KellyC

One day while walking with my brother around the mall, I overheard a *white guy* said/whisper "fucking gooks" as he walked pass us. My immediate thought was "yeah..ok..moving on" I wasn't pissed, or offended by it. I told some of my friends and they seemed to freak out, then they rambled on about how if someone said that to them, they'd kick his ass and they keep on asking me why didn't I get mad. All I can say at that time is "am I supposed to be mad?" This happened last summer and I thought of it from time to time and I'm still not pissed about it. the thought just suddenly came up and its been on my mind for too long so I've decide to ask.

is it normal for me to not be offended by this?

would you be? if so, how much and how would you act?

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bermuDa

it just shows that you're a bigger person than the schmuck who you walked by. If I were in your shoes I would've probably said "moron" and gone about my business.

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apeman

i'm offended by it and i'm white caucasian.. it's more of a slur on my ethnic group than yours I think, maybe?

i.e. it proves he's an idiot

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Destrox

More of the "words that shouldnt hurt people" category. If words really hurt you that badly, maybe there is somthing else that is wrong and not the word.

Some people need to get thier heads out of others business, and let it slide. If it wasnt directed at you, bug off. Thats my general opinion. (IE I would have done the same as you, and disagree with your friends since its easy to just act like a macho dick and say they'll kick somones ass.)

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Cynthetiq

right on.

I don't care about slurs. they mean nothing because i don't give them the power to mean anything which is why I don't understand why a black person can call another black person a slur yet a white person can't.

the word is the same word but somehow coming from a white person it has more "power".

well IMHO that's just absurd, besides, my sig says it all.

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Jam

whats a gook?

I dont get why people would say stuff like that anyways, maybe say something about the person himself if he did something to you, but to say something about a race just because they are there... oh well unless you say latin chicks are hot, thats ok right?? right?

apeman

damn right! here's my version... i think i was gonna call it "theory of universal equivalent stupidity" or something ...

1) if you pick any subgroup of the population you will find the asshole/non-asshole ratio is the same as any other subgroup

2) anyone who starts generalizing that whole groups are assholes are likely as not an asshole themselves - hence their opinion is worthless

it works for me ... i need to do some more research on republicans and taxi-drivers before I'm sure though

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warrrreagl

The age-old rhyme that has been removed from American culture used to say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."

In our mad scrambling rush to become perpetual victims, many people have erased this philosophy from their lives.

I say, you are much bigger person than the asshat who called you "gook" and also your friends who believed you should have retaliated.

Sir, I salute you.

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ratbastid

Damn straight.

If I can say something that pisses you off, it's not because I've said something offensive, it's because I stumbled upon a topic that you're weird and sensitive about. That's your stuff. Not that I won't stay away from it, being a polite member of society and all, but the responsibility for your reaction is entirely yours.

Wayngo

Dave Chappelle has tought us well to not care

seretogis

Good for you -- words are nothing, and it's nice to see that more people are stating their indifference towards them than not. For those who feel the need to be "offended for others," please stop.

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apeman

I know what you mean. Personally, I'm not offended on behalf of others, I'm pissed off with the bloody idiots who think they're better than 'gooks' or whoever. "Sticks and stones ..." etc. but people don't always stop with abuse, sometimes they do resort to violence. If people don't mind a particular label then who am I to argue? It's their call. It's just that racism makes me extremely angry - I have this urge to beat some sense into these people. I'm sure that's not as mature an attitude as the starter of this post has, but maybe I'm not as mature as him

edit : make that "definitely not as mature"

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raeanna74

Indifference toward mean words is one of the best ways to turn them off. Bullies like to pick on the kids that react to their "persecutions" if you don't react then their picking looses it's power.

You took the power out of his words by being indifferent. You were the bigger man and it shows you are confident and comfortable with yourself.

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My Karma just ran over your Dogma.

troit

Offended no -- does my face turn pink in shame, yes. It amazes me that during the time period with which we live people have got to still put up with this shit. I have always been taught that you judge an individual by their character and actions and not by the color of their skin. And that's the way its would be if we were cross paths. Don't get me wrong -- you can earn your title with me if your a real asshat, but it is earned by the individual, not the race.

Unfortunately there are parents out there who instead of taking that philosophy would rather teach their children bigotry. A shame -- it really is.....

