Forbidden Subject

[KIPAX]

If the very existence of some new threads is criticised by members of longstanding surely that would discourage people from starting new threads and the website would lose its point.

I hope your not accusing me?

I find this thread very interesting.. I wouldnt be posting otherwise now would I? I mearely asked the point of the questions raised... other people getting upset isnt my fault..

If my answers upset you then dont ask scarey questions

So who are you directing those comments at willow? Is anyone criticising the existance of this thread? if so name and shame.. if not then why on earth mention it...

[WillowTheWhisp]

I'm on holiday.

[KIPAX]

AAAWWWWWW


hehe

[JohnW]

To go back to the first posting on the thread, I'm not American, but I do live in the U.S. so would like to address the "Yank" question. The only people (I suspect) who would object to being called Yanks are the people of the Southern States. I think the word probably originated when the civil war was being fought and the people of the states which comprised the Confederacy call the people from the Northern States "Yanks." Some of the die hards who believe "the south will rise again" still call them Yanks and they do it with a derogatory tone. I think that says a lot, the tone used can indicate something which is meant to insult. Having said that, I think there are words such as the "N" word which are derogatory no matter what tone is used. But these things change all the time. At one stage it was more polite to call negros coloured rather than black. Now that has changed. I think it has come to a ridiculous state of affairs now with the blackboard/chalkboard stupidity. I call it a blackboard because that is what it is. If that offends someone it's too bad as far as I'm concerned, it is not my intention to offend.

[Acrylic-bob]

Speaking personally, I have often thought that if it is ones intention to insult, belittle or offend someone, then it makes very little difference what words one chooses to use. If, for example, I wished to make offensive comments about Space Aliens, I am sure that I would be able to use whatever the currently politically correct adjectives were, in such a way that my intention would be clear from the combination of context and tone of voice.

I had an aunt who would never utter an expletive or swear word, she held them to be vulgar and beneath her. Instead, she substituted other words in place of the expletive she wished to avoid using, substituting the word 'Sugar' for '******' and 'Ruddy' for 'Bloody' etc.etc. Her intention and meaning was always clear and exact, but she felt that the substitution somehow absolved her from the shame of having to resort to the use of the common expletive. In my view this was hypocritical, since it was her intention that her substitution be understood as an expletive, even though it wasn't one.

Doesn't the insistence on the use of politically correct words, force us all to travel the same hypocritical road as my aunt?

[JohnW]

Yes I believe it does. Good point.

[Doug]

It's a very good point

[IMY]

Right after reading all of the threads i have 4got tha original question.....

any way i think this mite help u a little bit if not juz hit me back with another Q..

i myself am a british pakistani born n bred here so i dnt have a problem with people calling me that but when they do say asian i would not say that i do get offended or angry because it iz true i am an asian but would rarther prefer to be called a pakistani az like lettie was describin the word asian can be anyone 4rm india to china..... i dnt think it iz a problem for tha majority of our community and dnt feel tht we would or even do get offended when some1 say we are asian but i do feel we would rarther be called either british pakistani's or pakistani hpe this helped coz it got a bit confusin for my self nr the end

[Ceejache]

Could you tell us if the British Pakistani community finds the abbreviation of Pakistani offensive? It seems that most of us non-Pakistanis are split on this question as to many it is the same as aussie, brit, yank, pom, argie etc and is derived as such. Would you say that most things that some white lefty liberals say cause offence to the 'asian' community do not actually cause offence - such as hot-cross buns, the christmas nativity etc.

I (we?) would be very interested in hearing more from you.

[IMY]

i dnt think or feel that the word pakistani is offensive to the majority of our community but when you do abbreviate the word then i would have to say is offensive and does make most of us feel angry and feel like others are then tryin to be racist..... regarding what some left right liberals have to say part of what they do say does cause discomfort within our community but as we have got used to this type of behaviour over the years some of it we just ignore as we know all they have is their own norrow minded view, which i feel everyone does a right to view their own opionion but it should be to an extent..

[KIPAX]

ceejach.. thats a loaded question expecting one person to answer for the whole community... But as it happens he has answered what everyone with half a brain knows..

even the person who originally used the word to describe asian schoolchildren has dissapeared... just a couple of posters who persist in trying to say it was right for him to use that word..

the dictionary says its offensive... a pakistani tells you its considered offensive. what are you going to use next to argue that its ok to use the word?

the word is offensive.. so much so that it has quite rightly been banned from use on this website... yet still people are arguing that it should be OK to use it...

what do you need... someone with a paper and crayons to spell it out to you ?

can we drop the subject now.... thats just a question before you ahve a heart attack

[Len]

My little bit.

Pom, Pome b***tard, winging Pome, etc are not offensive to us here in Accy. Some one here calls us that we laugh, its funny, what’s wrong with pome? etc. But when you are having it shoved in your face day after day its not funny, it becomes offensive. When you walk round every corner and there is some one saying Pome this, pome that, after a while it gets on your wick, it makes you think. You get sick of hearing the word pom.
You try living in Australia in the 1960’/70’ maybe earlier than that I do not know.
The reason I say this is because our family has had experience of this. In 1967 our family immigrated to Australia, we stayed for 7 years. I was only 10 years old in 1976.
I myself never saw any animosity towards me but my parents did. The last bloke to call my old man a pome b***ard got a cup of tea shoved in his face just because my old man had reached that point. lol
My mother got it the worst, so I am told. She had to have a part time jobs because she was bringing up 3 kids. She said the things people said about pomes had her in tears many times.
I don’t know what its like today in Australia but I bet it’s a lot better than what it was then. I have no doubt that there is still the odd hard liner who will not let it go.
I can only imagine that it must make one feel terrible when every one is calling you this, that and the other day after day and you don’t know why, surly anyone world get fed up of hearing it.

[IMY]

fed up yes but tht still does not make it ok for people to carry on saying it does it though ?????

[Mik Dickinson]

Know all about it.Whenever argueing or explaining something to the Germans and they do not like it the only way that they feel as though they can win an arguement is to remind me that i am English,.Personaly it does not bother me in anyway as when they refer back to insults it means that i have won

[IMY]

good point and very true...