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Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 14:43:17 GMT
From: Paul Halliday <pjghnopsamyonder.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Saab or GM?


in article 3E121134.5020703nopsamnline.net, tom reingold at tlr244nopsamnline.net wrote on 31/12/2002 21:50: >>> On 12/24/2002 4:42 PM:Paul Halliday wrote >>> >>>> By Jap, do you mean Oriental? I have a Hyundai S-Coupe as well as two >>>> Saabs. >>>> I wouldn't call it no-maintenance. I have a bad flow-sensor that mis-fires >>>> like an overboosting turbo. It's a pig. "Jap" cars are all electronics and >>>> prone to hideous failure. Still, the 3.0L Supra is one hell of a drive. >>> >>> Firstly, he said Japanese, not Jap. In case you don't know, Jap is a >>> racist term. I know, I know, it sounds innocuous, especially since it's >>> just an abbreviation. But it has come to have the same status as the >>> word nigger. >> >> And who decides such things? If the poster didn't know, as it is not well >> known, then presumably it was not used in a racist context and should not >> be interpreted as such. You can read all sorts of things into everything >> if you want to. >> >> Johannes > > I know he didn't mean it racistly. I have no problem with his mistake. > I also think it's a good idea to tell people when they make that > mistake, lest they are taken to mean to sound racist. Once you're > warned, you have a responsibility. > > As for who decides these things? Ask dictionary writers how the observe > the language. Recently, I read an article about them. They insist that > they only observe and never dictate. This is for English, anyway. I'm > sure the attitudes are different with other languages. The point is > that there are general trends, and the general trend with the word "Jap" > is that is usually used as a racist term. Most other uses are by people > who don't know that. That qualifies it very resoluttely as a racist term. First things first. May I make my most sincere apologies for using a term that has been seen as offensive. I innocently used it as an abbreviation and it was not meant to cause offence. Now that I am aware of the international use of this term, I will not be using it again. Tom, I stand corrected and I do now carry the responsibility that you mention. Here in the UK, we are not as exposed to oriental peoples as much as, say, the US or Australia and we do have a number of far more offensive terms for these people, hence I did not think the term I used was offensive. It is not generally a term of abuse here in the UK, but a generic term for any people of oriental racial stock. I was seeking a clarification as to whether we were talking about Japanese cars specifically, or more broadly, oriental cars. You may also notice that I have not used the term Asian. We use that term to refer to Indian sub-continent people here in the UK and we're probably as careful about how we refer to these people as the US is of oriental people. A few years ago, I was visiting some friends who had a friend from Chicago staying with them. He was very confused, after declaring a love for Asian cuisine, when we took him for an Indian meal :) Misunderstandings can happen very easily when certain terms have different meanings internationally. Regards, Paul

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