Prowler wrote:I guess it's similar to people in Europe calling anyone of East or South East Asian origin "Chinese".
People do that here, too. My parents might not do that quite as much as most people, in part because the lady who cuts our hair is Thai. I can't imagine my parents calling her "Chinese."
Or people assuming every Slavic person must be Russian.
Okay, it might be more like that.
Definitely, but you know how most people are. Notice how in a day and age where more people than ever are getting a higher education there still is a lot of ignorance in the world? And even among the supposedly well-educated.
Well, of course. Ignorance is always going to exist. That doesn't excuse racism, though.
It does seem to be the most offensive word in the English language overall, yes. I dunno what the most offensive word in my language is. As for the worst insult ever? Well to a man it's probably filho da puta. Nothing good awaits you if you call another man that. Btw, does English have an equivalent to that? Is motherfucker equivalent to it?
Son of a bitch?
Tbh, I guess even the people who aren't ignorant about the meaning behind the word will use it nonetheless and they're reasoning will be "well I'm not American, therefore that "rule" does not apply to me. And if Americans and other native English speakers don't like it, then that's their problem."
I could say, "Well, I'm not white, therefore that rule doesn't apply to me," and that would probably make even more sense because Indians never went to Africa and enslaved black people whereas Europeans did. The closest thing we have to that is Siddis, some of whom seem to have no history of being enslaved, many of whom actually became governors or even monarchs, and most of whom these days are apparently just ordinary Indians and Pakistanis who happen to have an unusual heritage. But I don't use that as an excuse to use the n-word because I know there's a history behind that word, I could never experience the impact through the generations of that history firsthand, and I realize it's an offensive term to refer to an entire race of people that's done nothing to deserve it from me.
That being said, generally speaking, it seems to me that the racial insults against black people are considered the most offensive ones in most European/White countries. Dunno how it is in countries that never took part in colonialism and have an extremely small Black population such as Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, etc.
In those countries, I get the impression that people don't even think about ethnic minorities and often don't see any. The worst ethnic slurs are probably directed at Roma.
As for the rest of your post: fair enough. I guess I can see where you're coming from.
Thanks.