Awareness of racial slurs outside of the US

[luiz]

The N-word is known by Brazilians who speak English (which is a minority of the population, though a fast growing one). Others are not known at all except for people who have lived in the US or are extremely exposed to its culture.

The American obsession with race, blood purity and other related lunacies are very well known, though.

As for our own racial slurs, there is one for blacks which is considered very offensive and can get you in serious legal trouble. The others are more regional and considered less offensive (or not offensive), though they're all falling out of use.

As a curiois anedocte, rather ironically the offensive word for blacks in Brazil is pretty much the same (and has the same origin) as the word for native-born whites in Spanish South America, which is not offensive at all.

 

[inthesomeday]

I don't think we have the same kind of racial slur-powerful terms in Greece. Mostly because up until the 90s there were virtually no foreigners to speak of in the country (then there was an influx from the balkans, primarily albanians but also bulgarians and romanians). Still, there is no slur against (eg) albanians, despite a bad rep. There isn't even a slur against turks.
The analogous for 'n word' does exist, but it is obviously a corruption of the term for "arab", and it isn't used; last time i heard it was when i was in elementary school.

Only slur-like term i can think of is for "gypsy". It is used to mean very poor/dirty/uneducated etc. It more commonly is used against non-Roma, though (ie Roma are not called that, since they are called 'Tsigganoi'; from the original byzantine term Athigganos, which means 'not to be touched' and may be tied to the original indian name of the Untouchables). I suppose that one (the gypsy one) is a slur.

I was quite curious about this especially. I was wondering if “g*psy” was considered a very powerful slur outside of the US, because it’s starting to be frowned upon here a lot more than it used to be.

My perception of Germany:


Not very, other than a few select ones like the n-word.


I don't think people here know much about it. Many people think that the US are a very divided country that houses many racists, and that blacks are treated exceptionally bad there, but the "petty details" hardly ever reach our mainstream media. Coverage of American Issues is rather superficial in general, aside from things that cover political figures.


We do have lots of racial slurs, but they're not commonly used in public and don't hold "power" like many Americans ascribe to the "n-word". Since the refugee crisis, there has been an increased usage of some of those words on social media ("sand n-words" as a slang against Muslims from that area is used here, too), and some politicians (from the AfD) have gotten into trouble for it.

Kids are edgelords of course, so when you live in a low-income area and travel to work by bus during the time when the kids go to school like I do, you're going to hear all sorts of race-based insults being thrown around, and that includes a lot of creative insults against "native" Germans.

To slurs like those tend to be based around color, or religion, or dress, or something else?

USH?

Whoops... meant to say US.

My personal favorite is "basketball-Americans"

Yes, it's mostly similar in Finland. Racial slurs are almost completely absent from any mainstream discourse, and anyone who dares to use such words is instantly targeted by an outrage mob. Many politicians and prominent people can lose their careers for using racial slurs. I guess the only difference is that Finland has a much richer vocabulary of racial slurs than the US does (or maybe I'm simply ignorant of all the various racial slurs Americans use?)

We have so many for every non-white race under the sun.

 

[Hehehe]

Your choice of words is revealing, as usual.

Please, by all means, do elaborate

We have so many for every non-white race under the sun.

Hmm, maybe the US really does have more slurs owing to their larger population and diversity. But we got quite a few of them too

 

[EgonSpengler]

I heard an interview with David Oyelowo a while back, and he mentioned that his father moved the family from Nigeria to England because of the civil war, and then moved them back to Nigeria because of the racism (and then ultimately moved them back to the UK because of violence and corruption). I don't know what language is a part of the experience for English people of non-White ethnicity. I know that the English version of "Oreo" is "coconut" - I remember hearing Colin Salmon talking about being called that. Oyelowo spoke about the situation in England today mainly in terms of its effect on his professional life, that he moved to Los Angeles because he couldn't get the roles he wanted in the UK, and he felt that it was because he was black. That was an eyebrow-raiser for me, a black man moving to the US to better cope with racism.

