# Do you avoid your peeps like the plague? If so why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 17, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547 "2005-02-17T15:20:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![archmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/archmichael)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/21 "2005-02-18T00:40:28Z")
Fresh Off the Boat ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/22 "2005-02-18T00:42:20Z")
> [@PastAllReason](#): > > So I have to ask, what is FOB? Can be slightly derogatory, but generally it means a person from another country who holds on to their old customs/practices with a very fierce attitude. Often they are almost a caricature of the culture. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/23 "2005-02-18T00:44:54Z")
Thanks to both of you for the answer. I’ve never heard that before. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/24 "2005-02-18T00:59:13Z")
> [@audiobottle](#): > > In some ways I find other Korean people to be more easily relate-able on first contact. If nothing else, you can do the stupid Korean jokes (“What did the bread say when it hit the wall? Bbang!”). I don’t get this joke, but it is making me laugh anyway, and I really want to understand it! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/25 "2005-02-18T01:03:53Z")
The Korean word for bread is bbang. Rhymes with gong. I put the double b because it’s spelled (in Korean) with a double b consonant. It’s like bong, but make the -ong sound shorter and sharper. I’ll have to think of some more now. It’s been a while since I last traded these around. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/26 "2005-02-18T01:05:58Z")
Oh, and I should add that when you tell the joke, you’re supposed to pronounce the bbang a little incorrectly, so it sounds more like “gong” (thus actually making a joke). More on topic, I have a Japanese friend, female, who flat out refuses to date Asian men. Why? I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/27 "2005-02-18T01:11:58Z")
All right, since I prompted the thread, I’ll speak up. I had no idea Stonebow was W. Indian. But honestly, no, E. Indians and W. Indians don’t consider each other to be the same “peeps”. We look upon each other somewhat less familiarly than Indians & Chinese do. Really. As for why I avoid my people, here’s a list: [ul] [li] They are nosy. My business is not my own with them.[/li][li] They disapprove highly of my boyfriend.[/li][li] They disapprove highly of my lifestyle.[/li][li] They do not hesitate to tell me to my face, what they disapprove of. Like when I bought cigarettes for a friend, and the guy said “Oh! Good Indian girls don’t smoke!” I didn’t think of it at the time, but I should have said, “Yeah, well, i read porn, too. Hand me a Hustler, hon.”[/li][li] They do not have what I think of as “Western” manners. They stare. They do not smle when eyes meet. They stare. Did I mention they stare at me? Constantly? In the street, mall, or wherever we run into each other? I think they are trying to figure out if I am Indian, since I don’t look typical. But Og, it’s rude. [/li][li] They can, will, and have, reported to my parents or family who I am out with and what I am doing.[/li][li] They are constantly trying to marry me to some obscure boy in their family.[/li][li] Or encouraging me to get married & spawn a bunch of rugrats.[/li][/ul] There is lots lots more. But that is what comes to my head right away. Now. I do like some Indians. I do miss talking in my own language, etc. But so many times I come across the above problems. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/28 "2005-02-18T01:13:08Z")
Oh, and FOB means Apu, from the Simpsons. ABCD means American Born Confused Desi (desi=Indian) I am neither, thankfully. Born in India, but not FOB. Although I am definitely confused. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/29 "2005-02-18T01:13:31Z")
Given that I am a WASP–I cannot avoid my “peeps” (what does that stand for?). But sometimes, they make me sick. Usually when they assume that the white bread American dream holds true for everyone and anyone who hasn’t achieved it must be an illegal alien or similiar. But I digress. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/30 "2005-02-18T01:18:11Z")
Euromutt American living in Japan for about ten years (and planning to stay). Yep, I do this, especially with FOBs. Generally, they’re louder and more obnoxious than I like to hang around with. Plus, so many are just planning to stay for a few months or a year that they just seem like tourists. Oddly, I don’t have as much of a problem with actual tourists. ---
**Author:** ![dare\_devil007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@dare\_devil007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dare_devil007)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/31 "2005-02-18T01:24:04Z")
Korean-Canadian living in a Korean-Canadian community with my Korean relatives down the street going to a school where the second largest ethnic group of students is Korean. So, yeah, it’s kinda hard for me to avoid Koreans. I don’t really mind, but I cannot stand FOBs. There are so many at my school and although some of them are nice, the majority are loud, obnoxious, and think they’re cool because they’re so Korean. Ugh. It’s not a self-hate thing, though. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/32 "2005-02-18T01:40:40Z")
