My mom and a neighborhood group are writing a song for a July 4th celebration and in it they refer to Dr. Oz as “the Turk.” It sounds a little off or racist to me, but perhaps I’m seeing something that isn’t there?
I’m gonna say no.
Article 66 of the Turkish Constitution defines a “Turk” as: “Anyone who is bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship.”
From here:
Note that the country announced recently that it prefers to be called Türkiye.
Who is Dr. Oz? If the song is all about illiterate bloodthirsty degenerate Ottoman rednecks or something then it might be racist, not the mere fact of mentioning Turkey (in a July 4th song???)
Doctor Oz is the NJ resident running for a Senate seat in PA. He also promotes medical quackery on TV (He does have a legitimate medical degree).
“Turk” is a neutral term AFAIK, but can be used in a racist way, of course.
I doubt that the song in question suggests that all Turks are pseudoscience-promoting political hacks.
I’ll amend my previous post to include this. It doesn’t appear (based on 10 seconds of looking at wiki) that calling someone from Turkey a Turk is racist. But if it’s deliberately being used in a racist way, that’s different.
It’s like calling a Jew a Jew. It has been used disparagingly often enough that it looks like it might be a slur, but most of the time, it isn’t.
No it’s mostly about how they think he’s being parachuted in as a celebrity candidate and they’d like Fetterman to kick his ass (politically speaking, of course). All to the tune of “The Merry Old Land Of Oz.
Are you saying that they object to Turkey, when writing in English? Did they say why? It’s not like we’re calling it Rhodesia instead of Zimbabwe. I mean, it’s just like when you’re writing in Turkish, it’s İngiltere for England, Fransa for France.
Using “Turk” to mean someone of Turkish descent is not racist.
However, using it as an epithet for someone who has many other far more relevant traits might be.
From what I’ve read, part of it is the association with the same-named bird, part is the use of the word to mean an utter failure and partly it’s that Türkiye is what it’s called in the country itself.
I would say that simply describing a Turkish person as “a Turk” in many circumstances would not be a problem.
But in a satirical political piece describing a Turkish-American poitical candidate as “the Turk,” that sounds a bit iffy.
And part of this is a complaint that the nation comes after the bird in Google searches. Guess the bird hired a better SEO guy.
For a real flex move, the nation should have demanded that the bird change its name.
I suggest a campaign to rename the bird “Russia”.
ETA, or “Putin”.
“Turk” seems to be a-OK in Turkey.
On the other hand, “Turkification” and “Young Turks” have darker significance, at least to much of the outside world.
And if someone referred to a particular celebrity or public figure as “The Jew,” I’d at least suspect some antisemitism.
Yep, agree.
In Wikipedia:
In December 2021, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a circular calling for exports to be labelled “Made in Türkiye”. The circular also stated that in relation to other governmental communications “necessary sensitivity will be shown on the use of the phrase ‘Türkiye’ instead of phrases such as ‘Turkey’, ‘Türkei’, ‘Turquie’ etc.”[35][36] The reason given in the circular for preferring Türkiye was that it “represents and expresses the culture, civilisation, and values of the Turkish nation in the best way”. According to Turkish state broadcaster TRT World, it was also to avoid a pejorative association with turkey, the bird.[34] It was reported in January 2022 that the government planned to register Türkiye with the United Nations.[37] Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu sent letters to the UN and other international organisations on 31 May 2022 requesting that they use Türkiye. The UN agreed and implemented the request immediately.[38][39] Erdoğan also announced that Turkish Airlines would commence international operations under its Turkish name Türk Hava Yolları, based on the name change of the country.[40]
Co-sign. US politics (along with a lot of other politics) already has too much baggage when it comes to using “othering” racial and ethnic epithets to tap into voter xenophobia.