FFS, I am going mad or...

Right. I have only just seen all the goings on here & wish to add my 2pworth!.

I have only scanned the previous zillion posts so apologies if this has aready been mentioned, but

JH - I understand your issue is that Pikey is a racist term, which refers to irish travellers and therefore you find it offensive.

However,by your own admission:
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... but it doesn't mean that anymore. Word meanings change.

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This quote is from Wikepedia - "pikey it was applied to Irish Travellers (also known as tinkers and knackers) and non-Roma Gypsies.[9][10] In the late 20th century, it came to be used to describe "a lower-class person, regarded as coarse or disreputable."[3][11]"

......and I think that the majority here will agree that their usage of the term refers to the more recent definition and has nothing to do with irish travellers.

Also interesting to note is the reference comparing the use of pikey to that of chav, ned, etc.

"In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the definition became even looser and is sometimes used to refer to a wide section of the (generally urban) underclass of the country, or merely a person of any social class who "lives on the cheap". This seems to be the meaning intended by Stephen Fry in an episode of QI, grouping together "hoodies, pikeys and chavs", and intimating that these people are of a sort who "go out on the town, beating people up and drinking Bacardi Breezers".
 
Has anyone said chav is racist?
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To use a parallel - you use the term p**i, for some strange reason, in a way not associated with an Asian person. Does that mean that the term p**i os ok, and not racisit? No - it is still a racist term. See the latest Strictly Come Dancing row for details...

Does that make it clearer at all? I am honestly trying to explain!
 
we're talking about people's cultures here, their ethniticity (sp?), who they are. So if Travellers are allowed to have their own race, then so should chavs. Travellers arent travellers through religion, they don't have their own God, 99% are roman catholic... nor do Chavs.

so surely chavs should have their own 'race' too and as such be able to deem 'Chav' as a racist term??
 
genuine question here - why is paki racist? Its short for pakistani, so am interested to know why that is classed as racist? Its just an abreviation of a race of people, not sure why that means its racist to use it?

Australians are called aussies and no one says thats racist!
 
I think it's how it is used. I was part of a huge asian group at college and they used it all the time, but it's different when it's about 'your own' or whatever. I did find it offensive when they referred to white people as 'gauri' (don't know how it's spelt) though. So i guess a lot of it is who is saying it and how it's meant. Pa*i is normally used as a racist and offensive derogatory word.

However my older relatives (and especially the OH's) come out with some shockers. Although it is shocking the things they say, they honestly don't understand and don't mean it in an offensive way. It's often just an old saying for them or a word which was commonly (rightly or wrongly- mostly wrongly) acceptable when they were growing up.
 
One of dh's chums, who is black, says the most awful racist things you can imagine!
I say 'I'm not laughing at that Larry, it's racist'
and he says 'You've offended me, now, you're only not laughing at my jokes cos I'm black ....'
doh.
 
lol. My cousins OH is black, the things my grandparents said when she got with him were disgustingly racist (although they think it's ok and it's just how things are) After several years now it's more innocent casual racism now. My uncle the other day was going on about what a good tan he had *CRINGE!* He thought it was just banter, and my cousins OH wasn't offended and laughed along but it still made me go
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To be honest, he's made of tougher stuff than to be upset at something silly like that. Most people would be- you'd have to be pretty fragile to not be able to handle it when it's only on that level.
 
QR This has got to be one of the funniest threads I have ever read on here. Why the hell are people so determined to get offended on other peoples' behalf? Some people just need to man up. My sis has always had the piss taken of her pale skin and ginger hair, but yeah she just gets on with it.
 
So what can we call the thieving sorts who invariably have Irish accents, usually drive round in vans (they need something to cart the booty round in), often live in caravans and get away with blue murder because the police can't (or daren't) touch them?

Is there an acceptable word we can commandeer until it too is deemed racist or unPC?

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I think it's just frowned upon to talk about them by some people from what i can gather, someone last night either didn't read my post or just ignored what i had said happened, as they actually said 'leave them alone'!

Maybe it's a part of their culture and so protected by their human rights when they behave like this?

As i said, if she posts about it tell her to add a picture of a fluffy kitten to distract the fluffies.
 
My ex husband is black and was the most racist person I've ever met....we'd be driving down the street and he's wind down the window and shout (and a black kid with an afro) 'get your hair cut (insert racially motivated term here)'

Someone said earlier that travellers are of Irish desent....the oldest 'travellers' descend from romany gipsys....of which I come from on my mother's side. My great grandad always used to tell me that we were from a family of horse dealers....and my nan would say 'no dad, gipsys!'
 
QR
As part of my job I am required to gather information about ethnic origin for a government dept. The classifications, amongst others, are, 'Gypsy, Roma and Traveller'. Irish is a totally separate category, the two are in no way linked in the eyes of the government.
Incidentally, until I started reading HHO I had never heard the term 'p*key'. It is not used in any context in my part of Yorks.
 
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QR
Incidentally, until I started reading HHO I had never heard the term 'p*key'. It is not used in any context in my part of Yorks.

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Lol...well it is in my part of yorkshire.....usually followed by an expletive and a phonecall to the police to report your stolen tack.....
 
Pikey = chavvy scum. You could be a traveller as much as you could be living in a bedsit, to even attending bording school.

People can't complain about it being a race term, because the Government have not, as of yet, published a paper with the list of words which are slang, and words which are racist.

A word (for me) is racist if it is about every member of that group of people, whose similarity is genetically based.

As I have said, Pikey could mean ANYONE, for me it is an attitude, and as of yet GENOME have not discovered a protein for 'scummy attitude'.
 
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