How racist is Britain? Julian Baggini on why he doesn't believe most white Britons are racists - even though he heard racist language almost everywhere he went (from today's Guardian)
This was in the Guardian today, and follows the author when he lived for six months in Rotherham in south Yorkshire. What he found was that local white and Asian people saw little of each other and that white people commonly called the Asians "Pakis" without apparently intending it as a term of abuse, but rather as "simply a matter-of-fact description of the ethnic origins" of the person referred to.
The article barely touches on the fact that Asians as well as whites use the term, but does not show anything of the extent to which they do. In some sections of the Asian community, particularly among the younger generation, the term is used quite commonly and certainly not as an insult, and a similar term "Guji" exists to mean Gujarati. I was once in a British Pakistani friend's house and was eating his mother's food (lots of it) with a Gujarati convert to Islam from Jainism. Referring to the food, he said "I wasn't cut out to be a Paki", meaning to eat so much! Nobody took the slightest offence. When my friend said that he was "an English Paki, not a Paki Paki", his mother did reprimand him though.
I wouldn't compare it to the "N word", even though some black Americans have "reclaimed" that term, and even though it's just a corruption of the Spanish for black, because it has a much longer history and carries particular offence for some people. Even so, I've got the impression that some people think they can avoid being offensive simply by avoiding dropping the "N word"; a notable example being Roger Roots' infamous Hundred Facts and One Lie pamphet which likened black people to apes over and over again, "backing it up" with citations which actually mostly traced back to pro-segregation and otherwise racist tracts. He didn't use the "N word" either.
I hate the word 'paki' because, like the 'N' word, it was intended to be a racist term.
The excuse Pakistanis use today is extraordinay. They say, "It's ok, we don't mean it in a racist way. We can use it, but they can't."
SubhanAllah! What, did Allah (swt) Allow different races to use words that others are banned from? Did He favour people over others in this way? Their argument is stupid, and it's akin to 'white-only' water-fountains or restaurants in america before the civil rights movement took force. 'Coz, "hey guys, if you can have a Pakistani-only word, we can have a white-only school!"
Not only that, the 'P' word provides mental subjugation. Sound very strange, yet it is very true. As 'pakis', asian boys wanna be gangstas, and asian girls wanna be tarts, but as pakistanis, they are much more respectful.
Seriously, try this out. Next time a family member starts doing something stupid say "stop it, you're a Pakistani!" and compare that with "stop it, you're a paki!" The differences will be amazing.
Finally, I take HUGE offense at the word 'paki', and so do many, many other people. And from surat-al-hujurat, verse 11, I think it's safe to conclude that one should just totally stop using it.
Jzk
wa'laykum assalaam
Depends on the context, the tone of voice, and the relationship of the people saying the word to each other.
The UK is racist, yes, but far less racist than just about any other country you can think of.
(And we're a lot less xenophobic than those rotten foreigners.)
Were you trying to be sarcastic, pRickler?
Never.
Pakistan, literally means the land of the Pakis in the same way that Uzbekistan means the land of the Uzbeks, and Tajikistan means the land of the Tajiks. An Uzbek would refer to somebody from Pakistan as a Paki and not a Pakistani.
The real origin of the name Pakistan is a contraction of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sind, and Balochistan devised by a student at Cambridge university during the 1930s and originally known as Pakstan. The i was added later to make it more pronounceable.