Quote:
Originally Posted by Young Blood  so the paki shop's cool too?
i stick by my statement. |
no, definitely not cool. i don't think i expressed what i meant very well.
even if someone saying "paki shop" doesn't MEAN any harm, it still has the potential to offend. (same as "going for a chinky" - the word itself is problematic, regardless of the intent.)
"wog" seems to be a totally different word down under though, it describes wholly different people for starters (ie southern europeans, not african
x / afro-carribeans)... so it's
believable that it could be used innocuously, if those who it describes weren't troubled by it - the intent of the person using the word becomes all but meaningless, same as other non-racial descriptions (tall/short blonde/brunette, whatever...)
however, the stories and examples that reach us about it
not being offensive seem to be dubious. at any rate, there's plenty of racism there beyond that word. sigh.
and what Esme says is pretty depressing - in a way it's worse than hatred when people of a different race aren't even considered - it's much like with south africans i think, (many of) who see black people living in europe as possibly inferior humans, but those living in their own country as not-even-human vermin
- they literally don't even register as people it seems, and i think in australia that's sort of going on: there's (white) society, and then there's those abbo's who you're uncomfortably reminded of when something intereferes with your ability to pretend they don't exist at all.
