Its ok when its an intellergent discussion Real..its not when you get the OMG brigade in....

That's the daftest post in this thread by a country mile. 

I also know a number of Scots called Scott. 

Pikey's I never heard of that word till Frank Gallagher mentioned it in Shameless then I looked it up on Google, now thats an offensive word also. Remember a thread about it from Gaga that ended up on the campsites?.

This thread has been left alone because it has been ... erm... reasonable Real. It has lasted over a day now, so don't worry.

But it started out as an abreviation..maybe its just me Blizz but I was shocked to hear Pole spoken by a BBC1 newsreader..would it have hurt her to say Polish man?.I don't think they are charged on how many characters they use reading a news story....

Ooh, sounds like a minefield!

I wouldn't like to be judging those complaints.

I've had people abroad try to offend me by calling me a Brit.  By 'Brit', I think they were thinking it was an offensive word, like 'Paki', rather than pointing out that I was British and that I ought to be offended by being recognised as British.  At least one of them tried to offend me by insulting the Queen, thinking that all Brit are inherently royalist.  As a nominal republican who is happy to denigrate his own country and moan about its historical crimes, I found it all a bit odd. 

....to say nothing of when they report on a story from Stockholm.  Root-vegetablists!!!!!

I have only ever heard polish people called Poles.

I don't think it's any different to calling Spanish people 'Spaniards', or people from Greece 'Greeks'!

The offensive term for Polish folk is Polack, btw, not Pole.

If someone who overhears it is offended, you must assume it is offensive. I don't see the problem with this.

The context I heard it in was a Pole.. it later went on to say he was male....

Would'nt it have been easier and more correct for the news reader to say * a Polish man*?....

What if it's smut?

I Know, but there may be folk on here who we do not know anything about their ethnic background, and may be offended by actually reading this. Just my opinion, but past posts have all ended up in the same place and am worried for you lot.

I've stopped using the phrase 'beware of Greeks bearing gifts" now.  Just in case any generous Greeks get offended.  Or, at my workplace, non-Greeks getting offended by the possibility of Greeks, somewhere, generous or not, hearing about it out of context and, well, being offended.

I'm a minority and I'm not offended..

I used to use, highly ironically, the phrase "c'mon, play the white man" when I was younger but the potential for awful consequences has made me erase that from my silly phrases lexicon.

I suppose it depends if Polish people are happy to be called Poles. I've no idea if they find it offensive!

It could mean that they have to put up with more 'Mr Sheen' jokes and less pole dancing jokes. 

As long as its got nothing to do with singular letters out of the alphabet your ok....

s?

I used to say to folks in the towers " Just rolling a Fag "  when hand rolling a ciggie, but seeing the US definition--- I shut the F**k up and said i was going for a " Pee" instead.  

lol 

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition either.

I had a discussion today about this and the one race who took alot of stick was the Chinese and because they never throw the race card on the table people think its alright to call them chink....

One of our HR people used to rally all the women together, by company-wide email, to decorate the office Christmas tree in the reception area (before official Christmas trees became a bit iffy in the workplace ).  I used to be highly offended by that, trivial though it is.  She saw it as an 'all girls together' thing, like a trip to the pub, I think.  I saw it as anachronistic thinking, inappropriate in the workplace.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!..you'll have lists coming out the woodwork....

Thinks that's the last time you will use Easy Jet? Easy Cruise.

I am keeping this for the right time.

No trimmings or Xmas tree? Scrooge.

I was going to say something like this earlier..women have had to put up with so much sexism not just names but sexual assault for years..now that offends me....

Were you afraid of Magnum man?....

Am off to bed now folks. Enjoy------ and DON'T get banned.

Having probs posting... it's my 3.00 curfew I reckon! So much to say! Always happens to me around 3.00, day or night!  Goodnight folks!

Night Real.

Night Real....

Night Pam.

Night Xoch..going myself now....

I'd better go.
My nine year old is having a sleep-over tomorrow and I'll need to have my wits about me!

Turned into the Waltons thread!

Night stonks.

We still have a Christmas event, which used to be a company-wide party but now a departmental event, such as a meal.  They stopped doing a company-wide party because they could never get it arranged in time, because the date of Christmas really surprised them each year I suppose, and the local venues always charge much more at Christmas than at other times.  We've had a Christmas party in January before now to save money, which really winds me up.  But hey.  Every so often, I pipe up and suggest we have an Eid party instead, knowing that the small number of committed Christians and the slightly larger number of Preserve British Tradition Against The Immigrant Watering Down people in the company are outraged by this.  I suppose I need to stop doing this in future. 

hmmm.. this is a minefield I am probably gonna regret getting involved in.. but I have to say on this one...

hubby, his brothers, my father in law, their chinese friends, daughter chinese friends.... hand on heart honest here..... Chink doesn't offend them.  They are proud to be chinese.  Some of them (ok, husband... yeah, he's the only one I can think of) will act offended... its  a chance for him to draw himself up to his full height and get all discriminated against and offended.

when I pull him up on it and say "come on... you are just making a protest for the sake of it"  he will laugh and admit that he is.


I think its very very different to the term paki... which when I was growing up was the ultimate insult thrown around the playground (I grew up in Leeds, NF graffiti everywhere... most of it aimed at the Bradford community).  It went hand in hand with words like dirty, and smelly, and "get out" and other such gross and vindictive sentiments...  skinheads, violence, hatred.  Had my husband experienced this... been subjected to proper racial abuse, then yes, he and his family would probably find chink offensive.    As it is... if it ever has been used against them as an insult... it was just that... someone who was having a pop at them as a person, and using that as a weapon (if they were white it could have been big nose, or conehead etc)... rather than hatred of a person they did not know.. but hated because of their ethnic origins.


I am quite surprised that the word paki was in this anton blokes vocabulary.