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Fenton-J-Cool

Racial slurs are just any other word for me. They don't bother me in the slightest, whether my friends ( of varying ethnicities ) call each other slurs, hearing slurs, or using them myself. I never call a chinese person a chink, and obviously not a black person a nigger. But they are only words. If someone calls me a honkey, I will laugh with them at their originality. The other day, I said "it's because you're black" about something totally unrelated to my black friend. He said to me, "no, it's because YOU'RE white that I'm superior." We laughed. I think this, in itself, is a release from racism. I can just hear some peoples' anuses collectively clinching as they read this, uptight conservatives cringing at the mere thought of ever offending someone. We are acknowledging that they are mere words, and have no effect if you truly do not have any thoughts about peoples' race, because in my mind, it doesn't matter who I call negro. It's just a word. No, there isn't centuries of bigotry behind it, these bygones do not affect you in the slightest.

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wra

H12

That's the truth. Anyone who saw the Clayton Bixby (sp?) skit can testify how stupid racism can get.

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water_boy1999

You have just proven yourself to be a truly worthy member of society. If I was walking with my Asian brothers, or Black brothers, or green, yellow, or purple brothers alike, and someone had the gall to say something like that, I would be the type to turn around and call the guy an asshat, but that's just me. I don't think racism has a place in this day and age. It is a useles defense to what one doesn't understand, or better yet, what one is afraid of. This guy was obviously showing his level of intelligence and you acknowledged that with your lack of response. Good for you.

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Somenosuke

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kutulu

Did you know that the Bixby sketch was based on Dave's grandfather? Supposedly he was a light skilled black man who lived in a black area of DC. The day MLK was murdered he got on the bus and people were talking about the "nerve" of that white guy to get on the bus at that time. He was in agreement until he found out they were talking about him.

Where would kicking his ass get you? In jail maybe? Getting sued? That's a great solution. You did the right thing.

:::OshnSoul:::

No, and why should you be?

The people who try to offend want the offended reaction to get a stir. But why stoop to them?
For one, they're just words. They really don't do any damage.
For two, the situation happened for you to see that you are not like them (in the sense that you don't call them/others names or go out of your way to try and offend people).
The opportunity was created for you to know that you don't have to get offended by such petty outbursts. Walk on and smile knowing that they are being exactly how you won't choose to be.

World's King

I'm a WOP.

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heavy is the head that wears the crown

assilem

This may be a little off subject but my friends are all different races and my wife is Asian. I'm a white guy. We all call each other all kinds of slurs because we think it’s funny. My best friend is Italian and I call him a wop. I'm of Irish decent and he calls me a mic. We just have fun with it. My coworker is Mexican, I tease him about being lazy and he calls me a Nazi and gives me the hail Hitler salute. My black friends call me cracker and I call them jigaboos. We laugh about it and stereo type each other because we know that these slurs and labels don't mean shit. We also like to do it in public just to see people’s reactions. But way to go letting this slide. It sounds like they were just assholes.

Racial slur database

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KellyC

I don't even know what the hell a gook is. I looked it up in the dictionary and it says "usually disparaging : a nonwhite or non-American person; specifically : ASIAN " ...that doesn't help. Any in here have a better explaination?....besides "it's a word used to degrade asian"..that is.

edit: nevermind..got the meaning of the word...funny

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Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

KellyC

Hey! I do that with some of my white friends too, there's one time I said to my white friend "cracker" and he let out a laugh sooooo hard, then he said "cracker ass cracker!!" (from Chris Rock)

thanks for the link btw...

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Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

zxello

I call one of my best friends at work 'The Blazin' Asian Sensation' or just 'The Asian'.

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cherriesue

I'm mixed ethnicity and stuff like this has never bothered me

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buclao

It doesn't bother. I'm asian and all my other asian friends use "gook" and "chink" all the time.

We like to call ourselves the asian invasion or the yellow army.

Xell101

Insults, ha! I laugh at them...on the inside, externally a general disregard is shown as they immediatly make me lose interest in the denouncer.

Lebell

Being called a "cracker" or a "honkey" strikes me more as funny than anything.

Even if they caught some of my ethnic heritage, "limey", "mick", or "wop" are just as funny to me.

No, I don't get offended.

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b1naryb0r1s

Personally I think it's absolutely hilarious if someone calls me a "cracker" or "whitey." I might think it's funny just because of the stupidity of racial slurs, but either way I find it amusing. Try to brush it off since there are quite a few people out there that have zero class or respect for others. Later man.

