# Gringo offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 12, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667 "2006-01-12T15:41:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/1 "2006-01-12T15:41:17Z")
Hell no. If you’re offended by being called a gringo, you’re a thin-skinned whiney idiot. Despite Webster calling it “often disparaging” it typically is not used as such. With a certain inflection, it can reflect a dismissive or exasperated attitude. I’d say it’s used more often tongue-in-cheek than disparaging. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/2 "2006-01-12T15:44:39Z")
So was **CBEscapee** being dismissive, exasperated, or tongue-in-cheek? Or disparaging? ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/3 "2006-01-12T15:48:48Z")
Actually, I agree with you. It doesn’t bother me to be called a gringo at all, and I said as much in CBescapee’s pit thread addressed to Clothahump. That being said, I think there is no doubt that CB meant it in a disparaging manner, despite his weak protestations to the contrary. In fact, I think he was using the term in a stupid attempt to insult us gringos, while believing that he could skirt the rules against hate speech by pointing to a definition that said the term wasn’t offensive. All it did was make him look like more of an ass (if that’s even possible). ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/4 "2006-01-12T15:51:36Z")
Honestly, it might be insulting but I couldn’t help but just be a little amused at the idea of someone calling me a gringo. I feel the same way about cracker. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/5 "2006-01-12T15:54:25Z")
In typical fashion, gringo is dismissed as offensive because of who it is referring to. The context of the use of that word made it clear that it was intended in the perjorative manner, but since he’s speaking that way about white people, we need to shut up and take it because we have no right to be upset over it. Were the shoe on the other foot, were I casting aspersions like he was in those threads, I’d have been warned, been the subject of numerous Pit threads, at the minimum been suspended, and quite possibly they might have shown me the door. But for some reason I guess I have to suck it up. Oh, I know, I’m being whiny, I have no business complaining because I’m a white male, and people are suffering from discrimination all over the world so who the hell am I to complain… I’ve heard it all before. Whatever. I’ll tell you this, though: any person who read those threads knows that he was using it in an insulting fashion, and just as you would like to be respected, so would I. I never questioned or disparaged his nationality, just his integrity. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/6 "2006-01-12T15:56:33Z")
Doors, you’re such a gringo. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/7 "2006-01-12T15:57:50Z")
Like many other words of this sort, it depends on the context and also the region. Here in Panama, the word “gringo” is generally regarded as a simple descriptive, and is not offensive. (I recall getting my car back from the mechanic’s once, and there was a tag on the key saying “Jeep: Gringo.” I’m sure they didn’t mean it to be offensive, it was just the simplest way to identify the owner.) In Mexico, however, the term is often used in a disparaging way, and can be offensive. Even in Panama, if delivered in the wrong tone of voice or in a particular context, it could be offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/8 "2006-01-12T15:58:58Z")
It is all in the way the word is used, like the word Brit. You look like a gringo. You look like a Brit. = Not Racist Gringos eat beef. Brits eat beef. = Not Racist, but ignorant in assigning a single trait to a large group. Gringos smell funny. Brits smell funny. = Racist Gringos are all racists. Brits are all racist. = Racist ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/9 "2006-01-12T15:59:30Z")
I never once heard a Mexicano use the word gringo in anything but a disparaging manner. When they wanted to use a friendlier term, they typically used the word “anglo.” I wouldn’t say that being called a gringo upsets me, but I also recognize that it is used as a perjorative. ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/10 "2006-01-12T16:01:53Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Here in Panama, the word “gringo” is generally regarded as a simple descriptive, and is not offensive. And in Alabama in the fifties, the word “nigger” was a simple descriptive, no? ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/11 "2006-01-12T16:09:29Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > Hell no. If you’re offended by being called a gringo, you’re a thin-skinned whiney idiot. I just want to chime with the fact that on first glance I read this as 'you’re a thin-skinned **whitey** idiot. And then chuckled to myself thinking that if you’re running around calling people whitey, then gringo isn’t offensive really at all. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/12 "2006-01-12T16:10:32Z")
Hell no. If you’re offended by being called a fag, you’re a thin-skinned whiney idiot. Despite [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) calling it “a disparaging term used for homosexual men” it can also mean a cigarette or a student at a British public school. Used as a verb, it can also mean to work to exhaustion. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/13 "2006-01-12T16:10:54Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > I never once heard a Mexicano use the word gringo in anything but a disparaging manner. I’ve worked with many hispanics and Gingro usually only meant “white guy” it’s only inflection that makes it an (attempted) insult. But it really has no power beyond what people like **Airman Doors** choose to give it. You can choose to be offended by it and give it power or dismiss it because it has no real sting. Like cracker or honky, it was never used by an oppressor towards an oppressed group so it carries no baggage of it’s own. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/14 "2006-01-12T16:17:16Z")
I think it’s kind of funny how some people on this board are forever qualifying the racism that non-white people experience, and then they go completely apeshit when somebody calls them a name. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/15 "2006-01-12T16:19:25Z")
If it was good enough for Richard Starkey, it’s good enough for me. > [@Colibri](#): > > I recall getting my car back from the mechanic’s once, and there was a tag on the key saying “Jeep: Gringo.” If it’s reliable and gets good mileage, I’d buy it. Life is short. I find the word to be a bit humorous; it reminds me of old westerns. Even if it were directed to me in a disparaging way, I think I would be amused rather than insulted. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/16 "2006-01-12T16:20:16Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > Hell no. If you’re offended by being called a fag, you’re a thin-skinned whiney idiot. Despite [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) calling it “a disparaging term used for homosexual men” it can also mean a cigarette or a student at a British public school. I’m not. I think anyone stupid enough to call me a fag is too stupid to concern myself with what he thinks. That said, there’s a big difference between a word that is _only_ used as an insult and one that can be used as an insult. I think Gringo is one case where [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo) outshines Webster. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/17 "2006-01-12T16:20:33Z")
My wife is Brazilian and she calls me a “gringo” and I’m not offended in the least. In Brazil it’s definitely not disparaging, but just a way of making clear that someone is not Brazilian. **CBEscapee** however, was clearly using the word in a disparaging manner. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/18 "2006-01-12T16:20:51Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > Like cracker or honky, it was never used by an oppressor towards an oppressed group so it carries no baggage of it’s own. Wait, wait, are you saying that a word can’t be hate speech if it’s directed from (perceived) oppressed to oppressor? Ever? No baggage at all? If a poor black tenant calls his Jewish landlord a “kike”, for one stereotypical example, that’s not hate speech? If so, then if the black is the well-off landlord and the Jew is the poor tenant, “kike” would then, and only then, become hate speech? Or not even then? ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/19 "2006-01-12T16:21:36Z")
It takes a lot more than being called a name to upset old Walter. I don’t even get upset because people think I ought not to get upset. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667/20 "2006-01-12T16:28:25Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Wait, wait, are you saying that a word can’t be hate speech if it’s directed from (perceived) oppressed to oppressor? Ever? No baggage at all? > > If a poor black tenant calls his Jewish landlord a “kike”, for one stereotypical example, that’s not hate speech? If so, then if the black is the well-off landlord and the Jew is the poor tenant, “kike” would then, and only then, become hate speech? Or not even then? Don’t be intentionally obtuse. “Kike” does have the baggage because it was used in such a manner regardless of the position of the person using it. Even so, the person with the real power in any situation can make the decision to be dismissive of attempts to insult him. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gringo-offensive/339667.md?page=2)