An ugly word

[JackOfDiamonds]

If we aren't bothered by being called a "gringo," it's because we just don't have the perspective to grasp how bad it is. People in countries other than the US might believe "negro" is an acceptable term to refer to a person with "black" skin because in their language it means what it says and carries no historical baggage, but it's no longer acceptable in the US. "Gringo" never has been acceptable in Mexico. Maybe only a Mexican can grasp just how bad the word is. The joke's on us--that is, we who aren't bothered by it.

We have a beach literally called (N-WORD) Beach.
My favorite sandwich place is called "(N-WORD) Baguettes "
Heck, even the coffee im drinking now is from a place called "N****" Coffee...
We even have children's song with the N word in it ! no joke...

While the N word carries a lot of history especially in America, the rough translation of it in many places is considered non-offensive, hence the examples ive just given.
I have yet to meet a single black person around here who cared about this or found it offensive. Im sure some would but the percentage is astonishingly small.

But its always funny when i get to meet tourists and they ask the name of the beach they are on... the expressions are priceless .

 

[Scuba-74]

Maybe only a Mexican can grasp just how bad the word is. The joke's on us--that is, we who aren't bothered by it.

Why exactly is the joke on us? Even if what you are saying is true, and we don't understand the full extent of a horrible insult that word is, and Mexicans do, who cares???

 

[flyboy08]

America is the only place that has become politically correct and whats funny is the rest of the world is laughing at us.

 

[Scuba-74]

America is the only place that has become politically correct and whats funny is the rest of the world is laughing at us.

Exactly!

 

[Esprise Me]

Yeah, no.

The word "gringo" is insulting, sure. But it doesn't follow that a Mexican person calling an American a gringo is no different than any other insult based on race or nationality. It's a matter of punching up or down. The U.S. is a much richer and more powerful country. There's no Mexican politician stirring up his base by talking about building a wall to keep us out. Desperate Americans aren't crossing the desert, hoping for a back-breaking job that doesn't pay a living wage, and being torn from their families when they get caught. Middle-class Americans are strolling casually across the border to enjoy the beaches and the favorable exchange rate, where they can party it up on what is to them very little money, but might be a month's salary to the Mexican server. The U.S. is not being overrun by drug lords getting rich by transporting narcotics from Canada across our country into Mexico, where Mexicans flex their incredible spending power to make crime more lucrative by several orders of magnitude, and therefore more powerful, than our law enforcement. Americans getting called "gringo" in Mexico can laugh and take their business elsewhere. Americans getting called "gringo" in the U.S. can probably bring down a world of hurt on their Mexican name-callers if they're so inclined (maybe that person is a citizen, but what about his family? Oh and we're apparently detaining citizens now, too...)

Sure, you can be offended. A ten-year old has every right to object to being hit by a four-year-old, but that doesn't make it OK to hit back, nor does it make it equally wrong for each kid to hit the other.

Incidentally, I speak Spanish well enough to know when I'm being mocked, and my interactions with Mexican people on both sides of the border have been overwhelmingly positive. Did they all like me? Probably not--I'm as much a jerk as anyone--but they treated me with at least a modicum of courtesy. I'm honestly surprised that some of you have had such different experiences.

 

[Steelyeyes]

Meh. I've been called a gringo, haole, gaijin and probably other derogatory words when abroad. I'm just not that sensitive. It's not that I don't know what the words mean. I just don't care to turn every little thing into something bigger and dumber by being a jerk about it.

 

[agilis]

America is the only place that has become politically correct and whats funny is the rest of the world is laughing at us.

Have you been to Great Britain lately? Very recently a girl was effectively denied her secondary school diploma because she was a vegetarian who criticized Islamic/Halal ritual slaughter of food animals in her graduating essay as 'disgusting'. The essay was rejected as an example of 'hateful racism'. of 'Islamophobia'. The young woman is a strict ethical vegetarian who was horrified by the Halal (and Kosher) method of cutting the throat, windpipe, and jugular of an animal.while it is fully conscious. Most civilized countries require that animals first be stunned before any cutting takes place. Great Britain and the US make an exception for Halal and Kosher slaughtering. The Brits are extremely politically correct when it comes to anything Islamic. Out of fear, I think.

 

[BRT]

Once again, more people should have learned that little jingle, "Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.".

 

[agilis]

Once again, more people should have learned that little jingle, "Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.".

Quite right. I've been called all sorts of things over the years and in various places. My first wife is Jewish. Her family sometimes referred to me as a 'sheygitz'. a word that basically means a male bovine animal. When they got to like me better I was promoted to a 'Goy", a non-Jew with no nasty implication attached. It didn't bother me in the slightest. I realized that they were unable to overcome their ugly primitive tribal bigotry, and I told them so, with a smile.

 

[BRT]

Quite right. I've been called all sorts of things over the years and in various places. My first wife is Jewish. Her family sometimes referred to me as a 'sheygitz'. a word that basically means a male bovine animal. When they got to like me better I was promoted to a 'Goy", a non-Jew with no nasty implication attached. It didn't bother me in the slightest. I realized that they were unable to overcome their ugly primitive tribal bigotry, and I told them so, with a smile.

I just don't care. If they are calling me names because they hate me for being from the USA I will watch them a little closer. I learned Spanish in the orchard with a bunch of teenager-early twenties Mexicans, mostly from uneducated backgrounds. A lot of them were and are really smart, capable people. But they called me gringo, gabacho, guero and things much worse. We worked together, played together and some of them are still my friends 45 years later. I would never call them a greaser or a wetback in anger, but to tease? Of course.