An ugly word

[Lorenzoid]

I see your point. Question - if the person speaking to us isn't malevolent towards us, no ill will, do we want to get it, or just let it go? I think that's a core issue.

Richard.

I think this conversation has two related but distinct issues: (1) are we or would we be offended; and (2) if so, how should we react? I just let it go. I like to believe I know I should be offended, but I take the points others have made above into account. Have a thick skin. Consider good-natured ribbing among friends. Consider imbalance of insults between countries. Etc.

 

[Scuba-74]

Are there ANY derogatory names you would find offensive to be called? If you’re so thick-skinned that you really don’t care, then okay, though you’re almost certainly in the minority.

Yes, I would fine most personal insults offensive, I'm not that thick-skinned. But you would probably agree that personal insults are very different from ethnic nicknames?

I have to believe most people feel offended about SOME word that refers to their ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, maybe a physical characteristic, or whatever.

Those are all different, so I will take a liberty of picking "ethnicity, race, nationality", and putting "religion, and a physical characteristic" aside. Why would anyone be seriously offended by a nickname referring to their ethnicity, race, or nationality, especially if used by a stranger in a non-threatening scenario?

When such term is used, it means a few things: 1) an opponent makes an assumption about me representing certain group, which may or may not be correct; 2) an opponent displays their attitude toward that group by using a jargon term (which may be the only term they know, by the way). Assuming the worst case scenario - meaning they assumed correct, and they do have certain negative attitude towards the group I represent - why would I be offended?

Do I believe that any of the groups I represent are universally loved? Absolutely not, and I'm fully aware of that. So if I'm facing someone who doesn't like my group, and I'm not in a situation when I depend on them or they can threaten me, why would I care one way or another how they feel about my group? If anything, I'd be glad they showed their true colors, rather than hiding behind fake facade of political correctness.

 

[Scuba-74]

If you feel bad when someone calls you "gringo" when you are in a Spanish speaking country, then consider what we feel when someone call us "Sudaca" or "Latino" when we are in USA (I've not visited Canada yet).

Would you rather be called "Hispanic"? Sounds a bit more "ignorant" than "Latino" to me, and I'm not aware of any other generic term that would refer to people from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

If you feel bad when someone calls you "gringo" when you are in a Spanish speaking country, then consider what we feel when someone call us "Sudaca" or "Latino" when we are in USA (I've not visited Canada yet).

Since when is "Latino" considered offensive ? It's was never a derogatory word.

Is there anything people can say with out someone being offended?

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . . Why would anyone be seriously offended by a nickname referring to their ethnicity, race, or nationality, especially if used by a stranger in a non-threatening scenario?. . .

I'll just leave it at that.

 

[Scuba-74]

Sure. I should have left it at my first post on this thread, rather than belabor this non-issue.

 

[nippurmagnum]

Let me get this straight. When they are surprised and imply that they were incorrect to have thought you were a "gringo," you refuse their admission of being incorrect and refer to yourself as a gringo? Why not instead help them change their perception of what a "gringo" is? In their minds, gringos effectively encompass all visitors they see from North America, and North Americans simply do not speak Spanish. If some time in the future the majority of North Americans are speaking Spanish when they visit Mexico, won't the word have lost meaning? At the least, it will become what El Grad says it presently is not--a way to avoid a cumbersome word such as Estadounidense or Norteamericano.

In the circumstance I describe, I refer to myself as a gringo so that they see the danger of making assumptions. I may look 100% like a gringo, but I am a native Spanish speaker. When they hear me speak Spanish, they replace one broad set of assumptions (total gringo) with another broad set of assumptions (not a gringo at all). When I tell them I am in fact a gringo, they often say “not like any other gringo I’ve met before” — and I just smile and leave it at that.

If we are talking about the future, I’d love to see enough intermarriage across cultures/languages/ethnicities that we stop thinking along those lines at all, we become just a bunch of human mutts, and just treat each other as individuals.

 

[nippurmagnum]

Would you rather be called "Hispanic"? Sounds a bit more "ignorant" than "Latino" to me, and I'm not aware of any other generic term that would refer to people from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

I am originally from South America, as is my wife. My kids were born in the US but only speak Spanish at home.

If you ask me if I consider myself “Latino” I would say a firm no, because I find that word profoundly irritating. To me, a self-described “Latino” is likely to have been born in the US, have spent very little time in Latin America, and speak little or no Spanish — but will go to extraordinary efforts to overenunciate the world “Latino”.

If you ask me if I’m Hispanic, I’d take that more as a language/cultural reference, and would explain my background, and I might even just say “yes”.

But neither term would really mean anything to anyone in the Americas outside of the US and maybe Canada.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

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

Being politically correct is like trying to pick up a turd from the clean end.

That being said, no one in Mexico has ever referred to or called out to me as "Gringo". In light of that, I had not idea it was derogatory, regardless. Lessons learned. I have, however, jokingly referred to myself as "el gringo alto". I will not be doing so again.

Thank you for the education.

 

[Allison Finch]

People can call me gringo all they want to. I choose whether or not to be offended, not anyone else.

I will give myself ulcers over far more important matters.