-b0r1s

Tempboy

Sometimes it bothers me, sometimes it doesn't.

It depends on the context.

If my buddies toss around slurs, I couldn't care less.
But if some random stranger does it.. I can't help it.. it irks me.

StormBerlin

I have to say that racial slurs don't really bother me. I don't even pay attention most of the time. Maybe it's because I'm white so they aren't directed at me as much as others? I don't know. I just don't really take offense.

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John Henry

First of all, a confession...

My friends and I do use racial slurs, sometimes against each other, sometimes against strangers, sometimes in jest and sometimes in anger.

This is very much a confession. I don't think using these terms is right and I won't try to justify it.

What I will say, though, is that not one of us would ever entertain anything so absurd as the belief that one's ancestry, place of residence or place of birth is any indicator of one's inherent worth.

To give an example of what I mean, when somebody tried to pick my pocket in Barcelona, I angrily ranted that the guy was a "Thieving fucking catalunyan dago bastard." but that doesn't mean that I consider all catalunyans to be thieves (the only reason there are a lot of thieves in Barcelona is because of the large number of tourists, I suspect) or that I would regard any other spaniard/catalunyan with any kind of prejudice.

The racial slurs in this instance were simply part of generic stream of expletives, just as if someone, say pushed in front of you in a queue, you might mutter that he was a "Stupid, fat bastard". It doesn't mean that you think there's anything wrong with being stupid or fat, but it's a more gratifying release of anger than saying "What an uncouth, queue-jumping fellow that man is". Although anyone with any guts would simply take issue with the guy personally.

Anyway... to answer your actual question... I don't think there is any need to take offense at this sort of crap. For myself, I can only get upset by what people say if I have some regard for their intelligence and their opinion. Clearly there is no sense or intelligence behind this kind of comment, so there's no need to take any more notice of it than you would of a gnat bite. If someone actually tries to rationalise or justify racist points of view, that is when they need slapping down. Those kind of people are dangerous. Anger is only useful if it can prevent harm. Since the only harm such playground name-calling can do is to anger you, anger is not a valid response.

Allowing moronic racists to portray their racism in a moronic way can only serve to show how stupid racism is.

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Esco

Nobody has ever called me a racial name to my face. I'm not sure what I would do if they did. I'd like to think I'd be the better person.


No, I'm not anglo. Yes, I am a large man ... maybe a little intimidating(so I hear).

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Redjake

just don't give them the middle finger, whatever you do.

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Phaenx

I call people honkies all the time.

I also think it's funny how everyone would "kick their ass" if they were there. That's easy to say when you're totally out of any danger of being involved in a conflict. I can't help but laugh and think to myself, "No you wouldn't, pussy."

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"I went shopping last night at like 1am. The place was empty and this old woman just making polite conversation said to me, 'where is everyone??' I replied, 'In bed, same place you and I should be!' Took me ten minutes to figure out why she gave me a dirty look." --Some guy

kel

I hate all ethnic groups equally. Humans are for the most part scum.

You can quote me on that.

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"It better be funny"

forseti-6

I'm not offended by racial slurs at all. Then again I was never one that ever cared about name calling. Obviously the ones that do the name calling have some massive insecurity about themselves and feel they should try (and the keyword is try) to belittle certain groups.

When I was younger being the only Chinese kid in my class, there were a few morons that thought they were tough because they called me 'chink.' I always thought that was just a funny word and don't even know why that's suppose to offend me. The fact that I didn't care what they called me really frustrated them to the point where one of those kids wanted to pick a fight with me. It just shows their low intelligence. *Rolls Eyes*

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hawkeye

I'm never offended by racial slurs. in fact, I actually enjoy what some people see as racist jokes, and have an especial fondness for those that shoot down my own ethnic groups.
I mean, seriously, if you can't laugh at yourself...

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ickma

WOP is really an acronym for With Out Papers for when Italians came to america without proper documentation. A legitimate term has somehow been bastardized into what people consider 'racist' yet it's still just another phrase. Negro isnt a racist term for a black person its just another way of stating it. People just perceive it to be racist

I also like to call my white friends by black and chinese racist terms. It's funny. Everyone laughs and no one takes it seriously. I haven't referred to them by their names in weeks but we all know we're just joking.