# Have you ever been called an ethnic slur in real life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 5, 2015, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594 "2015-10-05T09:48:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/41 "2015-10-05T15:39:32Z")
Several times. As a kid, it was upsetting. The one time it happened as an adult, I didn’t react. We were in public, and I knew I wasn’t in physical danger. My response would be different if it happened when I was in a bad or isolated area. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/42 "2015-10-05T16:02:29Z")
I’ve been called a white bitch, a fat white bitch, a crazy white bitch. A nigger lover, a honky. I don’t remember ever being called a cracker. I’ve been called a dumb blonde and a dumb Pollack - I’m not Polish. I’ve also been called a slut, a whore, a bitch, a cunt, and just about any other name you can think of. Mostly I ignore it but every now and then somebody will get me on the wrong day. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/43 "2015-10-05T16:13:22Z")
Yep. Been called “Dot head”, “Sand nigger”, “Camel Jockey” at various points in life (I’m south Asian so those last two are kinda weird, but ok). I was much younger at the time (middle school, high school), so I’m not sure how I exactly responded, but I think I kind of just ignored it. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/44 "2015-10-05T16:18:39Z")
The last time someone called me a cracker muthufucka, I said, “Hang on, man. Cracker is the wrong term. I’m a Saltine-American.” While he was puzzling over that, I moved on and had a good laugh with my friends later. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/45 "2015-10-05T16:22:24Z")
No, although I was pretty surprised and taken aback to be called “a colonial” by a British person. It’s not a phrase I’d heard used to refer to New Zealanders before. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/46 "2015-10-05T16:22:43Z")
I’ve been called nigger multiple times. Each time was a different reaction. Several times I’ve picked up a weapon and reacted violently. A couple of times I was stunned into speechlessness. People I’d known for some time who had never before shown those depths. Quite a lesson I learned. Probably the worse, was just silence waiting for something bad to happen. A bunch of white guys surrounded me and my cousin and started yelling and whatnot. They were never able to work themselves up to actually attacking us. Once some witnesses started appearing they ran away. I was in a rage for days afterwards, if I’d ever seen one of those guys again it would not have ended well. For someone. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/47 "2015-10-05T16:27:30Z")
Yes in the Army, a few times jokingly, and a few times in a serious attempt at some form of intimidation, but I’m white so it didn’t hurt my feelings or intimidate me. I think it’s almost impossible to hurt the average white person’s feelings with racial epithets except for under certain circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/48 "2015-10-05T16:28:10Z")
Limiting this to my adult life since kids are kids. Yes, I have been referred to as “Jew” in a way that was meant to be nasty. I also got a lot o “you people” when people would decide I needed to know how horrible it was that us people had a Country called Israel that we didn’t deserve. Other random anti Semitic stuff. Never got Kike though, at least to my face. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/49 "2015-10-05T18:16:33Z")
Election season, 1964. I was in Jr. High School. I had a Johnson/Humphrey bumper sticker on the front of one of my notebooks. For this, I got called a nigger-lover. Trust me: Coming from the particular guy from whom that came, it could only be considered a compliment. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/50 "2015-10-05T18:19:10Z")
I’ve been called a nigger a few times. Hard for me to take offense at it, as I’m not black, nor is there anyway a person could even remotely mistake me for having African ancestry. I was called a faggot once, on this board, because I was making fun of the movie _300_. It was such a pathetic over-reaction to a piddling “offense,” I don’t think I even bothered reporting it. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/51 "2015-10-05T18:23:40Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I was called a faggot once, on this board, because I was making fun of the movie _300_. It was such a pathetic over-reaction to a piddling “offense,” I don’t think I even bothered reporting it. Besides, as one of the most homoerotic mainstream films in history, the _actual_ (self-described) faggots I know overwhelmingly like that movie. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/52 "2015-10-05T18:24:37Z")
Couple of time. Called various things to do with the Faroes and sheep. I called the fuckers fat pig fucking Danes, and they weren’t even fat. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/53 "2015-10-05T19:37:46Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I was called a faggot once, on this board, because I was making fun of the movie _300_. Yeah buddy, that’s his own hair! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/54 "2015-10-05T20:00:01Z")
