Soldato
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- 16 Nov 2003
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It's not racist, just rude. Asian people use it all the time to insult their friends if they are, as Nitefly puts it, 'denying their roots'.
You coconut!
- Thread starter Morba
- Start date
well maybe it is not racist between the asian people you know but to black people it is racist, it is calling them white as an insult because they disliked white people when the term was used widely, nothing to do with their roots just a racist slur. What should a black or asian persons roots be that are third generation living in bitain?
it is if it is another race calling you it!!
or can black people not be racist in your eyes?
Words are never racist, it is the way in which a word is used and the meaning a person implies with it that makes it racist. Clearly in this case the word and meaning was racist. The councilor in question is clearly anti white rather than pro black although she probably thinks the 2 are the same.
Not at all. It is like saying a man is shunning or ignoring his heritage and favouring another, which is quite different.
I'm just going to have to flat out disagree with you with what you define racist as.
How can you say that this isn't about roots and heritage is beyond me.
I disagree. Let us take the word ******.
****** has two contexts:
a) The circumstance in which it is used in.
b) The historical meanings behind the word.
You can't just accept a) and totally ignore b). Both must be considered in tandem.
Exactly what i mean, the word in modern society no longer means roots or heritage, it is now a racist slur. Take the word kaffir, that is a racist slur used against black people now but its meaning is a non believer in a religion and has nothing to do with race but it has become a racist word somehow. Now the word coconut might once have meant roots or heritage but it now is a racist slur, i have lived around blacks, gone to black schools my whole life I should know.
This is silly the word ****** is probably used today as a non racist term of friendship or superiority as much as an insult. So the people using it are clearly ignoring b) or they simply wouldn't use it.
I understand what you are saying and I agree that it is offensive but I couldn't call it racist because the insult is not because of the colour of skin, directly at least.
I wouldn't say calling Westwood a 'reverse coconut' was racist either. An offensive description perhaps, but being white isn't the insult.
I think the 'reclaiming' of the word by the black communities fits quite nicely into the b) catagory. Again, the context in which the word (as mentioned in a) ) is used is to be taken into account as well.
of course it is racist, it is a word that is only used against a certain race of people, im sure that has got to be as close to the definition of a racist word as they come, calling westwood a wigger would be classed as racist but it seems only white people can be racist
I don't think a word only used against a certain set of people is enough of a requirement. Let me expand.of course it is racist, it is a word that is only used against a certain race of people, im sure that has got to be as close to the definition of a racist word as they come, calling westwood a wigger would be classed as racist but it seems only white people can be racist
For example, a racist man would call all black men ******* equally. Yet only a few select individuals out of many blacks could be classed as 'coconuts'.
For it to be racist, it has to be a word which discriminately stereotypes against all people of a certain skin colour. Coconut does not fit that definition.
a lot of white people use the word describing black people in a derogatory way aswell as coloured people use it to each other in a derogatory way, the word is racist and i am sorry but i just have to disagree with those that say otherwise. My definition of a racist word is something that is only aimed at people of a certain colour and thats exactly what coconut is. End of
I actually thought it interesting that the BBC article didn't bother to define the term.
For the record, I knew immediately that it referred to a white on the inside/brown on the outside sort of idea.
Sidenote: The black person in the story is called Mrs Brown. Hur hur hur.
For the record, I knew immediately that it referred to a white on the inside/brown on the outside sort of idea.
Sidenote: The black person in the story is called Mrs Brown. Hur hur hur.
I appreciate what you class as a racist slur is 100% correct by the book, I cant dispute that as it is fact, what I am saying is it is not always as easy as that. I agree we will just have to agree to disagree
rofl how can you act white? you can't, you act British or westernised or such like. you can't act white. exception goes to Micheal jackson.
the slur means acting white! not westernised or british. Take for instance if a black person chose to play rugby instead of football in South Africa they were called coconuts by white and black people. Or here in England when i was working a black guy called another black guy a coconut because he apparently hung around with to many whities as he called it.