White Racial Slurs....

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

Racism is bad people, can we all agree? Now that we have that out of the way, alot of racial epithets sound just viscerally funny to me, for some inexplicable reason. I know that each of them is offensive to someone, but can I tell you that not a single slang for white boy sounds offensive to me. Let's look at a few....

 

 

"Honkey" enjoyed popularity in the seventies, particularly in blacksploitation films. But I don't even know what the fuck it means. Does it mean whites have cars with horns? Does it mean we're like geese, which are sometimes white? I don't get it, so it's hard to take offense.

 

"Cracker" seemed slightly offensive (I don't know why) when I thought it referred to an actual cracker that you might enjoy with wine and cheese. But then I found out that it was short for "whip-cracker", and while I don't like being compared to a slave driver, I am quite sure that that isn't what a black man means when he calls me that. It makes no sense to me, and so it still doesn't seem so offensive.

 

"WASP" is just stupid because it doesn't apply to me.

 

Perhaps without whites suffering as a minority for an extended period of time at the hands of a majority non-white population, then no slur for whites could ever have the sting of the others. I don't know, I just know that I never get pissed when I hear things like "white men can't jump" or "white men can't dance " or "white people have no souls". Shit, I don't even believe in souls.

[Dra_Mucd_Uha]

I never understood how they were supposed to be offensive either.

 

I was once called "White Lightning"... to this day I am debating whether it was a compliment or an insult...

 

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

Actually, sadly it just occured to me, the raacial epithet that whites seem the most sensitive to is "wigger", because it likens them to a black person

 

It's never the "wigger" who is offended by the word because they identify with it and like the comparison to an african-american. It's the bile with which the white people spit this word which makes it so venomous. Again, it seems like it takes a white person to come up with an offensive racial slur, even when it refers to themselves.

 

I never understood how they were supposed to be offensive either.

 

I was once called "White Lightning"... to this day I am debating whether it was a compliment or an insult...

 

 

Any man that dubbed me "white lightning" I probably buy a beer.

[RedPillAddict]

better yet...why is it becoming more and more ok for other races to use slurs or stereotypes?

 

 

for example:

 

I watched "Date Movie" last night.

The black guy says "you gotta put aside your insecurities ...it will all work out."

The white girl says "do you really believe that?"

The black guy says "no, but my white customers do."

 

in all honesty now, if it had been the other way around wouldnt people be raising hell?

I can just imagine all the white people in the theatre giggling at that part. Why is it "cute" when its making fun of whites, but "racist" when its making fun of blacks?

[Kurari]

Racism is bad people, can we all agree? Now that we have that out of the way, alot of racial epithets sound just viscerally funny to me, for some inexplicable reason. I know that each of them is offensive to someone, but can I tell you that not a single slang for white boy sounds offensive to me. Let's look at a few....

 

 

"Honkey" enjoyed popularity in the seventies, particularly in blacksploitation films. But I don't even know what the fuck it means. Does it mean whites have cars with horns? Does it mean we're like geese, which are sometimes white? I don't get it, so it's hard to take offense.

 

"Cracker" seemed slightly offensive (I don't know why) when I thought it referred to an actual cracker that you might enjoy with wine and cheese. But then I found out that it was short for "whip-cracker", and while I don't like being compared to a slave driver, I am quite sure that that isn't what a black man means when he calls me that. It makes no sense to me, and so it still doesn't seem so offensive.

 

"WASP" is just stupid because it doesn't apply to me.

 

Perhaps without whites suffering as a minority for an extended period of time at the hands of a majority non-white population, then no slur for whites could ever have the sting of the others. I don't know, I just know that I never get pissed when I hear things like "white men can't jump" or "white men can't dance " or "white people have no souls". Shit, I don't even believe in souls.

 

 

I have the same reaction. Especially with the term "cracker." For the longest time, I wondered what was so offensive about being compared to a saltine.

