Eyetie, In Eastenders, Whats The Problem...

[trt]

What the hell is wrong with it being said?

And why is, Poms, Yanks, Paddy's, Jocks etc, OK?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4110772/It-disgusting-racist-comment-EastEnders-fans-outraged-Mick-Carter-uses-derogatory-slur-Italians.html

[naomi24]

ummmm, //It's not that, Naomi, it's the fact that anyone of colour were referred to as Pakis. //

So what? I've been mistaken for an American - and a Scandinavian. What's to be offended about?

SnookerPlayer,, but if it wasn't deemed 'offensive' it wouldn't be shouted in the street and daubed on walls. If people weren't so quick to take offence the offenders would have no weapon.

[naomi24]

Sorry SnookerPlayer, that last comment should have been addressed to andy-hughes.

[andy-hughes]

SnookerPlayer - //Is this an infringement of the "so" rule ?


So it' not much use asking people from Pakistan to use this word as an 'affectionate' label for themselves, when it used to be shouted at them in the street and daubed on walls. //

No - you have to start your post with the word 'So', and then contradict the post to which you are replying, or have completely misunderstood it, and reply to something completely different - often what you wish the post had said so you can argue about it.

For example -

OP - I think Donald Trump will make a lousy president because he has no political experience.

Response - So you think Donald Trump will make a lousy president even though he has built a billion-dollar business empire? You know nothing.

Get the idea?

[-Talbot-]

I'm often mistaken for a German ... until I open my trap.

And if I'm being spoken about I often get called Der englander

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - //SnookerPlayer,, but if it wasn't deemed 'offensive' it wouldn't be shouted in the street and daubed on walls. If people weren't so quick to take offence the offenders would have no weapon. //

That's a classic chicken-and-egg scenario isn't it?

Do you seriously think people started yelling out the epithet in question, and daubing in on walls, and then people thought Hmmm, that's a good way to insult foreigners, I'll start shouting that word at them in the street.

Somehow I doubt it.

[naomi24]

Oooo Talbot! How very dare they!

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - //So what? I've been mistaken for an American - and a Scandinavian. What's to be offended about? //

Nothing - because neither of those ethnicities attract hostility from the countries in which they live as majorities - why would they, it is minorities that attract bigotry.

If you were called a P*k* when you come from Malaysia, or you were called Ch*n'y when you were actually born in Tokyo, then you might have a different view.

When I go to Montreal, I am sometimes mistaken for as Australian, and of course, I take no offence, but that's because people are not using their confusion to racially insult me - or, I suspect, you when it happens.

[NoMercy]

My ex and I often got referred to as "Las Inglesas" by one particular person we knew well in Spain. When I started referring to her and her husband as "Las Venezolanas" they got the friggin message.

[naomi24]

andy-hughes, //That's a classic chicken-and-egg scenario isn't it? //

No, it isn't. For example, if someone calls a black man 'A black ***', the chances are he isn't going to be offended by the word '***', but by the word 'black'. If however, he were to respond by saying, "Yes, I am black", where does that leave the aggressor? Stymied. His intended insult hasn't achieved the reaction he expected, so there's no point in him repeating the exercise.

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - unfortunately, most people of a minority background don't possess your ice-cool detachment when a racist is yelling in their face.

Rather than simply taking out the ethnic part of the abuse, they will insist on going for the simpler less cerebral option - just being intimidated and made to feel alien and excluded and second-class.

Maybe you could set up some lessoms?

[Mamyalynne]

I'm getting a headache trying to work out why if you see someone drop their keys you have to think on your feet an decide their nationality/ethnicity before shouting 'Yoo Hoo' (or our Northern equivalent which doesn't lend itself well to the keyboard).

[naomi24]

andy-hughes, I won’t indulge you by reacting to your sarcasm. Ethnic minorities are not unique. People of all colours, races, and backgrounds are picked on and denigrated for all sorts of reasons. Learning to deal with it effectively is simple common sense. Give the perpetrator the reaction he wants and he's succeeded. I’m at a loss to understand why anyone indulges them.

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - Might that be because you are white and British? I would certainly guess so - but please correct me if I am wrong.

What I am sure about, is that you have no more been on the end of serious violent verbal or physical racism than I have, so that allows you to enjoy your somewhat detached and lofty assumptions about how people should deal with it.

[naomi24]

andy-hughes, you clearly didn’t understand what I said. Let me put it more plainly. Racism is only one of many forms of abuse – but that isn’t the point. I’ll say again, in the absence of reaction the perpetrator fails in his endeavours.

[Answerprancer]

We have Scottish, Welsh and Irish people on AB.
Let us know. What do you call the English?

People I know from oop north sometimes use the term "soft southern sausage-jockeys" ...which makes me laff :-)