"Say the word Jap near me and i'll knock yer teeth in"

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[–]NastyWetSmear 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

I've never understood the hatred towards shortening your country of origin, race or religion. Jap, Paki, Aussie, Brit, Scot, Fin, Jew. It's just the short version of the primary word: Japanese, Pakistani, Australian, British, Scottish, Finnish, Jewish.

I could understand words that aren't the shortening of that, like Coon, Chink, Yank, Spud, Spic. They might contain part of the root word, but they aren't, so they have a more definitive origin outside simply "Your country, but short" and separate meaning, like: "I don't like Mexicans, so I'm going to call you a Spic instead, which is considered a slur and is clearly being used in that manner."

Maybe it's because, in Australia, we shorten everything without malice.

"G'day, Dick. Ya'right?"
"Good day, Richard. Is everything alright?"

If we're calling you "Jap", it's not because we hate the Japanese so much that we refuse to use the "Anese" section of their name, it's because it's faster to say "Jap" and sounds more friendly, familiar and close. Like calling us "Aussies" rather than spending the extra seconds to say "Tralians".

[–]Countach_3D 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

Yes, all words are contextually dependent and can be interpreted radically differently in other countries or cultures.

Fanny is another word that's taken entirely differently outside the U.S., for example.

Jap is considered a racial slur in North America due to the deeply negative connotation it acquired during WWII.

Outside the U.S. it is benign. I doubt a Japanese expat in Sydney would have any problem with it.

I don't like the Japanese, so I'm going to call you a Jap, which is clearly being used as a slur

You've hit the nail on the head.

Paki is almost the exact opposite case - them's definitely "fighting words" in much of the English-speaking world but due to the relatively paltry Pakistani-American population few Americans realize there's anything offensive about it.

[–]wylanderuk 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

The word in its self was not one, it was just shorthand for Pakistani or a description for a shop owned by Pakistanis (or Indians TBFH) and back when I was a kid those ships were generally a cross between a newsagent and grocery shop so it was a useful descriptor to announce when you were going out to say "I am going to the pakis" so anybody else that wanted anything could ask for it.

Some spectacular tattooed fuckwit shouting "paki bastard" is some how much more wrong than the same spectacular tattooed fuckwit shouting "paddy/jock bastard".

Personally the change was no skin off my nose, but if you look at it in a certain light its the beginning of crybullies and policing of language.

[–]ClassroomPast6178 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I really like Jerry Sadowitz and he often begins his routine with a listing of every “offensive” word he can think of. And it hilarious. As was Daniel Kitson’s “Paki shop” stand up routine, blisteringly funny. Unlike the time I saw Jackie Mason and he did an entire routine mocking Indian accents - I’ve never been more disappointed in a comedy gig in my life and I’ve seen Bridget Christie (Stewart Lee’s wife) die on stage.

Context matters. Screaming it in my face on the street is completely different from you casually saying “I’m going to the paki shop” or a comedian saying it on stage.

A child saying it in my class would be asked not to, but if they screamed it at someone would be disciplined.

[–]wylanderuk 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Aye I agree entirely with context matters, but it was the start of the entire "context no longer matters" line of thinking at least from what I remember.

But I find explaining something "is x" instead of screaming it is much more likely to work or at the very least even if there is disagreement on the point.

A example from fucking years ago me and a couple of my friends used to refer to Al Leong as the "disposable gook" due to his many and varied roles as a dead man walking henchman in action movies (my fave being him being taken out by a ice cream cone in the last action hero) and long after we had came up with it I said it in front of a Chinese co-worker who said that is pretty racist. He explained his point (which did not take long and was on point) and he was right, also he accepted it was in no way meant to be derogatory and it ended up being a discussion of our fave movies with that actor in it.

Oh aye and just in passing I have pulled people for using "paki" in context of being a racist fuckhead. But that was because they were being a racist cunt.