I had a rare encounter with a racist today.

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I'm not from the UK, but I'm pretty sure Paki is a slur. I have never heard Paki used in a positive context at least.

I don't think anyone here would use that word as anything other than an ethnic slur. Though go back a few decades and that would be used by a lot of people to describe the local corner shop.
 
My older brother married a half-asian, half-hawaiin girl (happa) 10 years ago. My dad mentioned how it was his second oriental girlfriend. My brother informed my dad that she didn't like being called Oriental because that's how you describe objects or cuisine.

My dad didn't get offended, attempt to find a reference book to back him up, and then storm off. As a reasonable person on the border of the 21st century he said, "oh, I never knew that." Since then me, my other brothers, my family at large has learned that those from the asian continent don't like being called Orientals.

Was that a racist term my dad used? A little. Was my dad being a little bit racist? A little. There are worse things than being a little racist. One is being a dense, combative moron who never changes their mind even when presented with clear and obvious evidence that a word is a derogatory ethnophaulism.
 
Me: Errrr... Not really. BTW i ain't even mad. I was just saying.
Him: OK Google! Is the word oriental offensive to chinks?
Google: According to Wikipedia, kinda.
Him: It's the word I grew up with. Whatever.
Me: That's the argument racists use when they get caught using the word nigger.
Him: Bullshit. Pip pip you're 'avin' a right piss 'ere ain't cha? Why, if we was back in me old neighborhood the lads and I would 'av given you a good bop o'er the 'ed we would. pip pip
Me: I think I'll be leaving now.

You straight up called him a racist and wonder why he lashed out like that? He was ignorant but it doesn't appear he was purposely trying to offend anyone, whereas you responded by going in swing.

Mineshaft, look at your threads. Freaky Fred listed them, pointing out you have a tendency to overreact, become too emotional and you very quickly jump to insulting people if you feel you're being slighted. Seems like another situation where that happened. You even threw in some stereotypical jabs at British people just for the hell of it. If you're consistently getting into situations where you feel that people are out to get you or attacking you, you might want to consider that it's partly because you're not pulling your weight when it comes to properly communicating and dealing with other people.
 
You straight up called him a racist and wonder why he lashed out like that? He was ignorant but it doesn't appear he was purposely trying to offend anyone, whereas you responded by going in swing.

Mineshaft, look at your threads. Freaky Fred listed them, pointing out you have a tendency to overreact, become too emotional and you very quickly jump to insulting people if you feel you're being slighted. Seems like another situation where that happened. You even threw in some stereotypical jabs at British people just for the hell of it. If you're consistently getting into situations where you feel that people are out to get you or attacking you, you might want to consider that it's partly because you're not pulling your weight when it comes to properly communicating and dealing with other people.

She didn't call him a racist, she informed him that he was using racist logic. She was actually giving him an out, he decided not to take it.

I've probably used oriental, but tend to opt for Asian I suppose when country of origin is unknown. Though I probably try to guess at the country but probably would end up cause more offence with that.

On the subject of "Jap" being offensive, I'm assuming nobody uses "Japs eye" any more?

are you fucking serious
 
You straight up called him a racist and wonder why he lashed out like that? He was ignorant but it doesn't appear he was purposely trying to offend anyone, whereas you responded by going in swing.

Mineshaft, look at your threads. Freaky Fred listed them, pointing out you have a tendency to overreact, become too emotional and you very quickly jump to insulting people if you feel you're being slighted. Seems like another situation where that happened. You even threw in some stereotypical jabs at British people just for the hell of it. If you're consistently getting into situations where you feel that people are out to get you or attacking you, you might want to consider that it's partly because you're not pulling your weight when it comes to properly communicating and dealing with other people.

I think the only thing proven here is that you lack the ability to discern sarcasm from seriousness. Which reminds me, I went to the eye doctor the other day and he told me I had a cataract. I told him no, I drive a Lincoln Continental.
 
I didn't know that so many people didn't know that "oriental" was considered offensive when used to describe people and not things.

I don't think OP over-reacted. When the guy got told it's considered offensive, he should have simply said "Oh, I was not aware" and dropped it. The idea of telling someone who the word is targeted at that the word that offends them doesn't offend them is kind of amusing to me.

I'm black and lived next to a nice family when I was a kid. Their dad still used the word "colored" and as a kid I thought it was antiquated but it never super bothered me because I just figured he meant it in the same way as "black." The word isn't racist, but it's super antiquated. If I wasn't a kid at the time I probably would have brought it up to him.
 
