It is actually common. Innocuous terms are turned into slurs all the time. I think.
It’s an interesting problem on an international message board - so I can be having a conversation with someone who can casually use a word that I am conditioned to avoid.
One that comes to mind is the word “Polack” for “Pole”/person from Poland or of Polish origin. It’s just the English spelling and pronunciation of the Polish word polak, which means “a Pole [male, singular].” Despite it being completely innocuous in the source language, it is generally considered offensive in at least American English.
Yeah … it was very jarring for me to hear a British person so casually throwing the word “Jap” around. In American English, it’s considered offensive. In British English, at least twenty years ago, it seemed not to be. (UK Dopers can correct me on this, but this is from a person who never showed a racist bone in his body and worked actively in the Roma community combatting racism, so it’d be odd for him to use the word casually if it were offensive, especially as he was particularly fond of the Japanese.) Similarly, “Paki” here in the US doesn’t necessarily come across as offensive – hell, I’ve seen that word in Pakistani businesses here in Chicago. But when I moved to Britain, I at first I thought it was just a British English way to refer to Pakistanis. I once very innocently and casually used the word, only to have my Scottish colleague explain to me that perhaps I missed the finer details on the usage of the word (i.e. missing the fact that it is highly offensive, and not just UK English for “Pakistani.”)
News reports in India often use the contraction “Pak” in headlines. It seems to me that “Pak” is used both neutrally and derogatorily in casual conversation.
I wonder if the (non-offensive use of Paki by Pakistanis is related to their awareness the origin of the country name.
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I’ve heard many many Pakistanis pronounce “Pakistan” as “Pakstan.”
Probably not the same, but in New England, “packie” could also refer to a “package store”, a store authorized by the state to sell liquor.
That’s how Punjabis will pronounce it in India, also.
Since Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, Punjabi was looked down upon; since the people in power in Pakistan were Urdu speaking people from northern India.
“ Urdu is preferred medium of education in local schools-colleges[46][47] as well as Government paperwork which is threatening for survival of Punjabi language in Punjab, Pakistan.[48][49] In September 2015, a case was filed in Supreme Court of Pakistanagainst Government of Punjab, Pakistan as it did not take any step to implement Punjabi language in the province.[50]” - Punjabi nationalism - Wikipedia
I’ll wager your ex was from the north. It’s not there there aren’t racists down south but that is very much a term I used to hear when in the northern provinces.
I think it worth mentioning that there are supermarkets all over the Midlands called Pak Stores
Exactly the same for Germany. Polacke is definitely a bad slur in German.
ETA: just like Itaker for an Italian person.
We had a thread about this here, right? I remember it vividly.
It’s a bit of an ethical conundrum. In theory, it seems right for actual Pakistani people living in actual Pakistan to be “in charge” of the usage of their own name. I think I’d be pretty hacked off if some racist bozos on the other side of the world co-opted ‘Aussie’ to the extent that polite people wouldn’t say it any more, and it was referred to as ‘the A word’ on message boards.
On the other hand, Pakistan/India/Bangladesh-origin British people also frequent message boards, not to mention the minute you log out and walk down the street IRL you’re in company of people who definitely will be hurt and offended by it
‘The Japs’ is something I’d associate with the War, so as a term it’s not really ever heard these days. We have a teeny tiny Japanese population, so it just doesn’t come up in conversation. I would say, if pressed, people would regard it as a mild slur to be avoided. No doubt if we hard a larger Japanese population, the ignorant racists who throw ‘Paki’ around would embrace it.
“The paki shop” was common terminology throughout the U.K. in the 70s and 80s. The principal significance of the term in broad use was not so much racism (although in retrospect it was certainly racist), but the fact that the immigrants from the Indian subcontinent who ran these small local convenience stores would open much longer hours than the 9-5 that was still the norm in those days. So if you wanted a pint of milk at 6am or a packet of fags at 9pm, the paki shop was usually the only place open.
Indeed. I made quite an ass of myself, if I recall correctly
Concur. The only context I have heard it in is people discussing the war. In everyday terms, people would tend to say “You know, in Japan, they…” or 'The Japanese have…"
Here in the U.S., I once relied on a garage called “Pak Auto Service,” staffed by Pakistani immigrants, to service my car. Every time I mentioned the name to a South Asian person, E would get visibly uncomfortable, thinking I was describing them with a disparaging term rather than using the business’s actual name.
That wasn’t the bit I remembered 
He’s from West Midlands and has lived in U.S. for 30+ years, so I think he’s still stuck in his youth in many ways, Witness me cringe as he once complimented a man on his lovely oriental wife 