Basic Instructions by Scott Meyer for May 25, 2012

@#%&*! read necks…

You mean “Takei”

For the longest time, I had no idea using “Oriental” as a reference to Asians was offensive until someone called me out on it. I’m really glad they did.

I know all of the slurs he was alluding to except “to not deliver on a promise”.

does it refer to politicians?

“Indian giver” isn’t racist. It refers to the white settlers “giving” to the natives (“Indians”), then taking back away from them. Not the other way around.

Oh, and whoever told you “oriental” is a slur, was a moron. “orient” is latin for “east”. oriental therefore = “easterner”

…. ah found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient

Apparently what your talking about is an American only , overly “PC” bit of rubbish.

I hate indian givers, no wait, I take that back! (tip of the hat to Emo)

If you are offended by “Honkey” than you have really thin skin. It’s got to be the weakest arrow in the entire slur quiver.

If a racist word falls in the woods and there’s no-one there who knows what it means, does it make an offensive sound?

You guys stop honkeying! Damn! lol

“Try not to use a word or phrase without understanding its origin or meaning” cuts two ways.

The etymon of “Niggardly” is a Scandinavian word meaning basically the same thing and has nothing to do with the racial slur, but some people say we should stop using it because it sounds nasty.

And Canadian Inuit object to ‘Eskimo’ because of a now discredited belief about its etymology, even though the Inupiat and Yupik in Alaska are happy with ‘Eskimo’ and don’t like ‘Inuit’.

And ‘Welsh’ originally didn’t refer just to the Cymry, but any foreigner or speaker of an unfamiliar language. ‘Walloon’ and ‘Wallachian’ are cognates.

As for ‘honkey’, a lot of people think it comes from ‘hunky’, which like the related ‘bohunk’ was a highly pejorative word in its day (late 19th-early 20th Century). My Slovak grandparents were probably subjected to both those terms in their most venomous form, which according to some people entitles me to feel outraged when I hear ‘honkey’ used.

Apart from the fact that the only way a mere column of sound in the air or a mark on a piece of paper can hurt you is if you let it, there has to be a statute of limitations on this sort of stuff.

@ ekw: I think he was referring to “welching on a bet,” a slur against the Welch.

Some of my best friends are Brazil nuts.

I bet he called Brazil Nuts the same thing my Okie grandmother did. The first time I heard her say it I think my jaw dropped so hard it cracked the floor tiles.

As a little kid I wouldn’t eat Brazil nuts because I actually thought they were the toes of an African American.

Since when are “Gypsies” a race?

“I’m not prejudice, I stereotype; it’s faster.”

I’m not prejudiced. I hate everyone equally.

This really sucks.

Okay, enough of this racist blather. Stop or I’m calling the paddy wagon to haul you off.

To not honor a bet, I believe, has been called Welshing; to negotiate down a price is an anti-semitic slur I won’t delineate; to take back a gift refers to Indian-giving — nice bit of info about this one, BrandeX; I never knew that, but it makes sense; and the last one, to not deliver on a promise, I think must refer to “gyp”, the impetus slur for the entire strip.

They’re actually from India originally, and reached Europe through Egypt (which is where the English term for them comes from; they call themselves Romany or Romani). As you say, they’re nomadic, which means they don’t fit in very well in a modern bureaucratic state, which forces them to choose life on questionable terms with the law or abandonment of their traditional culture. They are wonderful with horses, fine metalworkers…and fantastic musicians, having influenced everything from Flamenco to Liszt and Brahms.

sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me…get over it, all youse PC prisses

How we jump through hoops for the sake of being “politcally correct”. It’s about the intent of what you say that makes i wrong. Stop being so easily offeded by words.