 

[Kyriakos]

Afaik in Britain the term 'coconut' means a non-white person who is VERY white on the inside (like cononuts are non-white on the outside, but white on the inside).
Something similar (to a degree) to an "uncle Tom".

Eg Sajid the tory tool:

 

[Lexicus]

I heard an interview with David Oyelowo a while back, and he mentioned that his father moved the family from Nigeria to England because of the civil war, and then moved them back to Nigeria because of the racism (and then ultimately moved them back to the UK because of violence and corruption).

Story of the last five decades on planet Earth, eh?

 

[Hehehe]

I heard an interview with David Oyelowo a while back, and he mentioned that his father moved the family from Nigeria to England because of the civil war, and then moved them back to Nigeria because of the racism (and then ultimately moved them back to the UK because of violence and corruption)

Maybe if Nigerians weren't so violent and corrupt, then maybe people wouldn't have such negative attitudes about them

 

[EgonSpengler]

Afaik in Britain the term 'coconut' means a non-white person who is VERY white on the inside (like cononuts are non-white on the outside, but white on the inside).
Something similar (to a degree) to an "uncle Tom".

Right. "House [negro]" is another one. It's a classist term as much as a racist one, but of course race and class are hard to pull apart. iirc, it was illegal in this country to teach a slave to read; after the Civil War some states required literacy tests to cast a vote; and today there are black men who feel self-conscious reading books because it's "too white." You don't need to be a genius to connect those dots. All this [stuff] is connected, and in many cases it isn't accidental. Every time a black person calls another black person a coconut or an Oreo, Nathan Bedford Forrest pumps his fist in celebration.

Story of the last five decades on planet Earth, eh?

It seems that way, some days, doesn't it? Oyelowo's family has been able to move around because they're wealthy. I like to tell myself that it's 3 steps forward and 2 steps back, and not the other way around.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Am disappointed.
What about Finns?

I must admit, if there was one it didn't come up enough for me to remember it.

 

[NovaKart]

In the show Deadwood they called the Scandinavian immigrants squareheads, which I’ve never heard anywhere else. They called the Chinese celestials and I have heard they used to call Chinese that a really long time ago. I don’t know whether or not it was meant to be insulting.

I’ve heard it’s really insulting to call a little person a midget but for a long time I didn’t know that and it’s what I heard everyone say.

 

[Patine]

I don't think we have the same kind of racial slur-powerful terms in Greece. Mostly because up until the 90s there were virtually no foreigners to speak of in the country (then there was an influx from the balkans, primarily albanians but also bulgarians and romanians). Still, there is no slur against (eg) albanians, despite a bad rep. There isn't even a slur against turks.
The analogous for 'n word' does exist, but it is obviously a corruption of the term for "arab", and it isn't used; last time i heard it was when i was in elementary school.

Only slur-like term i can think of is for "gypsy". It is used to mean very poor/dirty/uneducated etc. It more commonly is used against non-Roma, though (ie Roma are not called that, since they are called 'Tsigganoi'; from the original byzantine term Athigganos, which means 'not to be touched' and may be tied to the original indian name of the Untouchables). I suppose that one (the gypsy one) is a slur.

But the ANCIENT Greeks called EVERYONE in the world outside Greco-Hellenic civilizations "barbar," the route of the modern English words "barbaric" and "barbarian."

 

[Broken_Erika]

But the ANCIENT Greeks called EVERYONE in the world outside Greco-Hellenic civilizations "barbar," the route of the modern English words "barbaric" and "barbarian."

And the greatest Barbar of all!

 

[Kyriakos]

^Isn't he called Babar?

The rhino in the show was more byzantine.

 

[Broken_Erika]

^Isn't he called Babar?

The rhino in the show was more byzantine.

Close enough.
(Where do you think his family got their wealth from?)

 

[Kyriakos]

Some heretic crusade

 

[Cheetah]

My dad taught me appropriately offensive words for people from every nation in Europe, plus more generic use words for people who's ancestry traces to other continents. I am proud to say that I did not pass this education on to my own children.