I think the only thing proven here is that you lack the ability to discern sarcasm from seriousness. Which reminds me, I went to the eye doctor the other day and he told me I had a cataract. I told him no, I drive a Lincoln Continental.

I think you just kind of proved my point for me. Rather than responding to me properly, you jumped to attack me.

She didn't call him a racist, she informed him that he was using racist logic. She was actually giving him an out, he decided not to take it.

In that phrasing it's pretty easy to see how someone would take that comment as an insult. Like, very, very easy.
 
I think you just kind of proved my point for me. Rather than responding to me properly, you jumped to attack me.

I'm not responding to you properly because you seem like a big dumb dumb head. Anybody who would read a post like "Anyone who questions my femininity should suck my fat one, you cheap dime store hood." and take it seriously has GOT to be deficient in whatever mental faculty is used to decode sarcasm.

In that phrasing it's pretty easy to see how someone would take that comment as an insult. Like, very, very easy.

And I'm a bitch for thinking it's insulting for someone to argue with me over whether or not their racially ignorant statement is offensive. My comment wasn't meant as a personal attack, it was pointing out a weakness in his argument.
 
Anybody who would read a post like "Anyone who questions my femininity should suck my fat one, you cheap dime store hood." and take it seriously has GOT to be deficient in whatever mental faculty is used to decode sarcasm.

well you followed up with this, so that, plus your history of being extremely hyperbolic and easily outraged over the slightest inconvenience makes it damn near impossible to tell if you're being serious or not with a post like that.

and way to ignore every other thread I linked that supports what I said in my post. You also have a history of conveniently skimming past posts with constructive criticism, but I won't waste my time looking for recent examples, as I'm sure you'll respond with a dismissive "lol i was being sarcastic. check your sarcasm meter" type post, or a "feigned outrage persecution complex" type post
 
well you followed up with this, so that, plus your history of being extremely hyperbolic and easily outraged over the slightest inconvenience makes it damn near impossible to tell if you're being serious or not with a post like that.

Only if you're an android.

and way to ignore every other thread I linked that supports what I said in my post. You also have a history of conveniently skimming past posts with constructive criticism, but I won't waste my time looking for recent examples, as I'm sure you'll respond with a dismissive "lol i was being sarcastic. check your sarcasm meter" type post, or a "feigned outrage persecution complex" type post

You sound like an Aiden.
 
well you followed up with this, so that, plus your history of being extremely hyperbolic and easily outraged over the slightest inconvenience makes it damn near impossible to tell if you're being serious or not with a post like that.

and way to ignore every other thread I linked that supports what I said in my post. You also have a history of conveniently skimming past posts with constructive criticism, but I won't waste my time looking for recent examples, as I'm sure you'll respond with a dismissive "lol i was being sarcastic. check your sarcasm meter" type post, or a "feigned outrage persecution complex" type post

^ Pretty much this.

Mineshaft if multiple people are having trouble understanding what you're saying, does that not mean you could perhaps be communicating just a little better?
 
it's strange how the person says you're oriental when you're pinoy, i've always thought they're for east asians, namely chinese, japanese and koreans
 
It usually starts as a US thing, but soon people in Europe will jump on the badwagon and suddenly be offended too.

Just like how they killed Black Pete with their oversensitivity to fucking words.

Everyone just wants to be cool by getting offended.

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^ Pretty much this.

Mineshaft if multiple people are having trouble understanding what you're saying, does that not mean you could perhaps be communicating just a little better?

This is a place where people start threads like "I have a splinter. What should I do?"

Blaming the OP for others not being able to understand, especially in this situation which is fairly self-explanatory, isn't well grounded
 
I don't think anyone here would use that word as anything other than an ethnic slur. Though go back a few decades and that would be used by a lot of people to describe the local corner shop.

Yes, paki shop was very common when I was younger. I remember my wife pulling me up years ago when I asked if she fancied something from the chinky. I had never realised that was racist. To me it was just a shorthand for food, there wasn't any racist intent behind it. It wasn't as if I was marching into the local takeaway in a klan outfit, shouting, "Ho there chinky, I would like some of your chinky food please. Chop chop now." Anyway, I saw she had a point so I stopped using it.
 
Wait...people didn't know it was offensive? Hell I remember it being brought up when Lady Gaga's Born This Way hit because she used the word.
 
Perhaps he's a British expat...

