I know very few racial slurs, and I don't know the meaning of the majority of the racial slurs that I do know. (I picked most of them up from Monty Python's "Never be Rude to an Arab" song. (Warning: this song contains racial slurs, obviously)) I rarely hear racial slurs in my day-to-day life, of course, but they do come up once in a while in certain irregular social contexts.
Therefore, I have decided to take it a step further, and pretend to be completely ignorant of any and all racial slurs that I might hear or read in a social context. I will give the impression that I've never heard the word before (which in most cases I haven't), ask what it means (because in most cases I don't know), if it's rather far removed from the proper term I will ask about its origins or if it's perhaps in another language, and then I will politely inquire as to in which contexts or situations one might choose to use this word rather than the proper term. If someone explicitly says it's a racial slur, I'll say, "Oh really? I've never heard one before!" (I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've heard them in an actual conversation.)
This approach is extremely close to reality, and is consistent with what reality should be in the 21st century, and it should work with every racial slur, with the possible exception of one that people would expect me to have encountered in literature.
2 comments:
I, from Sault Ste. Marie (what is that about 400-500 miles away - sorry, I don't "do" metric very well) have heard all of these, but I imagine I heard them first from stand-up comics and certain movies.
"nigger" is the infamous "N" word. Despicable term. NEVER use it, EVER!
Usually,it's aimed at black (african) people, but sometimes those of that race use it to denote derision of other minority races. When they aim it at their own race, it can mean derision OR just another term such as "buddy", or "pal".
A "spic" is a term for a Mexican or person of spanish descent(sp?) (although I don't know if someone who comes from Spain is ever referred to as a "spic" - I think not, somehow).
"Wop" is a term that everybody forgets the origin of, and this one I DO know, and it bugs me when people mess it up.
Originally "W.O.P." meant "With Out Papers". People immigrating to North America without proper identification either just after WWI or WWII (that's where *I* get mixed up) were documented as "W.O.P", which was shortened to the spoken word Wop on forms so that the government and folk at the borders knew that they were documented along the way, even though they couldn't prove their origins of birth.
Since then, people of Italian descent seem to be labelled with it eroneously. Now, especially in Sault Ste. Marie it seems, if you're a Wop, you're Italian. Most of the time it is used derisively to mean you are cheap, looking for a deal that is unreasonable, and possibly shady BECAUSE you're Italian. I hate that connotation because it is NOT correct and even Italians use it and will argue with me when I tell them that's not what the acronym means. Most people don't even know it's an ancronym.
A "kraut" is a german. The term came about during and after WWII, because of saurkraut. Really. Not always meant as a derisive term by some people, it's probably considered derisive by german people.
A "polack" is a Polish person, and this is actually the proper term, not a nasty connotation at all, but I think people tend to use it as that. It's like, if you're from Canada, you are a Canadian. If you're from the US, you are an American, and if you are from Poland, you are a Polack, or "Pole".
Actually, Pole is correct, Polack is a kind of pathetic attempt at a slur. I am completely certain about this - my mother's family is Polish, and I spent the better part of the past year studying Polish and integrating into the local Polish community. In my opinion Polack doesn't quite meet slur status (although this may be different for the older generation), but it isn't and cannot be a neutral generic term.
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