 

I learned "Cracker" is also a term for a brand of peaches from Georgia, so it's also essentially calling someone a "Redneck."

 

The only one I take offense to is "White Trash" and it's really more the "Trash" part that gets to me.

 

I also like to point out the moment somebody tells me that I can't understand what it's like to come from a race that was enslaved, that the Romans conquered and took "my people" back as slaves as well. Hadrian's Wall, anyone?

 

Or how about the fact that I'm Scandinavian, Irish, Scottish, Germanic, and English. At one point, I would have been looked upon as comming from filthy stock and shunned and persecuted for it. But hey, at least I'm still "white," right?

 

Or how about we get Biblical? Egyptians enslaving Jews and vice versa. No "white" people there! Hell, to this DAY there are is slavery going on in Africa with black people enslaving black people.

 

Slavery and racial profiling is bad, mmmkay?

[Asimov]

better yet...why is it becoming more and more ok for other races to use slurs or stereotypes?

 

 

for example:

 

I watched "Date Movie" last night.

The black guy says "you gotta put aside your insecurities ...it will all work out."

The white girl says "do you really believe that?"

The black guy says "no, but my white customers do."

 

in all honesty now, if it had been the other way around wouldnt people be raising hell?

I can just imagine all the white people in the theatre giggling at that part. Why is it "cute" when its making fun of whites, but "racist" when its making fun of blacks?

 

Because white people aren't uptight and angry all the time.

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

better yet...why is it becoming more and more ok for other races to use slurs or stereotypes?

 

 

for example:

 

I watched "Date Movie" last night.

The black guy says "you gotta put aside your insecurities ...it will all work out."

The white girl says "do you really believe that?"

The black guy says "no, but my white customers do."

 

in all honesty now, if it had been the other way around wouldnt people be raising hell?

I can just imagine all the white people in the theatre giggling at that part. Why is it "cute" when its making fun of whites, but "racist" when its making fun of blacks?

 

 

It's history. Black people have reason to get nervous when they hear racist sentiments because not too long ago ...well we all know. It's insecurity. White people can scarcely imagine how a few negative white sentiments could ever really end up oppressing them. Blacks and othe minoities know the playing field isn't entirely level. It's this disparity that allows whites to laugh off racist sentiments, while others are vigilantly seeking it out to weed it out, because it has truly affected their lives.

 

I'm not saying this is entirely fair or rational, but it seems totally natural.

[Seth C Triggs]

It's really a power thing. Language just has a lot of power. What I think will fortunately happen over time is that many of these slurs will fall into disuse, especially as the populations of the world start to intermix and people look more and more alike.

 

Certain statements, for example, are "OK" with the right power differential. For example, it's "OK" for a group with less power to talk about a group with more power. (The whole relative power thing is an interminable argument and really there is no consensus)

 

Meanwhile, it's also "OK" for members of a group to criticize other members of their group, but not OK for a member of a more powerful group to do that. Power is tricky business.

 

Myself I never really "got" most ethnic/racial slurs, even those against my race. Like "coon." That one never got me.

 

What I've found is that generally there's a lot more "bite" in ethnic slurs rather than racial slurs, depending on who the target is. For example I think the ethnic slurs against Polish people probably have more bite than a slur for Caucasians in general.

 

-Seth

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

"White Trash" is a cheap racial epithet. The only thing that's white specific about it is the all too obvious use of the word white. which implies that this in't really a racial epithet but a generic and weak insult for the uncreative with which you could insult any race by substituting the word white for chartruse or mauve.

[Seth C Triggs]

"White Trash" is a cheap racial epithet. The only thing that's white specific about it is the all too obvious use of the word white. which implies that this in't really a racial epithet but a generic and weak insult for the uncreative with which you could insult any race by substituting the word white for chartruse or mauve.

 

That's pretty interesting. I never thought of it that way.

 

Actually, where I live, the insult "Black trash" was used a few times. However, from several contexts, I would think that a lot of people consider "black trash" to be an oxymoronic statement, at least that's what a couple people said to me once.

