For high school I went to Berkeley Prep, an almost-all-white private school in Tampa. Once my brother (in the form/class a year behind mine) gloated to me how one of his classes was proctored/babysat for a period by one of our few AA students (in the form ahead of mine), and they all amused themselves by loudly telling “Chinese” jokes, e.g., “Why do Chinese pimps wear platform shoes? To keep their knuckles from dragging!” But that was (so it seemed at the time and to us white kids) more in the nature of good-natured ribbing. This is . . . something else again.
Isn’t that against the Geneva Convention? You guys still believe in that, right?
That’s the first thing to go upon becoming a superpower.
Oops. That’s right. :smack:
My bad.
How could forcing someone to drink colored water be a war crime?
.
Actually, if you’re this president the Geneva Conventions is the first thing you come upon. Just an observation.
No one said anything about Miller!
I confess, I’m partial to Guinness 
That’s exactly what I’ve heard. A friend who’s a waiter in Atlanta was the first I knew of it from.
I will admit that I have used it myself, not in a racist way so much as a racial one. There are times you don’t want to be overheard because it could be misinterpreted and people can be very thin-skinned and ridiculously hypersensitive where race is concerned, especially down here. Sometimes it’s easier to say “The restaurant is over there next to that store… can’t think of it’s name but mainly plus-sized Canadian women” or “that dance club is Canadian” because, on my holiest oath, if you say “it’s the restaurant next to that store whose name I can’t remember but whose customers are mostly large black women” or “you don’t really want to go there, it’s mainly a club for young black people” then *so help me Og * there are people who will overhear you and somehow get offended with a “how dare you imply there are businesses that cater to predominantly black customer bases?” or “Oh! So you’re saying that two 50 year old white people might feel out of place just because the other people are all 20-something black kids! You KKK bastard!” type attitude.
Another “I swear to Og” irony is that the people most likely to get offended are not black people but white liberals (especially transplants). Most black people know that Top Flight is a mostly young black club/St. John’s is a mostly black church/Phillips-Riley is a black funeral home/Johanna’s is a hair stylist for black people (ooh, this is the one that really irks me- anybody with bat brains knows that it is not racist to say that white people and black people have VERY different hair, yet I’ve had people act offended in one job when I took one white client to a white barber and a black client who wanted cornrows to a black stylist).
Anyway, there are white Libbies eager to prove how enlightened they are they’ll take offense at such things, and I’m sure some very sensitive black people would as well. And I’ve no doubt that many people use the term in a more agressively racist way as well.
But since the term is outed I will confess: there’s a gas station near my house that is (and I have absolutely no idea why this is so, but it is) a major hang out for young black guys late at night. It’s odd, because there’s nothing there but a convenience store/gas station and it’s even in a super-inconvenient off a service road location, and its run by middle aged Pakistanis (by which I mean actual Pakistanis, not the white euphemism for lesbian Mormons) and there’s not even a lot of parking places outside the gas pumps, but at 2 a.m. on a Friday night especially there will be 30 or 40 young black kids there (until at some point the police wheel through and make those who aren’t buying gas leave). Okay, so the code name for this store to locals, including the cops and some of the black kids [I assume some know why, but judging from this thread perhaps I’m wrong], is “The Canadian Embassy”.
When I was in D.C. I kept hearing references to “The Canadian Embassy” and how some of the most valuable real estate on embassy row was “The Canadian Embassy” and “The Canadian Embassy” is the largest in D.C., blah blah blah, and the Montgomerites I was with and I had to chuckle everytime because we all thought of the Citgo station near the Shakespeare Festival. Odd.
Anyway, the term is kinda “last year or more”. I assumed most black people had already started knowing it was slang and was expecting it to turn up in rap songs or something. Odd to see it outed here first.
And now the hunt begins for a new euphemistic code. (Shummanites? Too long… Bedouin? Fremen? Ah well…)
Smoked Irish.
Hehehehe, when I was a kid I read something about discrimination against lesbians. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why anyone would be prejudiced against Danny Thomas. Several years later I had a moment. :smack: Doh!
ETA: I don’t get out much either, never heard the Canadian thing.
It’s an oooooold term. The incident I described in post #2 happened in 2004. Before that I’d heard it from my brother’s USMC buddies in ~'97 - which is how I knew immediately what my wife’s coworkers were talking about, and I’m pretty sure they (the marines) got it from NYPD Blue - going off very vague memories here but they didn’t coin the term - and they (NYPD Blue) probably got it from street lingo in the '80s or earlier.
Yeah, nobody is that nice. And North Carolina, I’m watching you too.
A Doper related mix-up with this term:
About a year and a half ago (not quite- January 2007 to be precise) I was in D.C. and while there I had dinner with our own Ginger of the North (and Blue Kangaroo and hubby, go Tsavos!). I was telling the friend I went with that time who’s not a Doper but does lurk (codename Earl on the Dope) that I was meeting someone from the Dope for dinner.
Earl: Which one is Ginger of the North? I don’t think I remember her.
Me: She lives in Maryland… married to Dave… she’s Canadian.
Earl: Is it the one who posted the one about the little white boy and the rap music?
Me [confused]: No, that was Askia. Askia’s a guy.
Earl: Oh, the Doper lady you like who’s “under a pile of bills”
Me: [confused]: No, that’s Jali, she’s in Atlanta. Ginger’s in Maryland, and she’s married to Dave.
Earl rattles off some other Doper posts he can think of before I realize and say
Me: No, Ginger’s white. She’s Canadian. FROM CANADA.
Earl: Oh! I was wondering why you were speaking Chinese* when we’re in a hotel room.
*Chinese: this is actually a Cuban term; Cubans are masters of double speak to get around possible government spying and it’s called “speaking Chinese” (whatever that is in Cuban Spanish). A friend of mine who’s a poli-sci professor in Georgia and who lived in Beijing for several years before moving to Cuba on a research sabbatical was being introduced around Havana and at some point mentioned that she speaks Chinese she got “So? Big whoop!” looks and “We all do”. When she said “Wow! I had no idea!” (in Spanish) and started speaking in Mandarin they looked at her as if she’d gone nuts, before they realized what the mix-up was and started laughing (in Spanish). She didn’t realize that speaking Chinese was, ironically, code for speaking in code.
So, in order not to offend hypersensitive black people, you’re willing to risk the ire of hypersensitive Canadians?
I respectfully submit Romulans. That way we won’t offend any real fictional alien species that are related to Vulcans.
No, actual Canadians understand that sort of thing. And we tip, TYVM.
Incidentally, just to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings, I have an anecdotal report of “Canadian” being used to mean “gay” (incidentally, this was from almost five years before same-sex marriage).
How about … oh, Jews?
Uhhh … maybe not.
It would get too confusing. Besides, it’s already being used for the Vietnamese.
Hypersensitive Canadians aren’t historically a group people worry about offending in Alabama. Except for down on the coast where my sister lives- they get tons of retiree Canadians every winter who drive everybody nuts by not tipping and stealing sugar packets/creamers/plastic utensils/napkins in the restaurants and complaining about everything. They’re a vital part of the economy, however, so to avoid offending them they’re referred to in mixed company as Laotians.
Whaddaya want? They’re retirees.