# A word mangeorge
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 1, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339 "2001-03-01T05:06:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/1 "2001-03-01T05:06:30Z")
Please explain your response in this Thread [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61235](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61235). You called Mexican “Wetbacks”. This is a racist comment.
From Merriam Webster dictionary.
Main Entry: wet·back
Pronunciation: 'wet-"bak
Function: noun
Etymology: from the practice of wading or swimming the Rio Grande where it forms the U.S.-Mexico border
Date: 1929
sometimes offensive : a Mexican who enters the U.S. illegally
This term is like calling a Black–Ni\*\*\*. The term “wetback” started as a term for farm workers but especially those of Mexican descent. This term is now used only in the derogatory to describe a person of Mexican descent, even if he entered the US illegally.
I believe you should apologize to all of the Hispanic poster on this board.
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/2 "2001-03-01T05:13:47Z")
Sigh… why do you waste your time? Anyone stupid enough to say something like that, knowing full well he’s gonna get his ass handed to him, is not gonna care what you say about him. You would have better luck getting Hitler to apologize about the Holocaust, I think.
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### Author:  [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/3 "2001-03-01T05:19:05Z")
I agree with you **thedoorsrule1045** on his ignorance. I only write this so that those people who are not acquanted with derogatory phrases for Mexicans can learn.
I read what mangeorge wrote and actually he was only parroting the isolationism of the United States that has been prevalent since the early 1900’s. Others in the thread were also doing the same. It is just mangeorge resorted to a racist comment to do so.
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### Author:  [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/4 "2001-03-01T05:23:24Z")
Well actually another reason is that comments like that makes me angry cause it just perpetuates falsehoods about a race of people. I am sure my brother-in-law and sister-in-law would not appreciate his comments, both of which are of Mexican descent.
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/5 "2001-03-01T05:35:35Z")
Well, my mother’s whole side of the family is of Hispanic descent, so should I be offended? I’m not. If the guy’s being a dick, nothing you or I can say is gonna matter. I say just let it go, or you’ll kill yourself being angry over it. I would know. I used to get all wound up about stuff like that. As I got older, though, I learned that while you can EDUCATE someone you can’t make him LEARN, if you follow my meaning.
My .02
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### Author:  [@inor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inor)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/6 "2001-03-01T06:18:28Z")
k, I read the whole thread.
Nowhere prior to that post do I see signs of racism in any of his posts.
In that post, he mentions SoCal.
He uses the term very casually. I get the idea that it’s an accepted term where ever he’s coming from. I don’t get the idea he’s a racist, or that he used it in a racist way. I get the idea he’s had lot of exposure to them, and that if he’s saying it so casually, then he could _possibly_ have used it with them much like blacks call each other nigger sometimes, not as an insult, but as a term of familiarity, of being their own group.
I get the idea that he _wouldn’t_ use the term wetback to somebody who actually had any right to be offended at it under normal circumstances. I get a glimmer of an idea that it’s _possible_ he used it to get his opponents’ goat a little bit.
I could be wrong, that’s a lot of supposition.
Here’s some that’s not supposition- my son is part mexican and navaho. His grand father is 1/2 mex, 1/2 nav. His grandfather and I used to trade wetback/greaser/whiteboy/honky insults all the time. If we weren’t, it was because one of us was mad at the other.
I grew up with a large number of indians (yes, indians, not native americans- we called them indians, and lots of them still call themselves indians- they even have a special _flat_ way of pronouncing it- kinda sounds like ‘indin’). There are some I’ve come to hate, because of their fucking victim rationale. There are some I don’t hate. Those I like, I tease. And get teased back. Those I don’t like, I don’t tease.
It’s an issue of familiarity. There are mexicans I don’t like either. And, if I’ve been in fights with them, I’ve called them every racist name I could think of, as they did me. On the other hand, I have picked up some traditional cooking methods, some of the words, and some of the general practices of both navaho and mexicans, so I can keep a little bit of it alive for my son, out of respect for those parts of his heritage, his mother’s and his grandfather’s heritages, along with the irish he gets from me. I don’t go out of my way to do this, especially, just a little here and there, so he knows a little bit and can get into it later if he wants to. I tell irish jokes, black jokes, mexican jokes, blonde jokes, man jokes, etc.
