BBC web site How offensive is the word 'pikey'?

[Gromit]

I don't like it because it is southern. Estuary English. You can keep it, as well as chav.

[Dr-Legend]

Some might think it nicer than calling someone a thieving gypo barsteward.

Personally i cant say how offensive it is.




IS PIKEY NICER THAN GYPO ?

[joggerjayne]

I think anyone who answered to the name "pikey" would not be a delicate, sensitive soul...

... and probably wouldn't give a stuff what anyone called them

[Booldawg]

cue 'nice honest romany folk' vs 'theiving, non tax paying low-lifes' debate. This is a 3 pager if there ever was one.....

[Dr-Legend]

Im sure that a 3 page debate getting nowhere and merely stealing time from peoples lives could quite easily happen.

But


Wouldnt it be nicer if folk just posted an answer and didnt get so het up ?




ITS NICE TO BE NICE ISNT IT ?

[4getmenot]

from what I hear most gypsies find the word did as in short for didocoy the worst name to be called

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didicoy

[Dr-Legend]

Why cant folk be nicer to gy`pseys?

[4getmenot]

Some I speak to some I dont. Some are scum, some arent.

[Oneeyedvic]

Lets stop giving 'power' to words.

Some of you may be aware that I am of Asian origin. I have certainly been called p@ki before.

Does this bother me? No, not really, in the same way that some one might call me fat, a b@stard, an idiot or whatever.

If someone is going to insult you, they are going to insult you - the word is irrelevant.

Why bother getting het up with someone who is so inarticulate or stupid that the only argument that they can give is to insult you?

[Gromit]

Martin Brundle did not use the word in an offensive way. He did not intend offense, it was a description. He said...

"There are some pikeys there at turn 10 putting tarmac down"

Like Delboy referring to "the P@ki shop", it is a descriptive remark not an offensive one.

[kev1]

all gypo's or pikeys or whatever you want to call them are thieving scum, they all make their living from theft, not one in history has ever contributed anything to society apart from theft and rape of our women. How should we address this garbage?

Perhaps "sir or madam?

[andy-hughes]

I understand that the term is simply an abreviation of 'turnpike' which refered to a road traveller.

I was not aware that it was especially ofensive.

Perhaps Mr Brundle's unguarded observation was considered a little ill-advised, but hardly enough to make a major debate.

[New Judge]

Unfortunately, andy in today�s climate the worst thing you can do is offend someone by calling them by a politically unacceptable name. Cut their hands off, stab them or even murder them and you may not be castigated. Call them a name from the �prescribed list� and that�s it.

I heard Martin Brundle�s remark on Sunday and I immediately thought �Well, that�s it Martin. Any thought you may have had about transferring to the BBC when they take over F1 next year has gone out of the window in that brief half-second.�

The fact is that many Romany folk (or travellers, or whatever you�d like to call them) would be proud to have their tarmac laying skills associated with such a prestigious event. I�ve met a number of them and can tell you that they are not the least bit offended by the term, any more than Jewish people are offended by the term �****�. It is the context that offends, not the term itself.

But unfortunately the people most sensitive to these terms are the Islington chattering classes who run the BBC and the Guardian. They haven�t a clue what offends those concerned and what does not, but that does not matter.

[New Judge]

Seems my name for Jewish people is on AB's "prescribed list" list as well. For those not so sensitive it rhymes with "Kids".

[Lucy Thomas]

Yes, even on here we are censored by those who presume to know what offends other people.

Considering the 5hite that ITV turns out (F1 being one of the exceptions) you would think that they had better uses of their time than investigating someone who made a totally innocent remark.

By the way, the word 'pikey' is very often used in my neck of the woods to refer to someone who is tight or mean with money. It has no gypsy connection whatsoever.

[Kromovaracun]

Gotta say I'm with OEV on this. I've been called 'faggot', '*******', 'gayboy' and all the rest but they are essentially just generic insults.

That's how I think it should be anyway. Unfortunately, even though the world would be a much better place if everything was how I wanted, there's that cursed gap between my mind and reality.

I've got a traveller friend who absolutely will not hear the word 'Pikey' uttered around him. If anyone does say it, he gets very upset. I've never really got into the habit of using it, but even so I tend to just avoid using it.

[Kromovaracun]

The edited word above should start with 'poo' (tee hee! Poo!) and end in 'fter' (try saying that 10 times really fast...) .

[China Doll]

It's not something I'd like to be called. But then there's a lot of names that I wouldn't like to be called that also wouldn't be an accurate discription of me.

I've been called names in the past (who hasn't?!) and they've upset me, not so I go home and spend all night bleating about it but enough for me to think 'ouch, that's unnecessary.' And depending on who was doing the name calling, a little hurt too. I've never had the level of abuse that some of my friends have received due to their colour or sexual orientation so in that respect I count myself lucky.

If you've gone as far as name calling then the argument is probably lost anyway. Or at the very least a lost cause.

[flip_flop]

Pikey in my area means chav - in fact, we used the term pikey long before the word chav was common parlance to describe our scum underclass.

[anotheoldgit]

Why bother getting het up with someone who is so inarticulate or stupid that the only argument that they can give is to insult you?

Good advice oneeyedvic, I really must learn to take this on board, the next time you insult me.