Just like Scottie has shown. Racism is in the eye of the beholder (I'm happy. To say 'x' but I'd never say 'y')
My West Indian mate in London (he was born & bred n London like most of us) told me (in his opinion) Paki was just as offensive as nigger. Yet here in Aus it appears perfectly acceptable to call the cricket team Paki's on the radio (5 years ago now, not sure if we have evolved since then).
I've also et a few Brits that do not appreciate the term Pom.
IMO Australia is the most racist place I have ever been. But I do live in Qld, (bless 'em)
Sepppos are Seppos and speak crap hence the septic tank term.
I always put it down to the traditional Aussie/Cockney rhyming slang:
Yank = septic tank
We are what we are I love it.
same here- and how it should be.
stephen
"Paki" is racist when used by poms as they use it to refer to anyone brown, like Pakistani, West Indian, Sril Lankan etc. So thus it is derogatory but surely at the very lower end of the scale.
However when we (rarely) use it in Australia, yes we are referring to Pakistani persons so is it racist? I think not. They call us Aussie - is that offensive????
But - "I drive a Jap car" is OK
"He is a Jap" may not be OK, some ppl would frown upon it a bit.
"They are Nips" would be frowned upon by more people.
But really Paki is short for Pakistani, Jap is short for Japanese, and Nip short for Nippon so one is NOT "worse" than the other, yet it IS perceived as such.
Thus INTENT should be the key. In this thread, "chow" was not intended to be racist..... same as "Coldplay are a sh!t Pommie band" is not racist (surely).
Unfortunately the E.O Act says INTENT is irrelevant and effect is the key, and the more leftie types seem to agree.
Sad, sad world this is becoming.
^^^^
Best toilet wall humour I ever seen was at my Uni.
Above the toilet roll holder it said: 'Arts degrees, please take one'
CMC, I always wondered what those arts and science degrees are all about.
Pup, 6 cans of Emu Lager on the way.
Political correctness has a lot to answer for. It conjures insults out of nothing. It creates the illusion of bigotry so we can all get offended. It propagates racism for dummies so you don't have to exercise a neuron to spot an insult so insults emerge where none exist.
Although honesty is a little more difficult I'd like to see a reversion to first principles. The test for racism in a comment should be two fold. It must be racial and it must be pejorative. So "chow" in the title is not of itself racist. In another context it might be. It's just politically incorrect. I'd go so far as to say that any Asian who was offended by the use of "chow" in the title is a victim of political correctness not racism. And the empathic and reasonable respondents that get offended on their behalf are part of the problem.
whats so bad about our australian version of racism anyway? it's perfectly natural human behaviour entrenched in our makeup imho
not all dogs want to eat cats but cats are naturally wary of dogs.
if a nigerian rings you you would be wise to suspect a scam
If you've got an asian friend i bet he likes rice!
if you pull some hot african chick that now lives in australia you might wann be real carefull about aids.
you might not want to let your catholic priest babysit your kids
watch those dark kids that are near your car...
generalisations and labelling are a part of our natural instincts. it's when you let them rule you i guess it's bad. i like being racist. it's refreshingly honest
^^^ not really. I'm not off in a corner sooking and I'm not throwing the dummy like crispy above. I'm still here, I'm still calm, and I still haven't resorted to name calling when I can't muster any real argument to justify my poor taste posts.
^^^^^throwing the dummy,me?how? you took one part off my post and tried to use it in a way to make yourself feel better. its do gooders like you who are changing this country for the worse. what i posted is a fact about growing up in a melting pot of culture,where other races were the ones who do not have tolerance towards others. so i think you should apply for a job on today tonight or such,as they like manipulating things in order to discredit others, and justify their reasons no matter how wrong they are.
I have this theory of Psychological Relativity. The same thing looks different to different people depending on their speed and position (personal history/life experience) relative to the object. Everything is subjective and there's no absolute truth.
^^^Don't see it applying to me, sorry mate.
It's a picture of a crying baby. Maybe it doesn't like your violin music?