[karajorma]

Was being the operative word. Trying to claim it's offensive now is like trying to equate heck and ****. Yeah it might have been very rude several hundred years ago but now, not so much.

[Kosh]

It still is used in a deragitory way. So, since you are claiming Paki is bad, I'm going to claim that Yank is offensive and racist too, because it clearly is.


Doing a quick google search of this site I've found several instances of the Y word being used, and I demand that all of those people be perma banned for racism immediately.

[Bobboau]

hear! hear!
this anti-american slander has gone on long enough!

[S-99]

One word presented in a non offensive manner started this whole **** storm. And the threat of perma-ban is very over the top. Why not be like "don't say that again". The mere presence of an admin denouncing something in a thread is good enough to get people to stop. If not, then perma-banning seems quite reasonable. This whole thing currently is unreasonable.

How's it going up there in soviet headquarters controlling the newspapers?

[Grizzly]

so, is jude offensive since that's what jews were called during the holocaust?

Isn't Jude still the german word for Jewish people anyway?

[karajorma]

One word presented in a non offensive manner started this whole **** storm. And the threat of perma-ban is very over the top. Why not be like "don't say that again".

In case you didn't notice that's exactly what I did. I even said please.

The mere presence of an admin denouncing something in a thread is good enough to get people to stop. If not, then perma-banning seems quite reasonable.

Again. What I did. I told Iamzack she'd be permabanned if she used it again after the warning when she announced that she didn't want to use the non-racist term because she wanted something that was more of a slur.

So how am I doing anything different from what you said I should do?

It still is used in a deragitory way. So, since you are claiming Paki is bad, I'm going to claim that Yank is offensive and racist too, because it clearly is.

The work paki resulted in several posts saying that it was offensive. Not just from me but from several other members too. I'm pretty sure anyone using terms like nigger, yid, kike, etc would draw similar complaints too. Yet...

Doing a quick google search of this site I've found several instances of the Y word being used

Did you find a large number of board members immediately claiming the term was racist?

So the word is so offensive that even after numerous postings of the term you don't find anyone offended by the term. I guess they must have all died of apoplexy the second they saw the term! I guess we should ban it for being such a racist term that it's killed every single person it offended or made them so mad that they could never ever post again on HLP!

Or more likely you're trying to elevate the word Yank to the same level of racism as words that are quite clearly are very offensive. Most people would consider Yank to be on the same level as Limey or Kraut or Aussie. Sure the word can be used in a derogatory context as a flame but most of the time it simply means an American, is done in jest and is not racist.

 As I said earlier I find it quite hard to believe that there is anyone on this board who equates being called a Yank with being called a nigger. For you to try to claim that they are equivalent is rather sad. Either you're really naive enough to really believe that they are as bad as each other or you're willing to sink to that level in order to win this argument.

[General Battuta]

Look, guys, it's not difficult: if people are offended by it, don't use it. It's not like the word is required to express your thoughts.

I know that Hellstryker has a personal disagreement with Kara, but the fact is that he (Kara) has been incredibly reasonable and patient.

This whole 'Yank' example is silly because Caucasian Americans are the most privileged group on the planet. As Rian pointed out, no one's going to marginalize or oppress them.

You folks need to consider that the fact that even if you don't find a word offensive, that doesn't mean that other people, in other cultural contexts, won't find it offensive.

[Flipside]

You also need to remember that the UK is multi-cultural, and that simply because Kara is English, that doesn't automatically mean he has White Anglo-Saxon roots.

[karajorma]

Thing is that it doesn't matter really what race I am. The fact is that this is a global forum. We're supposed to welcome people of all races. How welcoming is it to come onto a board where people are making racist jokes? Is that really the kind of HLP you people want?

[StarSlayer]

so the cricket team got attacked? 

[tinfoil]

really?

[Kosh]

Thing is that it doesn't matter really what race I am. The fact is that this is a global forum. We're supposed to welcome people of all races. How welcoming is it to come onto a board where people are making racist jokes? Is that really the kind of HLP you people want?

It seems to me that quite a few people don't agree that it is racist. Let's look at the word Pakistan, take out the last 4 letters and you have paki as an abbriviation. Let's look at another word, Britain. Take out the last 3 letters and you get brit. I'm not seeing a difference, especially in the context it was just used. If it was used in a racist context then that would be different, but it wasn't. How is this any different from saying Euro instead of European? It's not, except by hypersensitive people. No one is saying we should let racist retards in.

Look, guys, it's not difficult: if people are offended by it, don't use it. It's not like the word is required to express your thoughts.

That's the issue with political correctness, it is a slippery slope towards censorship and outright thought control. No matter what you will always find at least some people who will be offended by almost anything.

[Rian]

The difference is that one is widely understood to be a racist slur and the others are not.

[karajorma]

It seems to me that quite a few people don't agree that it is racist. Let's look at the word Pakistan, take out the last 4 letters and you have paki as an abbriviation. Let's look at another word, Britain. Take out the last 3 letters and you get brit.

And if Brit was used for every white skinned person regardless of the country they came from wouldn't that make it racist?

It's a pejorative used against anyone with brown skin. I even linked to the wikipedia article on the subject (although it appears that someone noticed and redirected it now).

Paki / Pakki
    (Primarily UK and Canada, sometimes New Zealand and India) a Pakistani or South Asian. Within the UK, the term originated in Northern England, where a large number of South Asians arrived in the 1950s and 1960s. It is usually considered offensive when used by a non-Asian in the UK.

So it is absolutely NOT a shortening of Pakistani. I could make much the same argument you're trying to make that I could call anyone from Niger or Nigeria a Nigger.

Had you bothered to actually look up your facts before getting into this argument then you would have known that you were completely wrong.

[Polpolion]

Everyone: Please stop being so sensitive.

[StarSlayer]

so how bout em' cricket players?

[Nuclear1]

So it is absolutely NOT a shortening of Pakistani. I could make much the same argument you're trying to make that I could call anyone from Niger or Nigeria a Nigger.

Apples and oranges.

Nigger comes from negro, French/Italian/Portuguese for black.

The Paki/Pakistan Brit/Britain dilemma doesn't work with Nigeria, because it doesn't make sense when you take off the last few letters of Nigeria.  Then you get (NAI-GIR) not (NIG-GR).

Frankly, this whole thing is getting blown out of proportion.  Kara did warn iamzack not to use the word, but she only used the word to make a bad joke, which, frankly, wouldn't have been anywhere near funny if she'd used Pakistani. 

Should we be using those words? No.  Should people be getting ultrasensitive and freaking out over it?  No.  The reasons I'm sure a lot of Americans here don't flare up everytime we get called Yank here are because:
A) Busy dealing with the fact a lot of people here tend to see us as backwards neocon rednecks
B) Just don't give a damn, because we're not going to get any sympathy anyway

So yes, Yank is an offensive term, Kara.  Stop saying it isn't.  You trying to justify your argument is like Kosh justifying that Paki isn't a racist term.

[karajorma]

Yank is about as offensive as limey. It's not in the same league as nigger. Stop claiming it is.

[Polpolion]

Yank is about as offensive as limey. It's not in the same league as nigger. Stop claiming it is.

I guess that makes it okay to use.

[Daniel P]

Yank is about as offensive as limey. It's not in the same league as nigger. Stop claiming it is.

Still it offensive. But we should stay away of those words.