I'd love to hear an offensive term for Norwegians. Feel free to PM me if you'd like.

Norway is deeply into the Anglosphere culture, so to some extent we know most of the common terms you use.

We say 'neger' instead of 'negro' though, and '******' never really made any headway, except among kids who want to sound like gangsta-rappers or somesuch. We also have 'paki' and use it much like in the UK, and I think the etymology is parallel to what happened in the UK, instead of us borrowing the term. Then I've heard a few people sometimes say 'slant eyes' or 'guling' (yellow-er).

We also have -- had, to be more exact -- a thing of looking down on 'northerners' for a long time. Creating situations not very different from how the Irish were treated in England in the past. But this has mostly disappeared now.

And then there's racism against the Sami. But then people mostly just say 'Sami' and add whatever expletive they like to it. Same with Poles, which is usually a stand-in for all Eastern Europeans, except Romanians, which most people understand is Gypsies when it gets on the news.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Does anyone here know the racist origins of terms like "the grandfather clause," or to be "jipped" (which was originally, and sometimes still is, spelt differently)

gypped is a reference to gypsies. Similar to the use of "jew" as a verb as in:

"That guy jewed me out of five dollars"

 

[luiz]

gypped is a reference to gypsies. Similar to the use of "jew" as a verb as in:

"That guy jewed me out of five dollars"

Learned about that one reading James Ellroy novels. The guy is like an encyclopedia of slurs.

 

[Arwon]

Here in the US we have such an illustrious culture of racial slurs for almost every race imaginable and they are almost constantly present in social or political discourse. How people use them, who should be allowed or not allowed to use them, what they mean, all sorts of things.

How well-known are American racial slurs abroad? How well known is the discourse in the US surrounding our own racial slurs? Countries with their own racial slurs, is the discourse very similar?

We know all your slur terms, are obviously less familiar with the intricacies of every stereotype. Your culture is everywhere to the extent the internet is run along the lines set down by your cultural and legal norms even though they're foreign for us.

For instance, perfectly legal sex work in Europe or Australia has a hard time remaining active and visible on social media and other internet platforms run from America, which threatens the livelihood of people when they have the accounts they run their work through are shut down. And this very site prohibits the discussion of the consumption of certain substances that are permitted for personal consumption medicinally, and attract the equivalent of a parking fine otherwise, where I live.

On the other hand there's a lot of imagery of personal use and possession and glorification of firearms, behaviour that would be either illegal or at least outside the bounds of good taste here.

This has flow on effects into things like moderation practices, where groups on Facebook or elsewhere set up around racism, fascism etc that simply aren't recognisable to American based moderators, don't get treated correctly (blocked/banned/deleted) according to their own content policies. If there's a racist meme group on Facebook targeting indigenous Australians for instance, first you have to hope some bored dude at Facebook understands the context.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

We know all your slur terms, are obviously less familiar with the intricacies of every stereotype. Your culture is everywhere to the extent the internet is run along the lines set down by your cultural and legal norms even though they're foreign for us.

For instance, perfectly legal sex work in Europe or Australia has a hard time remaining active and visible on social media and other internet platforms run from America, which threatens the livelihood of people when they have the accounts they run their work through are shut down. And this very site prohibits the discussion of the consumption of certain substances that are permitted for personal consumption medicinally, and attract the equivalent of a parking fine otherwise, where I live.

On the other hand there's a lot of imagery of personal use and possession and glorification of firearms, behaviour that would be either illegal or at least outside the bounds of good taste here.

This has flow on effects into things like moderation practices, where groups on Facebook or elsewhere set up around racism, fascism etc that simply aren't recognisable to American based moderators, don't get treated correctly (blocked/banned/deleted) according to their own content policies. If there's a racist meme group on Facebook targeting indigenous Australians for instance, first you have to hope some bored dude at Facebook understands the context.

Yep. It's like YouTube refuses to remove videos that are obviously hate speech and anyone posting that stuff on any Canadian-owned site would be in serious legal trouble.