 

The idea of "white trash," as I've seen it, implies that the target is not up to the standards of "white" people, or that they act in a "poor" manner. There's probably more purpose-built slurs that do the job better though.

 

-Seth

[pandora]

Keen observation, Seth... I agree.

 

Although, unfortunately, being black in an urban center often means one is associated with/seen as belonging to a "culture" of gangs, drugs, violence, lazy-ass-ness, welfare, working the sytem, etc... etc... I think that's why there's still so much racism against ethnic minorities of darker skin in the US... it is because it is associated with an "ethnicity" of a certain urban culture instead of just a skin color... okay, now I'm rambling. In the case of latinos and blacks, the skin color becomes the ethnicity-- the culture.

 

Of course, it's not true... but I hope you see what I'm sayin.

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

Like "coon." That one never got me.

 

Right, they mostly make no sense and make me laugh. Like "slope". I guess that's another way to say "slant-eye", but shit if it doesn't make me laugh when I hear it. Why would a reference to the shape of your eye be offensive? And furthermore, why is it offensive to shorten japanese to jap? If someone says I'm from the USA I don't get pissed because they shortened the term.

 

I dunno, so much of it tickles me because we do live in a world for which, at least in america, no particular race is really all that oppressed, at least not in any systematic deliberate way. I envision a world in which racism will someday be a ridiculous relic of our culture, so these silly words are funny to me, even now.

[willybilly30]

White slurs sound funny to me honkey makes me think of honk honk and cracker makes me think of saltines.

 

I don't understand black slurs why do black people call each other the n-word and use the same racist steriotypes they hate. A friend of mine at work amazes the hell out of me she is black and says stuff like 'that black girl is so lazy" "she is acting all black"

I personally hate the N-word because two black friends were using it in middle school joking around then I said it and was raced up the hallway into a classroom luckily full of people. Our friendship ended.

Oviously black people can call each other the nword but white people can't.

Also I was born in a white family in Alabama so the words pretty common but I was never told you better not say it in front of a black person even joking around.

[pandora]

"White Trash" is a cheap racial epithet. The only thing that's white specific about it is the all too obvious use of the word white. which implies that this in't really a racial epithet but a generic and weak insult for the uncreative with which you could insult any race by substituting the word white for chartruse or mauve.

 

That's pretty interesting. I never thought of it that way.

 

Actually, where I live, the insult "Black trash" was used a few times. However, from several contexts, I would think that a lot of people consider "black trash" to be an oxymoronic statement, at least that's what a couple people said to me once.

 

The idea of "white trash," as I've seen it, implies that the target is not up to the standards of "white" people, or that they act in a "poor" manner. There's probably more purpose-built slurs that do the job better though.

 

-Seth

 

Shiva, where do you live?

 

Where I live, "white trash" is an offensive slur if said by high society types. Seth's right... it's given to white people who are generally poor, have five broken down cars in their yard, have no social etiquette or class, the stereotype goes on and on. People who are "white trash" are slightly more urbanized "hicks."

 

Of course, where I live, many people take pride in those terms. They aren't exactly used as insults by anyone who could be called one... much like "nigger" is owned by blacks.

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

"White Trash" is a cheap racial epithet. The only thing that's white specific about it is the all too obvious use of the word white. which implies that this in't really a racial epithet but a generic and weak insult for the uncreative with which you could insult any race by substituting the word white for chartruse or mauve.

 

That's pretty interesting. I never thought of it that way.

 

Actually, where I live, the insult "Black trash" was used a few times. However, from several contexts, I would think that a lot of people consider "black trash" to be an oxymoronic statement, at least that's what a couple people said to me once.

 

The idea of "white trash," as I've seen it, implies that the target is not up to the standards of "white" people, or that they act in a "poor" manner. There's probably more purpose-built slurs that do the job better though.

