# Have you ever said something bigoted accidentally? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 31, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951 "2011-12-31T15:32:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SDMBKL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdmbkl/32/7297_2.png) [@SDMBKL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDMBKL)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/1 "2011-12-31T15:32:16Z")
Have you ever said something bigoted accidentally? When I say “accidentally”, the bigoted phrase just spills out of your mouth, because you aren’t thinking straight. Then, you feel ashamed of what you have said, because you realize that you _are_ a member of the targeted social group, and being called a “bigot” makes you feel bad about yourself because it appears like you are against the group to which you belong (sort of like betrayal of your own people). Or are you a person who has just tolerated everybody’s differences right from the start? Examples: [ul] [li]anti-Semitic Jew[/li][li]misogynistic woman[/li][li]homophobic homosexual[/li][li]racist black person[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/2 "2011-12-31T15:55:34Z")
Yep. Oops. ---
**Author:** ![UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/46a35a/32.png) [@UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UFC_Is_Sux)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/3 "2011-12-31T16:02:42Z")
Sure have, and just a couple of days ago. I had no idea that the term “guido” was considered to be a cultural/racial slur. But according to some here, it is. And it is a term that I used freely up until that time. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/4 "2011-12-31T16:37:05Z")
You can’t say something bigoted by accident unless you are a bigot. You can say something that _sounds bigoted_ by accident though. I’ve done that. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/5 "2011-12-31T16:51:03Z")
I was on the way to a trade show with a bunch of friends. We were riding in the airport shuttle bus, and joking around, loudly. I made some wise-ass comment about us having out very own “Beaner” - because one of the guys’ last name was Bean. Only later did someone point out that that comment could be taken out of context - it being LA and all… I actually didn’t even think of the racist nature of the word at the time. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/6 "2011-12-31T17:56:57Z")
Once in a while I still say "_Damn white of you."_:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sundrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sundrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sundrop)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/7 "2011-12-31T18:40:28Z")
I have a colleague at work that at one time use to regularly use the phrase “Broke as a coon” until someone pulled him aside and asked him what he thought it meant. He said, and I quote, “I dunno. I reckon someone who is broke as a coon is really broke. Just like a raccoon, cause they don’t have any pockets to carry money in.”. Once it was explained to him that ‘coon’ is a racial slur, he stopped using the phrase. The guy is a character and I don’t think he has a bigoted bone in his body, but there you go. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/8 "2012-01-01T01:48:34Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > You can’t say something bigoted by accident unless you are a bigot. You can say something that _sounds bigoted_ by accident though. I’ve done that. My dad once was canvassing the neighborhood looking for our pet raccoon, which had gone missing (she came back eventually). He went up to a neighbors door and asked if anyone had seen “our little black coon”. You guessed it - the neighbor was black. Embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/9 "2012-01-01T01:51:55Z")
I once dated a woman who said something about how her customers tried to “Chew her down” on the price of something she was selling. I looked at her in horror, and said that I didn’t think she should use that expression. She was surprised, and asked why not. So, I told her that it wasn’t _chew_, it was _Jew_, and it was pretty bigoted. She was shocked, because she had never realized that, and she was Jewish! ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/10 "2012-01-01T19:38:00Z")
Amongst my mates we have a saying, when talking about somewhere thats not close, as it being a “Three day camel ride to get there”. Once when an Islamic lady asked me directions in England I told her where the place was, and unwittingly said the fatal sentence. It was only when she looked at me oddly that I realised that she thought I was being offensive.(Though she didn’t say anything.) ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/11 "2012-01-01T21:28:49Z")
I spent a large portion of my life thinking “gypped” was just a normal word for “ripped off.” Luckily I don’t think I ever said it in front of any actual gypsies. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/12 "2012-01-01T21:36:49Z")
