Posted on 01/11/2009 4:59:19 PM PST by GOPGuide
Our little Paki friend... Ahmed.” Oh boy. I've heard that one before. But not as recently as the friends I spoke to yesterday in Oldham, a place where racial tensions spilled into riots not long ago. Apparently, they still get called Paki all the time. By whom? “Oh, just little kids on the street. What can you do? They're only children.” Prince Harry is not a child. He is unlucky only in that, unlike most young men, his worst moments end up splashed across the front page of newspapers.
That he thought it acceptable to use the word Paki to refer to a Pakistani colleague represents a pathetic failure in his upbringing. Someone, somewhere along the line - a wise grandparent perhaps - should have told him to cut it out. These days the word Paki is used only by those who don't know any better, rather than by those who should. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission thinks that we need an inquiry into the Prince's behaviour. What would we discover? That the third in line to the throne is a bit of an idiot? That is an open-and-shut case. But we should have an inquiry about the word Paki.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Ouch. That's going to leave a mark...
As I recall, Britain’s “bitter racial history” involved ending the slave trade, whereas Arabs “bitter racial history” includes slavery up to this day.
But of course, this immigrant fifth columnist has been taught that only whites can have a “bitter racial history.”
Maybe he was talking about Dumbo !
I hope that before I die when some third worlder is insulted the one they are complaininng about says, “that is what you are!”
If you don't like it, go the hell home.
The words that a society bans are largely accients of history.
“Nigger”, for example, is similar to a dozen other words in French, Italian, Spanish and Portugese all descended from the latin adjective “niger” - which meant the color black.
But because it was used for a race that was enslaved and lynched and denied basic rights, it has horrible associations.
I wonder if Paki is really in that category though. Surely the Brits had bad names for various Indian groups but Paki sounds pretty generic.
I thought Paki was only offensive if you called an Indian person a Paki. My bad.
Paki...Brit. There. I just said both. They’ll probably be the same thing before long, anyway. ;-)
Seems all sort of silly to this poster.
I’m ok with whatever.
But don’t even think about calling me an “Amero”.
Just saying.
I would beg to differ, or should I say "add to", in why the word is demeaning. What is most demeaning is that the utterance of the word is the fastest way to say one is less than another, a lower class, something sub-human, something not worth bothering with. No other word has been so summed up as being so degrading as this one word. (And for that reason, I am always dumbfounded how easily it comes off the tongue of so many blacks when joking with each other ...).
I am wondering if this same use of the term 'paki' in UK is why it is determined to be racist speach over there.
Once more, without the wierd characters.
Without the burden of modern political correctness, the proper term for a person from Pakistan would be “Pak”. (And still is in India.) Just as the term for a person from Afghanistan is “Afghan”. The suffix “istan” means “ the place of” in Farsi. Thus Pakistan is “the place of the Paks”; and “Pakistani” would be something like: “a person from the place of the Paks”. That doesn’t mean that “Paki” isn’t derogatory (by usage) — although it could probably be considered a term of endearment for army buddies.
So, Is calling someone from the USA = Yank racist?
Is calling someone from Australia = Aussie racist?
Is calling someone from Canada = Canuck racist?
Is calling someone from Sweden = Swede racist?
etc.
Excellent point. The history of British colonialism in Africa is simultaneously the history of the abolition of the African slave trade.
“So, Is calling someone from the USA = Yank racist?”
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Well actually.
Back in the day ... I do believe the Brits intended it to be so. Something about Yankee Doodle.
We just didn’t worry about whether it was, or not. :)
Made a song about it.
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