He's also a British immigrant...

Ah hah. There ya go. He's not going to be used to people taking offence at 'Oriental', just as you might not understand why it's acceptable to shorten 'British' to 'Brit', but you shouldn't shorten 'Pakistani' to 'Paki'.
 
It's kind of interesting looking in from a non-US perspective on this type of thing. It just seems like everyone in the US falls over each other to be offended at any kind of racial description, where countries which are the origin of those races wouldn't be. Most Chinese people I meet here describe themselves as oriental, and it's a word used all over the UK, China and Hong Kong at the very least.

Reminds me of the Japanese-Americans who had a fit over that Hello Kitty Avril Lavigne video being racist.. then it emerged that it had been designed and directed by a Japanese team, and Japanese people loved it.
 
It's kind of interesting looking in from a non-US perspective on this type of thing. It just seems like everyone in the US falls over each other to be offended at any kind of racial description, where countries which are the origin of those races wouldn't be. Most Chinese people I meet here describe themselves as oriental, and it's a word used all over the UK, China and Hong Kong at the very least.

Reminds me of the Japanese-Americans who had a fit over that Hello Kitty Avril Lavigne video being racist.. then it emerged that it had been designed and directed by a Japanese team, and Japanese people loved it.

In America, you're not allowed to leave your house before reporting 3 instances of personal offense to your local SJW office, and then you have to use the 3 seashells
 
I'm not from the UK, but I'm pretty sure Paki is a slur. I have never heard Paki used in a positive context at least.

There's a good bit in Peep Show (I've seriously got Peep Show on the brain recently...) where Mark isn't sure if his new friend is a racist and so he 'tests' it with Jez.

Mark: "I'm just going down the Paki shop, do you want me to get you anything?"

Jez: "What?"

Mark: "And I was thinking of popping down the Chinky later if you fancy..."

Jez: "What are you doing?"

Mark: "Yeah....it's not on that, is it? All that stuff I just said"
 
No one likes to be "lawyered" in their daily life like pulling up definitions and faulting their logic. In this case the person seems more ignorant than racist, and probably doesn't handle confrontations very well. But on the other hand you can't excuse offensive language that offends the room.
 
Why is it looked down upon to look up words in a dictionary? I mean if I don't know the definition of a word with 100% certainty I'd look it up, that's what dictionaries are for.

Even double checked some UK English dictionaries just now for the word oriental to confirm that it is indeed not noted as offensive in British English.
 
Let me get this straight, in the rest of the world conversations go like this.


"Oh, your father was a Glimy-Goob Gop?"

"Actually, thats kind of offensive. Nobody says that anymore."

"Nah, that's bullshit. Your father was a Glimy-Goob Gop."

There's a good bit in Peep Show (I've seriously got Peep Show on the brain recently...) where Mark isn't sure if his new friend is a racist and so he 'tests' it with Jez.

Mark: "I'm just going down the Paki shop, do you want me to get you anything?"

Jez: "What?"

Mark: "And I was thinking of popping down the Chinky later if you fancy..."

Jez: "What are you doing?"

Mark: "Yeah....it's not on that, is it? All that stuff I just said"

Haha, that's where I learned the word Paki and that it was not a cool word to use. But if certain gaffers think they are cooler than Peep Show and want to keep using the words Chinky and Paki, then they are the coolest!
 
I don't understand people who think a word must not be offensive because they've always used it or have never been corrected before. I learned that the word "midget" was offensive several years ago and haven't used it since. it's not hard.
 
I don't understand people who think a word must not be offensive because they've always used it or have never been corrected before. I learned that the word "midget" was offensive several years ago and haven't used it since. it's not hard.

But don't you feel the your vocabulary slowly being eroded away by uppity minorities?
 
Haha, that's where I learned the word Paki and that it was not a cool word to use. But if certain gaffers think they are cooler than Peep Show and want to keep using the words Chinky and Paki, then they are the coolest!

No-one is cooler than Peep Show. No-one.

Full disclosure, I think my friends and I used to say "Paki shop" back in primary school (early-mid 90s), but to be fair we were like 9 years old at the time and even then we knew it was a "naughty" thing to say and wouldn't say it around grown-ups. I'd never say it now, and would certianly have Jez's reaction to someone trying to casually drop it into a conversation.

It's just not on these days. I remember a furore in the news about Prince Harry using the work 'Paki'. And then there was that guy off Strictly Come Dancing.
 
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