You, on the other hand, have a brother and sister in law, and a cleaning lady at work, who you spoke to with the aid of your handy-dandy little dictionary. (I can’t ever 'splan it to you lucy, but god, it cracked me up…)
Hey, I can see how you’d be in a position to get offended.
So, last night I ran across some other fuckin pcr’s. Today, I run across some goddamm christians. Now, tonight, it’s more fuckin pcr’s.
Your own fucking definition states it’s ‘sometimes’ used derogatorily. Sometimes ain’t always.
I also don’t think there are many Americans on these boards who need you to point out the history of the word. And it’s _not_ a false stereotype- a wetback is a wetback because they swim the river. It’s sometimes used offensively, and there are people who come over via other methods, but that doesn’t say the term is only used offensively, or that it somehow perpetuates _false_ stereotypes. Again, like a myriad of other things, terms, actions, it depends on who is holding/saying/doing it and why.
So, here’s a little stereotype for the both of you, **Deb and doors** (thedoorsrule- the fuckin fun I could have with that one…)
I bet you both shit so skinny you could weave with it.
Adios, perra y perro
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/7 "2001-03-01T06:31:26Z")
LOL 🙂
Thanks for that. I need a beat down every once in a while, if only to make me laugh my ass off. By the way, can I use that last line for my sig?
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### Author:  [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/8 "2001-03-01T06:32:47Z")
What?!!
you say here:
> [@](#):
>
> I have always considered what you just said as a racist saying due its derogatory meaning.
Yet here (your own quote):
> [@](#):
>
> Etymology: from the practice of wading or swimming the Rio Grande where it forms the U.S.-Mexico border
> Date: 1929
> sometimes offensive : a Mexican who enters the U.S. illegally
it says it’s SOMETIMES offensive.
Then you contradict THAT with this:
> [@](#):
>
> The term “wetback” started as a term for farm workers but especially those of Mexican descent.
No, according to your previous quote, it apparently didn’t. You do know what Etymology means? Maybe you should look that up in your English-Spanish dictionary.
Coupled with the fact that mangeorge is a perpetual sweetie and was essentially arguing for immigrants, I think you are way the fuck off base.
Another nice knee-jerk reaction by another one of the PC police.
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### Author:  [@inor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inor)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/9 "2001-03-01T06:34:46Z")
welcome to it, puta
(yeh yeh, i never said i was a _good_ father…)
😉
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### Author:  [@inor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inor)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/10 "2001-03-01T06:37:15Z")
I was gonna make a comment about how we used to have knee-jerk conservatism, and how knee-jerk liberalism didn’t seem to be any improvement.
**Doors** - I have provisionally swallowed anything up there I said about you.
::GAck::
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/11 "2001-03-01T06:46:49Z")
Wow. Fuckin’ wow. 😃 I’m not sure whether you guys are with me or against me on this, but I’ll tell you, I am laughing my ass off at all this PC bullshit I read around here. I just find it so pathetic. Remember, everyone, if humor wasn’t offesive to someone it wouldn’t be funny 😉 .
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### Author:  [@inor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inor)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/12 "2001-03-01T06:55:56Z")
doors turns an insult directed at him into one of his sigs- I might _like_ this kid…
😉
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/13 "2001-03-01T07:02:17Z")
I try, Dude, I really try.
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### Author:  [@inor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inor)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/14 "2001-03-01T07:09:19Z")
k, man. you have a blast…
one thing though- humor doesn’t _have_ to be offensive…
::puts on his fake tits, pinches doors- oh, you a _good_ boy…:D::
'night all
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### Author:  [@Mercutio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mercutio)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/15 "2001-03-01T07:10:28Z")
Does mangeorge have a racial tendency, maybe, but I doubt it. I am from Hispanic decent, do I care? No. It’s just a friggin’ word. This would be different if every other word for Mexican or Hispanic mangeorge used was a offensive, but looking on the thread, it wasn’t.