 

-Seth

 

I see what you mean. It all comes down to the fact that, in this society, white people only question their racial identity in relation to their oppression of other races. Blacks see it from the other side, so nearly ever word that is expressed as a racial epithet becomes offensive, whereas whites don't have any idea what it's like to be racially oppressed. No reference to their race carries with it an indictment that makes sense to them.

 

 

"White Trash" is a cheap racial epithet. The only thing that's white specific about it is the all too obvious use of the word white. which implies that this in't really a racial epithet but a generic and weak insult for the uncreative with which you could insult any race by substituting the word white for chartruse or mauve.

 

That's pretty interesting. I never thought of it that way.

 

Actually, where I live, the insult "Black trash" was used a few times. However, from several contexts, I would think that a lot of people consider "black trash" to be an oxymoronic statement, at least that's what a couple people said to me once.

 

The idea of "white trash," as I've seen it, implies that the target is not up to the standards of "white" people, or that they act in a "poor" manner. There's probably more purpose-built slurs that do the job better though.

 

-Seth

 

Shiva, where do you live?

 

Where I live, "white trash" is an offensive slur if said by high society types. Seth's right... it's given to white people who are generally poor, have five broken down cars in their yard, have no social etiquette or class, the stereotype goes on and on. People who are "white trash" are slightly more urbanized "hicks."

 

Of course, where I live, many people take pride in those terms. They aren't exactly used as insults by anyone who could be called one... much like "nigger" is owned by blacks.

 

 

I live in Nashville, Tn, and if someone called me white trash, i'd probably be concerned that fisticuffs would soon ensue, but I wouldn't be shaken to the core by the word.

 

Actually, where I live, the insult "Black trash" was used a few times.

 

The only time I've ever heard the term "black trash" used was by whites trying to justify their use of the word nigger by saying that there is white trash and black trash and the blacks we naturally call niggers. Duh! It's obviously not an equitable situation.

[Seth C Triggs]

Keen observation, Seth... I agree.

 

Although, unfortunately, being black in an urban center often means one is associated with/seen as belonging to a "culture" of gangs, drugs, violence, lazy-ass-ness, welfare, working the sytem, etc... etc... I think that's why there's still so much racism against ethnic minorities of darker skin in the US... it is because it is associated with an "ethnicity" of a certain urban culture instead of just a skin color... okay, now I'm rambling. In the case of latinos and blacks, the skin color becomes the ethnicity-- the culture.

 

Of course, it's not true... but I hope you see what I'm sayin.

 

This is one of the reasons I hate race. I don't want to be different in that way. I don't want people to cross the street when they see me. I don't want a woman to look down at me when I'm on an escalator and scurry up to the 'safety' of her boyfriend. I don't want to be followed in a store despite having no police record. I don't want to be harrassed by police just for going for a leisurely stroll in a nice neighborhood. I wish I didn't have to be a race. Every friggin' day I feel like I'm automatically unwelcome, and I bloody live in the USA. I'm an American. Yet I feel like I'm not wanted. I don't know exactly why, but that's how I feel every day.

 

I feel like I have to try so much harder all the time to prove I am someone useful. That is probably part of the reason I'm working on my Ph.D., though part of it is that I want to teach. Yet I feel like it's not going to matter; I'm still going to be hassled, I'm still going to be thought of as trash. It gets really heavy after a while.

 

But I just pick myself up and keep moving.

 

-Seth

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

Keen observation, Seth... I agree.

 

Although, unfortunately, being black in an urban center often means one is associated with/seen as belonging to a "culture" of gangs, drugs, violence, lazy-ass-ness, welfare, working the sytem, etc... etc... I think that's why there's still so much racism against ethnic minorities of darker skin in the US... it is because it is associated with an "ethnicity" of a certain urban culture instead of just a skin color... okay, now I'm rambling. In the case of latinos and blacks, the skin color becomes the ethnicity-- the culture.

 

Of course, it's not true... but I hope you see what I'm sayin.

