I want to offend an Indian - without calling him a Paki..

[Robert_S]

I actually didn't know Paki was an insult until I was in grad school. I mentioned needing to make a run to the packie's, because where I come from, that's short for "package store" or "place to buy booze."

A classmate from London was horrified, until we sorted out the confusion.

It's impossible to know what nickname is offensive and what isn't.

Paki is offensive, but Brit is not and Pole is not. It's all arbitrary, and often manufactured by groups with an agenda that want to control the language.

I thought it was because in the UK, it had been used as an epithet against a group that had been discriminated against long enough that its use took on a tacit approval of the discrimination. Like "nigger" in the US, it is the history of the use more than the textbook etymology that makes it offensive.

[JOZeldenrust]

I actually didn't know Paki was an insult until I was in grad school. I mentioned needing to make a run to the packie's, because where I come from, that's short for "package store" or "place to buy booze."

A classmate from London was horrified, until we sorted out the confusion.

It's impossible to know what nickname is offensive and what isn't.

Paki is offensive, but Brit is not and Pole is not. It's all arbitrary, and often manufactured by groups with an agenda that want to control the language.

The name "Pakistan" is a recently made up name in the first place, and could very easily be deemed offensive. It never existed before it was coined by a Cambridge College student (who also was a Muslim nationalist), and he devised it as followsL P=Punjab, A=Afghania (a name for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), K=Kashmir, S=Sindh. An "i" intruded later to ease pronunciation. The suffix -stan in Persian means "home of" and in Sanskrit means "place". It's an acronym with a suffix.

Or common, neutral terms acquire a pejorative connotation, and groups with an agenda need to come up with a new euphemism. "Negro" used to be a politically correct term in the US, when "nigger" was a common pejorative. Not sure if "nigger" was ever a neutral term, but "negro" was. Nowadays, calling a negro a negro will get you pegged as a bigot, and negroes with an agenda now insist on "African American", or some other euphemism.

But changing the name doesn't remove the underlying bigotry. If those prejudices aren't removed, the new name will over time become a pejorative as well. I think it's more productive to embrace the pejorative term, like the gay community did. "Gay" actually lost (much of) its pejorative connotation.

[Svartalf]

"nigger" WAS used neutrally by a fraction of the population... I see it without connotations in literature spanning between the civil war and WWII... or do you mean Huck Finn really felt that Nigger Joe was really inferior?

[JOZeldenrust]

"nigger" WAS used neutrally by a fraction of the population... I see it without connotations in literature spanning between the civil war and WWII... or do you mean Huck Finn really felt that Nigger Joe was really inferior?

Don't know, never read the Huck Finn books.

[RESiNATE]

Surely, to lower one's intellect to base name-calling is a reflection of your shortcomings, rather than a demonstration of theirs?

My advice: steer clear of the twat and live your life - peace and love, brother, peace and love.

I mean, I thought we were a collection of intellectuals here - rather than waste your time trying to devise a way of offending someone just because they are rude/idiotic/up-their-own-arse/aloof/etc etc, do what I do. I wait....and wait...and then, suddenly a moment or instance will arise that will enable you to expose this person for the dullard that they are using the ammunition that they themselves have loaded into the gun that they now turn upon themselves.

Res...

[mistermack]

Pakki was not originally meant to offend, or taken as offensive. It was originally just like Aussie, or Taffy, just a slang term. We used to buy from the pakki shop, with no idea of any slur. I can even remember Richie Benaud, the famous cricket commentator, saying "the pakkis are claiming a catch" in a cricket match.
( The reason it sticks in my mind is that it was about that time that some people were just beginning to use the word in an offensive manner, so it stuck out a bit ).
It was a time when "skinheads" were a fad among racist groups, and the gutter press were full of headlines about their excesses, including a claimed weekend sport of "pakki bashing".
So it was them, adopting the word, that made the pakkis decide that they found it offensive. If there had been a sport of Aussie bashing, that would probably have become a racist word as well.

If I wanted to insult an indian, I would say that the british empire brought civilisation to India, and that if it wasn't for us, he'd still be living in a mud hut.
That should do it.

[Magicziggy]

Surely, to lower one's intellect to base name-calling is a reflection of your shortcomings, rather than a demonstration of theirs?

My advice: steer clear of the twat and live your life - peace and love, brother, peace and love.

I mean, I thought we were a collection of intellectuals here - rather than waste your time trying to devise a way of offending someone just because they are rude/idiotic/up-their-own-arse/aloof/etc etc, do what I do. I wait....and wait...and then, suddenly a moment or instance will arise that will enable you to expose this person for the dullard that they are using the ammunition that they themselves have loaded into the gun that they now turn upon themselves.

Res...

[stripes4]

Surely, to lower one's intellect to base name-calling is a reflection of your shortcomings, rather than a demonstration of theirs?

My advice: steer clear of the twat and live your life - peace and love, brother, peace and love.

I mean, I thought we were a collection of intellectuals here - rather than waste your time trying to devise a way of offending someone just because they are rude/idiotic/up-their-own-arse/aloof/etc etc, do what I do. I wait....and wait...and then, suddenly a moment or instance will arise that will enable you to expose this person for the dullard that they are using the ammunition that they themselves have loaded into the gun that they now turn upon themselves.

Res...

Agreed. Anyway.... Just call him a honky bus driver. That's pretty cutting