This is slim pickin’s compared to what else is going on on these boards or around the world.
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### Author:  [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/16 "2001-03-01T07:27:52Z")
I personally have known a lot of hispanics who have used the derogatory term ‘wetback’ in reference to recent immigrants (usually illegal) who work in low-paying jobs, pack a dozen people in one apartment, etc. There is actually quite a bit of hostility towards them among the more established hispanics.
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### Author:  [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/17 "2001-03-01T07:41:23Z")
I guess I do not understand how this could just be a PC reaction. I did not say that mangeorge was racist, I specifically said that the term was racist. Whole difference.
I learned one of the older definitions of the term from my Mom who I asked before writing this thread. I was raised in El Centro, California which has a large population of people with Hispanic origins and is a large farming community. It is 6 miles north of the Mexican border. My mother was also born and raised in that area. I asked her what the term meant so that I could get her take on what the word meant in a less PC time. This is what she knew the word to mean in the 1930s so I should have stated where I got that definition from in my orginal post.
I have never heard the term wetback used positively. I have called him on it to ask for an explanation just as I hope I would any other racial slur that is meant to degrade a race. I have personnaly known many Mexicans who have struggled to gain respect as American citizens as well as Mexicans who have struggled to gain respect with a green card. The term continues to perpetuate the myth that a person of Mexican origin is not worthy of being an American.
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### Author:  [@inor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inor)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/18 "2001-03-01T14:32:05Z")
I guess I can respect some of what you’re saying. But the speed with which you reacted and the way you want someone to apologize to someone else, while not always, in this instance gives me the feeling that your setting yourself up to be _arbiter of what I can and can’t say/think_.
And aside from the insults, the little homely paens to what a good father I am above and the cute way with words, what I basically said is that a simple term is not necessarily a racist remark. It depends upon the intent of the person saying it.
IMHO, there is no such thing as a racist remark, per se. There are many remarks that _can_ be racist, but that determination is derived from the intent of the speaker. In my own opinion, far and away most people are racists to some degree or other- prejudice comes from fear, fear comes from the unknown, or some kind of ‘known’, _percieved_ threat. There’s a lot I don’t know about other races, and I can’t help some fear, much as I try. And since I’m not mother mary, superman, or hulk hogan, I tend to stereotype to some degree, and tend to be negative to some degree. (Women drivers…oy…;)) To me, it’s not a question of being racist- of course I am. It’s a question of being honest about it and trying to make some meaningful strides in overcoming it. And automatically getting my bustle in a hustle over every possible instance of it and denying it’s presence in me doesn’t help any.
I know you mean well though.
Sorry I harshed on you so much up there…
I will continue to do so in the future when I feel the need to…
😉
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### Author:  [@inor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inor)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/19 "2001-03-01T14:46:42Z")
When am I gonna get this right?
-I am also genderist,ageist, weightist and economic statusist, and (as some mods and my bosses/supervisors could maybe tell you), authorityist.
It’s the attempts to overcome these limiters and the occasional, small successes I have that make it ok. I have plenty of failures, way more than successes.
I have ceased saying ‘o, blacks are all good and they’re oppressed, o, indians would be good people if the whites would give them a fair shake etc…’
I have these prejudices. I deal with them the best I can. That entails working with myself from where I am, not from some ‘should be’ plane of ‘correct’ existence. Denying the existence of these traits or thinking I am some kind of really bad person for having them does not help me work on them. I know this man- I’ve gone both those routes.
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### Author:  [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2001, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-mangeorge/56339/20 "2001-03-01T19:11:54Z")
**inor** may I suggest you do a search on “wetback & Mexican”. You will be appalled at the pages you will find. There are some good articles regarding how the term “wetback” is also used as a derogatory term for anyone of Mexican descent. There are also vicious hate sites.
I need to go wash my eyeballs out.
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