bush's "racist" slur

>>>>> "james" == James Murray <jsm-shDajPjhGdcG2Il/[email protected]> writes:

  james> I think you are misguided on the issue of Pakis - someone has
  james> been feeding you with misinformation. 

It would be nice if such claims were be accompanied by some evidence.

         While some many consider it
  james> offensive, many of the pakis themselves use it "proudly" to
  james> describe themselves. 

That's a difference which makes all the difference in the world. The moral
and political logic of what a group chooses to call itself -- especially
when it is trying to rehabilitate hateful terms -- is different than what
other groups call it. In other words, there simply is no disputing that in
the UK (and in the US, but more recently) "paki" has been used as a
derogatory term for Southeast Asians of all kinds, often accompanying
racial violence, harassment, discrimination, and the like.

So if some Southeast Asians, including Pakistanis, try to rehabilitate
this term -- in the same way that some African Americans try to
rehabilitate derogatory terms in the US -- that doesn't imply or give
permission for majority groups to use the term.

         Just near where I work there is "paki rule"
  james> written on the wall. 

Great, but that's in the UK, where things are slightly different than in
the US, particularly about linguistic usage corresponding to different
patterns of immigration and the like. As we say in the article -- a point
which you do not address here -- the US political establishment, of which
Bush is a part, has marked this word as clearly out-of-bounds. And yet
Bush used it anyway. How can graffito on a wall near where you live make
any difference to *that* basic political fact?

         Also, check out www.paki.com which is a
  james> website about pakistan - would they REALLY chose a name that was
  james> derogatory about their own race? I think not.

Yes, of course they would, in an attempt to rob it of some of its
derogatory power. This is a common move of oppressed or minority groups,
including African Americans, women in many countries, and so on. I'm sorry
you're not familiar with this phenomenon.

Kendall Clark
-- 
Jazz is only what you are. -- Louis Armstrong