Did you know that "banana" was a slur to Asian Americans?

[Nars_Glinley]

A co-worker called me to change his password. As is my custom, I looked around my office for an item to it change to. I had a banana on my desk. I told him that I changed his temporary password to 123BANANA and that he’d have to change it after he logged in.

The co-worker is from the Texas panhandle (and talks like it) but is clearly of Asian descent from his appearance. He informed me that “banana” is a derogatory term for someone like him that is “yellow on the outside and white on the inside”. I had no idea and gave him my explanation. I think he believed me.

Have you heard of this? Apparently “twinkie” is equally offensive.

Poll coming.

[Inner_Stickler]

I wouldn’t argue with an asian person about it but my experience is these ‘color’ on the outside, white on the inside insults are generally intra-racial barbs and meant to accuse the person of wanting to be white or acting white like they think it makes them better than their peers.

As someone who changes passwords for people regularly, I’ve found it’s safest to stick with a standard prefix like Temppassword and a mix of 4 or 5 random digits or characters at the end.

[billfish678]

Just thank the Gods you didn’t have some other food products lurking around you office…

[Machine_Elf]

There’s so damn many slang terms out there - most of them rather esoteric/arcane - that it’s easy to accidentally run afoul of someone.

I knew a guy who occasionally referred to one of his coworkers as “chicken hawk,” because the fellow was short in stature and had some speech mannerisms similar to the classic Looney Tunes character; it was good-natured ribbing, but his supervisor had to tell him to stop because (unbeknownst to him) “chickenhawk” is also derogatory slang for certain gay men.

[Nars_Glinley]

@Inner_Stickler

I wouldn’t argue with an asian person about it but my experience is these ‘color’ on the outside, white on the inside insults are generally intra-racial barbs and meant to accuse the person of wanting to be white or acting white like they think it makes them better than their peers.

Could very well be. He told me that it was his sister that called him “Banana”.

[Omega_Glory]

Yes. It’s used in the same way as oreo to insult certain black people.

[Sahirrnee]

Don’t use coconut either.

[DCnDC]

As an Asian, I have never heard this. But I’m certain I live in a more progressive and diverse place than just about anywhere in Texas.

[moldmonkey]

Never heard of banana but apple gets thrown around in Indian country. As noted above, it’s one that’s used within the group so not sure if that counts as a racial slur.

[Darren_Garrison]

I’ve heard of it before (and I think Twinkie for the same thing.)

Just tell him that it was a line of sight name.

[gigi]

Thanks to the SDMB, I rejected someone’s request for a username that contained GYPSY. But I would not have known about “Banana” :eek:

[levdrakon]

@Machine_Elf

There’s so damn many slang terms out there - most of them rather esoteric/arcane - that it’s easy to accidentally run afoul of someone.

I knew a guy who occasionally referred to one of his coworkers as “chicken hawk,” because the fellow was short in stature and had some speech mannerisms similar to the classic Looney Tunes character; it was good-natured ribbing, but his supervisor had to tell him to stop because (unbeknownst to him) “chickenhawk” is also derogatory slang for certain gay men.

Chickenhawk, cradle robber, cougar. They’re not really nice terms, but I don’t think they’re that bad, and certainly not bad enough to ban them. That’s silly. As passwords???

A twink or twinkie in the gay community means young and effeminate, or just young and naive maybe, but c’mon - these are common words. You can’t ban English.

[Nars_Glinley]

@gigi

Thanks to the SDMB, I rejected someone’s request for a username that contained GYPSY. But I would not have known about “Banana” :eek:

Is “GYPSY” different than “Gypsy”, as in the Romani?

[davidm]

@Machine_Elf

There’s so damn many slang terms out there - most of them rather esoteric/arcane - that it’s easy to accidentally run afoul of someone.

I knew a guy who occasionally referred to one of his coworkers as “chicken hawk,” because the fellow was short in stature and had some speech mannerisms similar to the classic Looney Tunes character; it was good-natured ribbing, but his supervisor had to tell him to stop because (unbeknownst to him) “chickenhawk” is also derogatory slang for certain gay men.

Calling him that because his stature and mannerisms remind you of a goofy cartoon character doesn’t also strike you as problematic? In a lot of workplaces you’d get called into HR for a talk if you did that.

[Quartz]

I think that a sufficiently skilled orator can turn any word into a word of offence.

[Evan_Drake]

Chinese netizens get incandescent with rage when people eat bananas on YouTube, for a variety of reasons. One being the Chinese gov banned such videos when the girl was meant to be eating it sexily. Another that is is pro-filipino.

Chinese netizens are fully as dementedly mind-blowingly insane as American netizens. [ Think those newspaper comments frothingly denouncing Demonrats and Rethuglicans. ]

[Algher]

@DCnDC

As an Asian, I have never heard this. But I’m certain I live in a more progressive and diverse place than just about anywhere in Texas.

Given that I first heard used on the Stanford campus, I wouldn’t go pointing fingers at Texas that fast.

[BigT]

I’ve heard of it. But, obviously, like Oreo, it depends on context. No one will give you grief if you’re talking about the fruit.

I didn’t know it was “white on the inside, yellow on the outside.” I just thought it was offensive because bananas are yellow. Makes sense, though.

[Trancephalic]

This was the subject of an entire episode of King of the Hill. I think “apple” in reference to American Indians came up there, too.

[greenmario]

I’ve heard it said before, pretty much always by an Asian person to an Asian person, although its pretty tame as for as slurs go.