I’m Jewish, but I was never raised with any sort of Jewish upbringing. My family never went to synagogue, I never went to Hebrew school or got Bar Mitzvahed, never did High School In Israel or March of the Living or youth groups that other typical Jewish teens in Miami did. We just never got caught up in that “scene.” My parents were turned off to the “traditional” lifestyle of American Jews pretty early in their own lives, so they didn’t feel any need to bring my brother and I up with the cultural aspects and close involvement with other Jews. I’ve never dated Jewish girls, and never had the compulsion to sign up on [JDate.com](http://JDate.com) and meet them–most of them don’t seem to dig me anyway. My family certainly never pressured me to only date Jewish girls… they always wanted me to meet a nice Asian girl, actually! My roommate, on the other hand, takes being Jewish very seriously. He founded a Jewish fraternity chapter on his college campus, got really involved with the Jewish community in our city, and will only date Jewish girls. He even keeps Kosher, and it’s pretty funny to look in the freezer and see all his Kosher meats next to my crabcakes and spicy Italian sausages. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/33 "2005-02-18T01:46:41Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > Given that I am a WASP–I cannot avoid my “peeps” (what does that stand for?). > > But sometimes, they make me sick. Usually when they assume that the white bread American dream holds true for everyone and anyone who hasn’t achieved it must be an illegal alien or similiar. But I digress. WASPs, to me, are New England plutocrats. Is that how you’re using the term or are you meaning run-of-the-mill white Americans? Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/34 "2005-02-18T02:13:43Z")
> [@audiobottle](#): > > More on topic, I have a Japanese friend, female, who flat out refuses to date Asian men. Why? I have no idea. I have a male Japanese friend who constantly talks about how he hates Asian women and refuses to date them. According to him they are high maintenence, spoiled and if you are rich they expect you to share it with most of their family (though on the other side of the coin, if they are rich they’ll share with you.) That’s about what he said when he talked about them yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/35 "2005-02-18T02:14:23Z")
As a honky, I would have to move into a cave to avoid my peeps. I do however try to avoid using the term peeps unless I am referring to the sugar covered marshmallow candy. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/36 "2005-02-18T02:15:07Z")
**Stonebow** , that’s pretty interesting. This girl I knew was Indian-born, but adopted in infancy by an Italian family in Chicago (no, she’s not the same as the Fijian girl). Her mom took her and her two brothers back to India every year. I asked her once what it was like, being American on the inside but looking Indian and being in India. She said that in fact, most Indians just somehow “know” that she’s not “their peeps”, if you know what I mean. **archmichael** , you do realize I’ve been inside all winter, and am so pasty-white that viewing a photo of me might cause permanent blindness? Seriously, I glow. ---
**Author:** ![dare\_devil007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@dare\_devil007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dare_devil007)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/37 "2005-02-18T02:53:53Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by **audiobottle** > > In some ways I find other Korean people to be more easily relate-able on first contact. If nothing else, you can do the stupid Korean jokes (“What did the bread say when it hit the wall? Bbang!”). > > I don’t get this joke, but it is making me laugh anyway, and I really want to understand it! 😃 I’ve never heard this joke until now, but I got it right away and I couldn’t stop laughing. But, I’m warning you, it’s rather a stupid joke. Anyways, the Korean word for bread of bun is “bbahng.” That’s how it’s pronounced. It’s not pronounced “bang” (the sound a gun makes). But, when people genereally transliterate it into English, they write it as “bang” or “bbang” (because of a special sound we make with the “b”.) I hope you get it now… ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/38 "2005-02-18T04:50:59Z")
F.O.B. stands for “Fresh off the Boat” if you’re looking for the actual acronym rather than the concept. It’s the Indians that chat you up in the grocery line just b/c you’re Indian-used to be sorta acceptable when we weren’t as prevalent, now frowned upon. Also, once FOBS find out you’re Marathi, say when they’re Guju, they give you an uncomfortable smile and sidle away. Another one of our favourite terms for Desis was “Ref” as in “Refugee” and that stands for a Recently Arrived that left in Hurried Circumstances. Most FOBS eventually transmogrify into Annoying Indian Parents with Kids with Identity Crises, also known as Thug Liferz. Indian kids who reject Thug Lifizm are Alternas (which is probably what I would classify both myself and Aanamika as) b/c it’s not so much the rejection of everything Indian as it is having flat-ironed hair with orange streaks and being Pre-Med Just Because. Indian kids who avoid other Indians b/c they have self-hate are classified as “Antis” as in Anti-Indian. I have a friend that says I should write a little sociology book on it all. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/39 "2005-02-18T05:00:33Z")
I actually think ABCD should be retired but it’s basically what young Indians in India refer to their American cousins speaking “X” language with a craptastic accent as but personally I believe it hearkens back more to Jhumpa Lahiri-esque era a la Gogol Ganguli. Now that our peoples form a larger group and therefore have different levesl of identity crises I prefer the three tiered Thug Lifery, Alterna-tude, Anti-tude system I’ve concoted after years of careful study. Anti-Tude is ABCDness in its most classic sense b/c the “C” in the term doesn’t refer to confusion as much as it does trying to run away from everything Indian. My sister and I used to define Alterna-tude as the choosing of employment that had nothing to do with basic sciences, engineering, math or medicine but both Law and MBA-school are becoming perfectly acceptable venues for Thug Liferz not capable of rocking the MCATs…my own lawschool as a perfect example of this phenomenon. The old-school Indian lawyers…like the ones in their mid-30s are examples of this previous definition of Alterna-tude but these days Alterna-tude means being okay with Indianness but against flat-ironed hair with orange streaks, no-thought-Pre-Med-ism and dating guys named “Neel” who drive their parents beige Camrys. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547/40 "2005-02-18T13:57:39Z")
I also came in here to say how much I despise the word “peeps”, by the way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-your-peeps-like-the-plague-if-so-why/290547.md?page=3)