> [@Terraplane](#): > > I spent a large portion of my life thinking “gypped” was just a normal word for “ripped off.” Luckily I don’t think I ever said it in front of any actual gypsies. I’ve been guilty of that in the past. “I was gypped”. “What a gyp”. I had no idea it was a reference to Romanis or even that it was derived from “Gypsy”. For years I also didn’t know that the term “Gypsy” itself is considered derogatory. It makes me wonder what else I may be saying that I probably shouldn’t be. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/13 "2012-01-01T21:37:51Z")
> [@Terraplane](#): > > I spent a large portion of my life thinking “gypped” was just a normal word for “ripped off.” Luckily I don’t think I ever said it in front of any actual gypsies. I remember using that term when I was younger, and at some point being corrected for it. Emphatically. By my mother. There is Roma (gypsy) blood on her side of the family several generations back. Oops. Way back when I lived in the U.K., I used the term “Paki shop” quite freely - most people I knew then did. As in, “I’m running down to the Paki shop, do you need anything?” > **[Paki shop - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Paki_shop)** I didn’t mean it in an inoffensive way then, but it is now considered a racist term. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/14 "2012-01-02T12:55:13Z")
I’ve used the term myself, as have many: if not most people living in the U.K.whatever ethnicity they come from. And we haven’t used it to be offensive about Pakistanis, just as we aren’t being offensive when we talk about going out for an Indian, or a Chinese. Wiki is, excuse my French, full of shit, in this entry. Another overreaction by the proffessional "P.C. Chip on the shoulder "brigade. If an actual Pakistani doesn’t find the term offensive why do others take it upon themselves to be offended on their behalf, whether they want them to or not? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/15 "2012-01-02T15:25:59Z")
At one point in my Naval career, I somehow got into the bad habit of calling everyone by the nickname “Buckwheat”; not as a racial epithet but rather along the lines of calling someone a hayseed or a bumpkin as a joke. The inevitable happened, of course, and I used the word with a young black man who was new to the command. He had said something to me and I replied in an offhand manner, "you better believe it, buckwheat’. He stopped dead and stared at me in disbelief, then said “what did you call me, Chief?” I actually had to think for a moment to recall what I had said, and the sudden realization hit me that I had been using an offensive term for some six months. Apologies and explanations ensued, and I thanked him for calling it to my attention. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/16 "2012-01-02T16:16:44Z")
I still occasionally say “in a coon’s age” to refer to a long period of time. Sort of like “Boy, I haven’t gone trap shooting in a coon’s age. Sounds like fun!” Fortunately, if you type “coon’s age” in Google, the first hit points to [this learned source](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1536/whats-the-origin-of-coons-age), which indicates that the phrase is all about raccoons and not bigotry. But I still catch myself and wonder just how many people heard me and think “well now… I never would have imagined he was a bigot,” with a sneer. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/17 "2012-01-02T19:15:56Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > At one point in my Naval career, I somehow got into the bad habit of calling everyone by the nickname “Buckwheat”; not as a racial epithet but rather along the lines of calling someone a hayseed or a bumpkin as a joke. The inevitable happened, of course, and I used the word with a young black man who was new to the command. He had said something to me and I replied in an offhand manner, "you better believe it, buckwheat’. He stopped dead and stared at me in disbelief, then said “what did you call me, Chief?” I actually had to think for a moment to recall what I had said, and the sudden realization hit me that I had been using an offensive term for some six months. Apologies and explanations ensued, and I thanked him for calling it to my attention. “Now go home and get your _fuckin’ shine box_!” ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/18 "2012-01-02T19:19:48Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Once in a while I still say "_Damn white of you."_:smack: Similar here, using ‘mighty white of you’ instead. It’s on purpose though, as I don’t expect anyone to actually take offense. Um…don’t think I’ve ever said that to anyone not white though, lol. When that happens, I’ll let you know the result! ---
**Author:** ![UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/46a35a/32.png) [@UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UFC_Is_Sux)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/19 "2012-01-02T19:19:55Z")
I’d probably be banned then hunted down like an animal if I told you what we used to call Brazil nuts when I was growing up. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951/20 "2012-01-02T19:23:49Z")
> [@UFC\_Is\_Sux](#): > > I’d probably be banned then hunted down like an animal if I told you what we used to call Brazil nuts when I was growing up. You repeat what you hear in your home. “Nigger toes” was what my father called them, so that’s what I called them until I was old enough to know better. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-said-something-bigoted-accidentally/607951.md?page=2)