I’ve been called Paki (which I am not) also raghead (which I also am not). But those aren’t really the insults that sting. Anyone who is reduced to using those words is clearly an asshole. its the ones you thought liked you and then they make some derogatory comments about Indians and maybe don’t even correlate it with you, because they think you are part of the “crew”. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/55 "2015-10-05T20:24:27Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I’ve been called Paki (which I am not) also raghead (which I also am not). But those aren’t really the insults that sting. Anyone who is reduced to using those words is clearly an asshole. its the ones you thought liked you and then they make some derogatory comments about Indians and maybe don’t even correlate it with you, because they think you are part of the “crew”. I’ve been called a Paki too (which I’m not either) by a bunch of drunk guys in a car. I was more surprised than anything else, and by the time I could think about reacting they were gone. Your second comment, though, hits home pretty hard. I’ve noticed this happening more and more the longer I live in the UK - I wonder if it’s a combination of becoming more Anglicised and therefore not obviously a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant. Part of my identity is still very strongly bound up with being Indian, though, which makes listening to this difficult. It’s a confusing mix of feeling multiple identities without really belonging anywhere, though, which makes the "coconut " epithet both feel true and ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/56 "2015-10-05T20:48:20Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > I’m not calling anyone a liar when I say this, just expressing my surprise, but: I am 42 years old, I’ve lived the majority of my life in extremely ethnically diverse areas of the Mid-Atlantic and South, and I have never in my life heard someone use the words _honky_ or _cracker_ unironically. (At my inner city junior high school, where I was one of the nerdy Asian/White kids bussed in for the Magnet program, the epithet of choice for menacing me was _white boy_, or simply _boy_.) > > I’m just shocked because this board seems to have quite a few people who have been called those things (they’ve cropped up in many more threads than this one). Is it that I’m just way too young for these old-timey insults? Or have I just been living in the wrong (or right, depending on your POV) places? According to an earwitness, giving sworn testimony during Zimmerman’s trial, Travon Martin referred to George Zimmerman as a “cracker” and a “nigger” on February 26, 2012. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/57 "2015-10-05T20:55:19Z")
_No one can make you feel inferior without your consent_. - Eleanor Roosevelt ---
**Author:** ![Mikeisskeptical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@Mikeisskeptical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikeisskeptical)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/58 "2015-10-05T20:59:38Z")
The problem I sometimes get is that racists tend to assume I’m one of them. I’m quite tall and blonde, I love rock music, I wear a leather jacket and speak with a strong working class accent. I can’t tell you the number of times someone who I thought seemed pretty okay, has suddenly said something incredibly offensive to me, obviously fully expecting me to agree. It’s easy to be oblivious to the level of racism when it’s not directed at you. I used to drink and occasionally play, in a local rock bar and never really noticed that everyone there was white. I took a black girl there one time and the landlord (who’d always been incredibly friendly and attentive towards me.) made it completely clear that we weren’t welcome. It really shocked me. Obviously I never went back and neither have any of my friends since I told them about it. I felt so naive for never picking up any signals before. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/59 "2015-10-05T21:11:47Z")
Yes. “Dirty Jew” from a passing car when I was a kid (early 1960s). I was shocked and confused. Shocked because it was an unknown adult woman who slowed down her car just to yell at me. Confused because I never saw this person before and could not figure out how she knew my father was Jewish and why it would make her so mad. (I was a Quaker.) ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594/60 "2015-10-05T21:24:19Z")
As a kid I was called “injin/injun”, “Squaw”, “Shitting Bull” and I usually ended up in a fight. As an adult I haven’t been called anything other than “one of those Indians”\*. My heart hurts for my middle son who takes after me (the other two look much whiter) because his girlfriend’s family is pretty racist. Her mom likes him but her brother is always saying nasty or racist stuff to him. Thankfully, that son has a long fuse because even though the brother is older my son has him by 40 pounds, was a wrestler, football player and did some MMA. The “one of those Indians” comment came from her grandmother. For a few years I had to put up with a sister-in-law making vaguely racist stuff about the kids her kids were dating. One girl had an Asian boyfriend and one daughter had a black boyfriend. Strangely, her son is dating a black girl and that vague, eye rolling kind of conversation has stopped. It’s either that or any time she started up I would leave the room. \*It’s funny because I am dark skinned, long black haired… and am half German. My husband is half German and half Irish. So my sons are technically half German with a German last name and German mother’s Maiden name… but, though they don’t have enough Blood Quantum to be in my tribe… they are still called “one of those Indians”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-called-an-ethnic-slur-in-real-life/733594.md?page=4)