 

This is one of the reasons I hate race. I don't want to be different in that way. I don't want people to cross the street when they see me. I don't want a woman to look down at me when I'm on an escalator and scurry up to the 'safety' of her boyfriend. I don't want to be followed in a store despite having no police record. I don't want to be harrassed by police just for going for a leisurely stroll in a nice neighborhood. I wish I didn't have to be a race. Every friggin' day I feel like I'm automatically unwelcome, and I bloody live in the USA. I'm an American. Yet I feel like I'm not wanted. I don't know exactly why, but that's how I feel every day.

 

I feel like I have to try so much harder all the time to prove I am someone useful. That is probably part of the reason I'm working on my Ph.D., though part of it is that I want to teach. Yet I feel like it's not going to matter; I'm still going to be hassled, I'm still going to be thought of as trash. It gets really heavy after a while.

 

But I just pick myself up and keep moving.

 

-Seth

 

 

It's context, man. There's a famous Richard Pryor quote about his trip to africa where he says something akin to "Look around, do you see any niggers? Why not? Because there aren't any"

 

The only thing that gives race any value is cultural context. If africa's countries had been the first to develop the bomb, few whites would enjoy the security they feel is their birthright. The sensitive person rails in their dreams against this world's injustices, but the dreamer knows that, although the present state was unavaoidable and necessary, it must at some point lead to a world for which these concerns will be nothing more than a relic. If the abolishing of race through the continued interbreeding of the world's human population is the only way to make this a reality, I say bring it on. If it is possible to preserve our differences and still move forward, I'm ever more for that.

[Dhampir]

To my mind, blacks use the N word, and black stereotypes as a sole recourse. Kinda like how a kid will get beat up, but in lieu of being able to fight will summon the will to stand there and take the beating like a buddhist monk, or how a person getting teased will after months of the same just turn to his tormentors and laugh, because they can really do nothing else.

 

Y'can't fight back, y'can't force them to stop, the boot on the neck is only slowly being removed, so what do you do? Y'take the whip and beat yourself with it, so that the person using it will think it is less effective than it really is, and perhaps it actually does become less effective.

[HuaiDan]

for example:

 

I watched "Date Movie" last night.

The black guy says "you gotta put aside your insecurities ...it will all work out."

The white girl says "do you really believe that?"

The black guy says "no, but my white customers do."

I don't get it.

 

 

Is ther something in the movie that gives meaning to this, or should it be offensive all by itself?

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

for example:

 

I watched "Date Movie" last night.

The black guy says "you gotta put aside your insecurities ...it will all work out."

The white girl says "do you really believe that?"

The black guy says "no, but my white customers do."

I don't get it.

 

 

 

I get it. It's a reference to the fact that america seems to be set up for the success of whites, so the tribulations of life must have a lesser affct on them. They must all have a wealthy grandma waiting to die so they can live high on the hog, or whatever. It isn't entirely unture.

[pandora]

Keen observation, Seth... I agree.

 

Although, unfortunately, being black in an urban center often means one is associated with/seen as belonging to a "culture" of gangs, drugs, violence, lazy-ass-ness, welfare, working the sytem, etc... etc... I think that's why there's still so much racism against ethnic minorities of darker skin in the US... it is because it is associated with an "ethnicity" of a certain urban culture instead of just a skin color... okay, now I'm rambling. In the case of latinos and blacks, the skin color becomes the ethnicity-- the culture.

 

Of course, it's not true... but I hope you see what I'm sayin.

 

This is one of the reasons I hate race. I don't want to be different in that way. I don't want people to cross the street when they see me. I don't want a woman to look down at me when I'm on an escalator and scurry up to the 'safety' of her boyfriend. I don't want to be followed in a store despite having no police record. I don't want to be harrassed by police just for going for a leisurely stroll in a nice neighborhood. I wish I didn't have to be a race. Every friggin' day I feel like I'm automatically unwelcome, and I bloody live in the USA. I'm an American. Yet I feel like I'm not wanted. I don't know exactly why, but that's how I feel every day.

