ADVICE: Racist Terminology
QUESTION:
Was this racist?
So I was attacked for being a racist because of some comments I made. Can someone please tell me if you find this racist?;
Backstory:
There are some townhouses being built up the street from me that have been causing horrible traffice jams and all kind of other crap. They've been building these things and causing problems for almost two years now. Right now they have german contracters working on them (I'm on a military base in germany)
So I said, "If they could bring in some mexicans I bet the job would be done in 6 months. They're fast and efficient workers."
So this girl jumped down my throat and said what I had said was racist and offensive, what do you think?
Additional Details
5 minutes ago
I don't mind being offensive towards the german contracters because they aren't efficent at all. After some people finally moved into the townhouses they had finished they had to move them out a month later because they hadn't done the plumbing right and there was water leaking everywhere.
REPLY:
That's a good question. Technically it could qualify in the realm of Discrimination, in a roundabout sort of way, because you're talking about prescribing attributes to the Latino Community that are really visible in all traits.
I think she jumped down your throat because you used the word "Mexican" instead of being politically correct with the term "Latino."
For example, even if a person meant to compliment the Africans by saying they have a Diverse Culture but said, "Those 'N*ggers' have a diverse culture," you'd get in trouble.
Even though it was meant as a compliment, the choice of words would be deemed offensive.
For example, I'm Filipino. If you said to me, "You 'Flips' make some really good Lumpia," I wouldn't be bothered by it. However, some Filipinos would get ticked off even though what you said was meant as a compliment.
It would be like a guy complimenting the Intelligence of Women by saying,"You b*tches are so smart." Even though it was meant as a compliment, women would get ticked off at the way it was said.
However, this is where we come back to definitions and meanings. Before words had definitions, they didn't mean anything.
For example, before you had the KKK, the three letters KKK didn't mean anything. It was a Hateful or Racist Group that chose to take that on as their Symbol. So now KKK means something bad.
If you rolled back the clock to the 1600s and used the term KKK with African-Americans of that time period, they wouldn't have gotten offended by it because no one had defined it yet.
The name "Hitler" didn't mean anything until Adolf Hitler performed all those terrible crimes against Humanity giving that name a bad reputation.
If any parent (especially of German Descent) named their child Hitler, people would get offended.
It would be the same as a person naming their child Lucifer or Satan. People with Religious Faiths would shun that child. However, before you had Religion, the word Satan and Lucifer didn't mean anything. It wasn't until it was defined as being bad.
When American Soldiers went to Vietnam, South Vietnamese who were overjoyed by the presence of American Soldiers would be chattering Vietnamese saying, "Me Gook" this and "Me Gook" that.
So American Soldiers started nicknaming Vietnamese people as "Gooks." Gook in Vietnames means "Country." However, the definition got relegated to something similar to that of "N*gger."
N*gger is just slang for Negro, which means "Black" in Spanish. The definition stuck because hickish Americans that perverted the Spanish Language and so a negative connotation got bonded to that word.
While it's bad to call people such names, it's still good to know the origin of such terms, which a lot of people usually are unaware.
Was this racist?
So I was attacked for being a racist because of some comments I made. Can someone please tell me if you find this racist?;
Backstory:
There are some townhouses being built up the street from me that have been causing horrible traffice jams and all kind of other crap. They've been building these things and causing problems for almost two years now. Right now they have german contracters working on them (I'm on a military base in germany)
So I said, "If they could bring in some mexicans I bet the job would be done in 6 months. They're fast and efficient workers."
So this girl jumped down my throat and said what I had said was racist and offensive, what do you think?
Additional Details
5 minutes ago
I don't mind being offensive towards the german contracters because they aren't efficent at all. After some people finally moved into the townhouses they had finished they had to move them out a month later because they hadn't done the plumbing right and there was water leaking everywhere.
REPLY:
That's a good question. Technically it could qualify in the realm of Discrimination, in a roundabout sort of way, because you're talking about prescribing attributes to the Latino Community that are really visible in all traits.
I think she jumped down your throat because you used the word "Mexican" instead of being politically correct with the term "Latino."
For example, even if a person meant to compliment the Africans by saying they have a Diverse Culture but said, "Those 'N*ggers' have a diverse culture," you'd get in trouble.
Even though it was meant as a compliment, the choice of words would be deemed offensive.
For example, I'm Filipino. If you said to me, "You 'Flips' make some really good Lumpia," I wouldn't be bothered by it. However, some Filipinos would get ticked off even though what you said was meant as a compliment.
It would be like a guy complimenting the Intelligence of Women by saying,"You b*tches are so smart." Even though it was meant as a compliment, women would get ticked off at the way it was said.
However, this is where we come back to definitions and meanings. Before words had definitions, they didn't mean anything.
For example, before you had the KKK, the three letters KKK didn't mean anything. It was a Hateful or Racist Group that chose to take that on as their Symbol. So now KKK means something bad.
If you rolled back the clock to the 1600s and used the term KKK with African-Americans of that time period, they wouldn't have gotten offended by it because no one had defined it yet.
The name "Hitler" didn't mean anything until Adolf Hitler performed all those terrible crimes against Humanity giving that name a bad reputation.
If any parent (especially of German Descent) named their child Hitler, people would get offended.
It would be the same as a person naming their child Lucifer or Satan. People with Religious Faiths would shun that child. However, before you had Religion, the word Satan and Lucifer didn't mean anything. It wasn't until it was defined as being bad.
When American Soldiers went to Vietnam, South Vietnamese who were overjoyed by the presence of American Soldiers would be chattering Vietnamese saying, "Me Gook" this and "Me Gook" that.
So American Soldiers started nicknaming Vietnamese people as "Gooks." Gook in Vietnames means "Country." However, the definition got relegated to something similar to that of "N*gger."
N*gger is just slang for Negro, which means "Black" in Spanish. The definition stuck because hickish Americans that perverted the Spanish Language and so a negative connotation got bonded to that word.
While it's bad to call people such names, it's still good to know the origin of such terms, which a lot of people usually are unaware.