Call me when you are harassed by police, not hired for a job you are qualified for, or denied fair housing simply for being a wypipo. Whether or not racism has consequences depends on the big picture.
Never heard it before. Assuming it’s pronounced the way I’m hearing it in my head, it sounds like someone *mocking *someone who speaks AAV. Is that part of the point? Am I missing something?
Pretty confident that if I applied for a job at a company run by someone who thinks wypipo is funny, I wouldn’t get the job. At least, not if there were a similarly qualified black candidate in the running.
I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m not sure I agree. Obviously, it’s entirely up to you whether or not you are personally offended by a racist slur. But even if you’re not offended, you should still object to people using them. The reason is that, when it comes to racial bigotry, we can’t have one rule for group A and a different rule for group B. Either racist insults are bad, in which case no-one can use them, or they’re OK, in which case everyone can use them. I don’t think I need to spell out why this is a dangerous question.
1 white man = wypipo
more than one white man = wypipi
Never heard of it before. If someone called me that, I would just assume he or she was an idiot, and move on.
Hi!
…the girl who’s hard to get!..
Insults referencing white people’s whiteness don’t carry the same sting as insults referencing minorities, simply because white people are well aware of their higher status in this society, whether they’re willing to admit it, or not. Especially in the US, there’s no real stigma attached to being white, in spite of the honky’s reputation for being uncool. White people, once they were accepted as white, were not lynched, enslaved, excluded from economic opportunities, or constantly told they were inferior. Even those white people who were not at first accepted as white, (Poles, Greeks, Italians, Irish, etc…), weren’t treated as badly as Blacks, Hispanics, and Indians, (native Americans), were. To be accepted as white was a step up, so of course being called white by whatever name will not be taken as an insult, however intended. Few white people are truly bothered by being called honkies, ofays, or whatever.
On the other hand, minorities, especially blacks, have suffered real oppression, simply for who they are. These words are a harsh reminder of that, and signifiers of their lower status. In other words, when a white person calls a minority one of these names, he’s saying, “I’m better than you”. It doesn’t work both ways here.
Quibble - it’s saying, “I’m more powerful than you.” The intent is not just to insult, but to threaten.
I agree as well. In the 80s people in my class were debating whether n***er meant just a certain set of black people or was a derogatory name for them all. Even in 6th grade it was pretty obvious that it was a general slur and the debate was stupid.
“Wypipo” has the same formation as n***er (an alteration of a neutral term). In light of the previous “debate” over whether there is an appropriate use for the n-word, it seems pretty far-fetched that wypipo only refers to a certain subset of white people.
And to an extent, it doesn’t matter if it does. It costs nothing to be polite in terminology. Even if n***er referred to a only a certain type of black people originally, people don’t think it does now, so you’d better find some other way to refer to them. If you don’t people will suspect, most of the times correctly, that you used to word intentionally to offend.
*As long as whatever substitute word you can find is as precise as you need. In the case of wypipo and naggers, it’s usually not useful to refer to the subset of bad-behaving people of a certain race: just refer to their behavior. For instance, even if you think white people are all Koch suckers, there are a substantial number of non-black PoC who are trumpteers as well.
Nope. Not a bit.
I would reconsider the pants.
HOWEVER, this is not what folks usually mean/imply by wypipo, though. It is not a generic substitution for caucasian. It has a specific cultural meaning and use and this example is not it.
Called wypipo in the correct context, I would not be offended, but I would sure as shit check myself right quick. I would realize I was definitely out of pocket and, in other words, acting out of privilege and profound ignorance and embedded racism. It would not be about my pants.
Context matters.
In the thread this came out of it was used offensively, in a manner that sure, insulted “white people” as a group, but more so was a way to call any other posters disagreeing with his position racist.
I find that manner of using the word offensive, not the word itself. And while I had checked out of participating in that thread a few days earlier as I had no interest in repeating back and forth the same ideas, especially with someone who was choosing to insult rather than engage, as someone who had disagreed with that poster in the thread, I had been one of those disagreeing with him.
In that thread, that context, that usage, “wypipo” was calling me and all others with opinions other than that poster “racist.” As that poster stated above it was meant “as a specifically patronizing insult”.
Yes that is offensive.
Big deal offensive? No. Roll-eyes offensive. This is a person who is not worth talking to level offensive. Laughable hypocrisy offensiveness (when someone argues that a white person using the word “nigger” in the context of saying something like “I’m concerned that in this show this character saying ‘nigger’ may be out of bounds and bad for our brand.” is being racist, by using a word in a manner intended to offend and to insult.)
“Kike” level it isn’t. But I do think that calling me racist because I do not agree with you is an insult. A weak sauce ineffective one, sure, but an insult nevertheless.
I do not accept the position that someone calling someone racist automatically means the person is.
If you truly respect black people you would. The fact that people are not offended is that they don’t have that level of respect for black people.
If I get a choice, I’d rather any group I belong to (and any group I don’t) get referred to with terms that at least attempt to be respectful…although there is a time for humor as well. On the flip side of the humor thing, I’m not fond of disrepecting someone and then claiming “its just a joke.”
I’m nearly 30. I’m not going to feign outrage over a term and certainly don’t care if something minor offends someone else. I’m liberal, but I’m not a bleeding heart who’ll get upset over every damn thing.
OT Edit: ugh, just admitting “I’m nearly 30” makes me feel so awful. Cue Alphaville’s song.
In this case the person using it is not then claiming it’s “just a joke.” He’s straight up about its being intended as a way to call others in a discussion racists.
Edited to add - I’m nearly 60. I’m not going be outraged over people who choose to be assholes and to attempt to offend instead of engage on a message board. I can just walk away pretty easily. But whether or not it is effective at causing offense, its intent is to do so.
I have since modified my stance on the term. I now say that I do not find the term “offensive” as people use that word. I do not find it an insult to get angry about being used against me.
That said, I do think it is dumb, because it gives ammunition to the alt-right (aka Nazis aka white supremacists) to use as proof that we hate white people. The term itself is just a respelling of “white people.” And I do not think the restriction to a particular type of white person holds water, since they can turn around and use the same thing for their racist or bigoted terms. (My late great uncle, before I convinced him otherwise, would say that about the n-word.)
So, while I say I am not offended, I do say it should not be used. There is no reason to validate the persecution complex some racists have.
That said, I will make lemonade here–I will now use this as a term I can agree with the racists is a bad thing but argue that most liberals are also against it, and then use that position of being on their side to help argue against their use of such words. Granted, that doesn’t stop racism altogether, but it’s a start.
I would recognise it as an offensive word; whether or not I choose to be offended is situation-dependent.
I’m a white person, but of course that’s not the sum of what it means. In the contexts I have read, it means a white person who is stupid about their white privilege.
I try to be aware of my white privilege (and male privilege), but it’s not top of mind all the time, and I suppose I might do or say something clueless sometimes. One thing I do know is that, being white, I don’t have to carry the fact of white privilege in my head every minute of every day for survival, like some people of color do. On that account, at least, I am inclined to cut a lot of slack in the use of that expression.
I will add that I don’t find it particularly helpful, and if I did find myself lumped in with people who don’t behave well only because of my skin color and not because of my own behavior, I would discount its validity as a piece of social intercourse. On the other hand, some white people (along with some other people) deserve to be laughed at, which is what this seems to be mostly about.
As Louis Jordan said: “It don’t make no difference what you think about me. But it makes a whole lot of difference what I think about you.”