 

I feel like I have to try so much harder all the time to prove I am someone useful. That is probably part of the reason I'm working on my Ph.D., though part of it is that I want to teach. Yet I feel like it's not going to matter; I'm still going to be hassled, I'm still going to be thought of as trash. It gets really heavy after a while.

 

But I just pick myself up and keep moving.

 

-Seth

 

We have a long way to go... for sure.

 

I saw a series on some cable channel called Black and White.. they put white people in black makeup and black people in white makeup and threw them into the "other" side. It was quite interesting, I expected a lot of the crap they showed, but in other ways it was surprising... like how quickly the white people (the women, mainly) empathized (truly!) with blacks, and how the apathetic black male teenager just didn't get why race mattered or why his parents were trying to teach him about black history.

[HuaiDan]

I'm white, but I feel like an angry black man much of the time. In my heart there's a little 50 Cent.

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

Keen observation, Seth... I agree.

 

Although, unfortunately, being black in an urban center often means one is associated with/seen as belonging to a "culture" of gangs, drugs, violence, lazy-ass-ness, welfare, working the sytem, etc... etc... I think that's why there's still so much racism against ethnic minorities of darker skin in the US... it is because it is associated with an "ethnicity" of a certain urban culture instead of just a skin color... okay, now I'm rambling. In the case of latinos and blacks, the skin color becomes the ethnicity-- the culture.

 

Of course, it's not true... but I hope you see what I'm sayin.

 

This is one of the reasons I hate race. I don't want to be different in that way. I don't want people to cross the street when they see me. I don't want a woman to look down at me when I'm on an escalator and scurry up to the 'safety' of her boyfriend. I don't want to be followed in a store despite having no police record. I don't want to be harrassed by police just for going for a leisurely stroll in a nice neighborhood. I wish I didn't have to be a race. Every friggin' day I feel like I'm automatically unwelcome, and I bloody live in the USA. I'm an American. Yet I feel like I'm not wanted. I don't know exactly why, but that's how I feel every day.

 

I feel like I have to try so much harder all the time to prove I am someone useful. That is probably part of the reason I'm working on my Ph.D., though part of it is that I want to teach. Yet I feel like it's not going to matter; I'm still going to be hassled, I'm still going to be thought of as trash. It gets really heavy after a while.

 

But I just pick myself up and keep moving.

 

-Seth

 

We have a long way to go... for sure.

 

I saw a series on some cable channel called Black and White.. they put white people in black makeup and black people in white makeup and threw them into the "other" side. It was quite interesting, I expected a lot of the crap they showed, but in other ways it was surprising... like how quickly the white people (the women, mainly) empathized (truly!) with blacks, and how the apathetic black male teenager just didn't get why race mattered or why his parents were trying to teach him about black history.

 

How would that play out if they had a white person go into black neighborhoods and use their services? I know that television show is far from getting made.

 

 

I'm white, but I feel like an angry black man much of the time. In my heart there's a little 50 Cent.

 

 

In all of us is a crack dealer that survived multiple gunshot wounds. That's what makes us "cool".

[pandora]

Actaully, that show had days where the white family would not put on their makeup, and they walked into the sector of town where the Nation of Islam and back to Africa movement folks hang out, and yeah... it got really tense, especially towards the black family that was walking with them! More pointed stares, more direct body language threats were given to the black guy that escorted them than to the white lady and guy.

 

And I lived in a 90% black area for two years... so I used a lot of businesses in that area of town. I got odd stares sometimes, but no odder than the stares I get from white people who don't mind their own business. Most of the time, I just got hit on and my ass slapped.

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

I can't hate. Fiddy got himself out of the ghetto by capitolising on the white fascination with the gangsta culture. More power to him, but I can't help but think that the black community would have preferred another George Washington Carver or Mya Angelou, or even another Jesse Jackson. Fiddy is a success story that does little for blacks.