Make no mistake, systemic racism is real. White privilege and systematic teaching of white supremacy are real. You simply have to decide whether you are part of the problem or part of the solution. SP
Nigger
This is
actually one of my favorite words to explain, because it’s much
deeper than most people realize. This is not only a linguistic
anomaly, but also a contextual metaphor. Centuries prior to any
connection to the Latin word “Negro”, the root word “Nig”
spawned a host of words and phrases with no racist connotation at
all. In the early American wilderness of the 18th century “Niggur”
was interchangeable with Bloke, Billie, Fellow or Dude and referred
to any ethnicity. Billy Shakespeare wrote in the play Macbeth; “be
not a niggard of thy speech”, which is now translated as “stingy”
but more accurately it means arrested or constrained. It was not
until the 19th century that Anglos mistakenly wrote and pronounced
Negro as “Nigro” thereby using “Nigra” or “nigger” for
short. In colloquial use however, the original meaning still applies.
“My Nigga” (with or without the hard “R”) is a term of
affection and fraternity. Who more would you trust than someone who
constrains their actions or speech on your behalf? For the record, I
don’t believe in exclusive colloquial terms. You can’t
acknowledge words which some people can use and some people can’t.
That’s now how linguistics works. As far as I’m concerned, if we
say nigga or nigger, then anyone can say it. Otherwise there’s no
point. So if you don’t want to ever hear me say Guinea, Wop,
Goombah, Spic, Mick, Kraut, Slant, Slope, Charlie, Dink, Gook, Limey,
Kike, Dago, Punjab, Pikey, Cracker, Pecker-wood, Tin-Weasel, Bo-Hunk,
Coolie, Chink, Blockhead, Coon-ass, Hymie, Sheeney, Dot-head or
Schmatta – then don’t ever let me hear you saying it.
(PS, don’t
ever let someones words offend you. If you do, then you’re only
empowering some idiot who cannot articulate themselves.)
Spic
Spic is an
ethnic slur for someone of Hispanic descent. It apparently originated
in Panama as either being short for “speak” as in “no-speak”,
meaning someone who did not understand English; or the even more
jacked up - but still kind of funny phrase known as “spiggoty”,
as in “no spiggoty English”. More recently this origin has been
downplayed in the US and UK and some “historians” attest that it
was merely an abbreviation of the word Hispanic, but no one with
common sense really believes that.
Kike
This is an
interesting linguistic anomaly. There are equally viable sources for
its origin. Kike has become a derogatory slang term for Jews which
was first recorded by German Jews or “Ashkenazim” in reference to
Russian Jews, many of whom having names which ended in the suffix
“Ki” or “Ky”, with “Kike” becoming a euphemistic
nickname. The more popular origin is from US immigration referring to
Jews arriving at Ellis Island many of whom were refugees and
illiterate in English. As most immigrants who could not read or write
signed their name with an “X”, the emigrating Jews supposedly
would not sign in this way as they equated an X with the cross of
Christianity, so they signed with a circle instead. A circle in the
Yiddish language is called a “Kikel” so anyone who signed with it
was thereafter referred to as a “kike”.
Wop
The word
Wop comes from “WP or WOP” which is actually an acronym created
by the United States Immigration Department which stands for
“with-out papers” in reference to the Italian immigrants – many
of whom had been deported from Italy; who were arriving in New York
without passports or documentation at the turn of the 20th century.
Although it was a common practice to deport so-called criminals
without documentation, many law-abiding Italian citizens (mostly from
the southern portion of Italy) were also deported as “ethnically
undesirable” by the rest of Italian society.
Dago
This word
(pronounced day-go) is derived from the Spanish “Diego” in
reference to Mediterranean traders from Spain and Portugal as the
English equivalent Jim or James; typically used to refer to the
generic male ethnic whose name was unknown and seen as unimportant
(i.e. “Nigger-Jim”, “Jim-boy” etc.) The phrase was spread by
British sailors and was eventually used most commonly to refer to
Southern Italians, North Africans and Mediterranean people.
Gook
Primarily
used to describe Southeast Asians, this word has a few semi related
origins and interestingly enough it was used in reference to several
different ethnic groups all over the world. It was ironically based
on some Pacific Islanders use of the word “kook” which means
“Nation or Country” in reference to Americans. The First
widespread usage was by US marines in the late 19th century during
the invasion of the Philippines. The Filipinos and later the Koreans
called the Americans “Miguk”, which the marines misinterpreted as
“Me Gook”. Throughout the early 20th century US armed forces used
the word to refer to Nicaraguans, Haitians, Africans, Indians and
finally the Vietnamese.
Guinea
Used
similarly to the term “Wop”, guinea was basically short for
“Guinea Negro” and referred to Southern Italians and other
indigenous Mediterranean people such as Sicilians, Sardinians, and
Corsicans. Most Northern Italians who saw themselves as more closely
related to European aristocracy basically classified southern
Italians as North Africans. Guinea is a country in West Africa and it
was also the name which some traders occasionally used to describe
the entire region.
Coonass
This is one
I’m actually not too sure about. It refers to people of Cajun
descent in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. Similarly to the term
“HillBilly”, in relation to mountain-dwelling Anglos, some Cajuns
view the word as derogatory while others see it as a symbol of pride.
It supposedly originated with French Soldiers in WWII who referred to
Cajun soldiers as “connasse” which essentially means “whore”
for their use of broken French language and negative expressions of
French culture, but that’s probably a myth. More than likely it
originated with Creole Aristocrats and French Canadians for those
very same reasons, as they were seen as a negative reflection on them
when viewed by Anglo Europeans. Besides, it is very doubtful that
French soldiers during WWII would actually degrade anybody who was
willing to fight alongside them.
Canuck
When I was
a kid I thought a Canuck was a swarthy, surly, stump-jumping
lumberjack like “Blaack Jacques Shalaack” from the Bugs Bunny
cartoons. As it turns out, it’s not even really that derogatory. It
has possible origins in the French word “Canule” or the Cree
Indians Algonquin word for a wolf spirit “Kannuk”. It basically
referred to French Canadians originally, and then later on it
referred to all Canadians. Eventually, “Johnny Canuck” became a
fictional Canadian symbol similar to the US “Uncle Sam”.
I didn’t
include any derogatory slang for Native Americans because I couldn’t
find any that were interesting, although I admit I was very ashamed
of myself for thinking a few of them were pretty funny, such as
“wahoo”, “prairie-nigger” and “chug” (I guess because we
drink a lot). It just goes to show you that stereotypes are partially
based on fact. For example, I almost never get lost and I drink all
the time.
By the way,
the name “Skip” is actually UK slang for an Australian Hillbilly.
I had no idea.
Goodnight
everyone. Now beat it before I sick my dog on you.
Skip Pulley
Editor in Chief
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