Oh dear. I come from profoundly agricultural roots and geeky parents. I just looked up ethnic slurs on Wiki. I will now, never say anything again.
JK, you can’t keep a blabbermouth like me down. But I will be second guessing everything.
Mangia cake? Really Canada? You are the sweetest of people. Wha?
Bingo – growing up hanging out in Seaside Heights decades before Jersey Shore hit, pretty much everyone fit into one of three groups: “guidos”, “longhairs”, and “other”. You didn’t have to be Italian to be a guido, but it helped from a “fit the stereotype” perspective. We knew plenty of guidos who weren’t Italian – it was a style of dress and attitude, more than anything.
I have no problem with the word and would use it. If anyone complained, I would not use it in front of them again.
What if Guido shot first…?
…forget how that goes…
I have no idea what Jersey Shore is but I would never consider Guido a slur. As a second generation Italian, it is used in the same way as Dork or Goth or Nerd. I would certainly use those terms in front of my boss.
To this Texan, it appears to be an ethnic slur; my boss is even more Texan & probably wouldn’t understand it. I’d avoid it…
Down here (near South Louisiana) we know quite a few coonasses. The word’s roots are non-rude & it really has nothing to do with the nether regions of a raccoon.
However, if you aren’t one, you probably shouldn’t use the word.
It’s not a slur, racial nor ethnic. It is a descriptive term for a particular cultural sub-set of NE, most commonly found in NY & NJ. Often of Italian/Sicilian root stock, but more commonly several generations removed and/or mixed ethnicity.
In other words, it describes how some people act, especially where I live.
My boss uses the term himself.
It’s an ethnic slur that I wouldn’t use around my boss or anybody in a professional context. I don’t think I’d say it even if it was understood we were discussing The Jersey Shore.
This was my impression from the outside. I’ve never heard it not used negatively. If it were just a term for a subculture, it would be used favorably and neutrally.
As for me, even if I’m wrong about it being a slur, I wouldn’t use it in front of my boss. It would identify me as someone who watches Jersey Shore.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word used in my life by anyone, except in reference to The Jersey Shore, and even then only rarely.
I would never use it
This confuses me, because in Ukrainian the word for grandfather is pronounced like guido (well, gee-do). So yeah, my family uses the word all the time and coming from a predominantly Eastern European farming community I hear it a lot.
Definitely a slur.
You may get the excuse, “I don’t mean all Italians, just the ones that X.”
To which you can respond, “I hear the same reasoning from people who use the n-word.”
So yes, it’s a slur.
Except one needn’t be Italian to be a guido. It’s an option, an identity, a social grouping. Just because it’s strongly related to one ethnic background doesn’t make that a prerequisite. In no way is it a racial slur.
This is the same argument as “Not all black people are niggers.”
But what do you expect in a world where the world’s most popular video game has enemies called “goombas”? I half expect to find kikes and chinks in the next version.
We had an officer on our squad that everybody called Guido. He even signed his reports that way. Yes, he was of Italian descent. Seeing’s as how we were in Appalachia we COULD have pulled a “Deliverence” number on him, but we didn’t. I guess he was just grateful for that.
My first marriage was to a “guido.”
I swear to God, here in our present Fair City, we have a Guido Lane.
P.S. Guido was featured on America’s Most Wanted. A stand-off at a house. The guy came out on his porch with the gun hung loosely in his hand. Guido shot it out of his hand, and nobody was hurt. He was damn good.
If my boss and I are having a discussion about weirdly orange weightlifters who like to drink jagbombs and make dumb faces in photos, yeah, guido might make an appearance. If we’re talking about italian-americans, no I wouldn’t even think to use the word. Of course, it wasn’t until this thread that I learned people see it as on par with wop and dago. (Which, by the way, I’ve never heard anyone use in real life so while they’re slurs, if I heard someone use one, I’d just laugh because they sound like nonsense words to me.)
Well, as a self styled “Demi-wop,” I’ve taken many affectionate jabs at my Italian heritage over the years. I’ve used it casual conversation before, but yeah, to a non-Italian i suppose it’s a slur.
Actually, let me clarify that, since I guess I’m a bit confused by the OP. I would only take offense if someone (and specifically someone I didn’t like) called me a Guido. The word is not prima facie offensive the same way the black and jewish slurs i can think of are, for example. Was this a pointed remark at your boss?
I occasionally work with someone whose last name is Guido. I’d be rather handicapped in conversations with my boss concerning the project Ms. Guido and I both work on if I were unwilling to use ‘Guido’ in earshot of my boss.