Shortening names

[LeedsRhinos]

This is a genuine question and is not intented to offend or stir things up. I have been listening to various media over the past few weeks and noticed people were referred to by shortened names of their country of origin e.g. Brits, Swedes , Danes, Ozzies Fins etc and then it dawned on me that if you did the same to someone from Pakistan you could be prosecuted. Why is this?

[Gef]

Surely it's all down to context and intent.

Many years ago (and I can't remember the origin of the conversation) I asekd a pupil of mine what his dad did. He replied, quite honestly, that "he runs the p@ki shop in (such and such) road."

The boy's father was from Pakistan although the boy was born here.

The boy did not see this as an offensive term (in that context) otherwise he would not have used it.

I think we live in a sad PC world.

[sp1814]

Don't get me wrong - I grew up in the 70s and clearly remember my mother using the term 'the p*ki-man shop' meaning, 'the local newsagents'.

The term disappeared in my household when I became a teenager and took my mum to task on the subject. I told her that we just couldn't (as a family of West Indian origin) use a term which the NF used. It was just way too ironic for words.

[joko]

i think the term pakki was, for a long time, when they first arrived here, largely prefixed with "fakkin pakki" or "pakkis go home" or some such, by white people, so it became an insult over time, even though it is just a shortened version.

n1gger is spelt and sort of pronounced n1ggA by black people so it's acceptable for them to use - it is their way of reclaiming the word for themselves and thereby demolishing its power as an offensive term.


i have heard "pakki's" call themselves that in bradford and think nothning of it - perhaps it is there way of reclaiming the word as their own again

[Le Chat]

Gef - remember what happened to the Pope when you talk about interpretation!

[anotheoldgit]

WaldoMcFroog "They" I refer you to the previous sentence "certain minority groups" I thought this was the best way to put it in case I offended anyone, but no I guess I still did.
And if you think that it is laughable and paranoid to hold the view that free speach in this country is daily being controlled, by one group or another you must be very naive. And it is not only in this country, ask the Pope!