# Is the word 'slope' a racial slur? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 1, 2003, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576 "2003-07-01T14:23:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andymurph64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@andymurph64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andymurph64)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/1 "2003-07-01T14:23:25Z")
There is another BB that has a censor which replaces the word ‘slope’ with ‘racial slur’. Huh? Have a missed something? I have never heard that word used in that way. Is it true? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/2 "2003-07-01T14:26:02Z")
I’ve heard it used as a racial slur (meaning “Asian”) only once in my life, in the 1980 classic “The Formula” with George C. Scott and Marlon Brando. So, yep, but I don’t know who uses it anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/3 "2003-07-01T14:26:26Z")
When applied to Asian people, it’s a racial slur. Ski slopes, no. ---
**Author:** ![andymurph64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@andymurph64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andymurph64)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/4 "2003-07-01T14:31:35Z")
I came across it because I said ‘slippery slope’ which came across as ‘slippery racial slur’. I did not like the way it came out ☹ I never heard this. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/5 "2003-07-01T14:36:14Z")
Well, their filtering system sucks, but I first heard this word during the Vietnam war. Zipper head was another one. It’s definitely not a nice term. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/6 "2003-07-01T14:37:29Z")
IMHO that BB is erring on the side of ridiculous. We need another TLA for Politically Over-Zealous. POZ, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/7 "2003-07-01T14:40:11Z")
I’ve only heard “slope” used as a racial slur against Japanese and other Asians in WW2 era movies and novels. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/8 "2003-07-01T14:45:03Z")
Can anyone say Apocolypse Now. Slope is a very derogatory term from the Vietnam war era. Maybe not so much now 20 years later, but it ain’t pretty. Now calling “slippery slope” racist is just ignorant IMHO ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/9 "2003-07-01T14:52:27Z")
I once referred to someone as “slope-browed” (going for a Neanderthal thing) and got called on it (and not for insulting Neanderthals). It’s a pretty obscure slur and I’m surprised it would be automatically sensored. The racial meaning certainly isn’t the first, second or third thing I think of when I hear the word. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/10 "2003-07-01T14:54:35Z")
“Sensored”? I did _not_ just type “sensored”. ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/11 "2003-07-01T15:19:11Z")
Yes - I remember reading a book of Viet Nam war stories, and the Americans often referred to the NVA as “slopes.” ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/12 "2003-07-01T15:32:43Z")
Well, I lived through the entire WWII and the VietNam war and heard plenty of racial epithets (which I will NOT repeat here–or anwhere else) but I never heard slope. To me slope is rise/run and that’s all it is (ski slope being essentially a derivative of that). ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/13 "2003-07-01T15:57:57Z")
I’m heard it used as a racial slur, but only perhaps once and not seriously. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/14 "2003-07-01T17:11:28Z")
Depends where you live, it seems. Ask anyone from Australia and chances are that they have heard the term used as a racial slur. When i was growing up in Sydney, “slope” or “slopehead” was the most common racist insult used when referring to Asians. I think the term really gained currency in Australia in the 1970s, when the country started accepting large numbers of refugees from the wars in Indochina (more Vietnamese refugees per capita than any other country except the U.S.). I’m not proud to say that when i was in my early teens, my friends and i used to use the term quite frequently. We went to an almost completely anglo school in a part of the city that had large numbers of immigrants from Asia, and we took great delight in our perceived superiority. We also used to call immigrants from the Mediterranean “wogs,” and Australian Aborigines were referred to as “coons” or “boongs.” Looking back, the only consolation is that we only used the terms among ourselves, because we barely knew any Asians or Lebanese or Aborigines. Just goes to show how hatred can rise out of ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Ivar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ivar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/15 "2003-07-01T17:48:42Z")
Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction describing hiding the wzatch up his ass while a POW in Vietnam “…I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let some slope get his greasy hands on this watch, …” ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/16 "2003-07-01T21:02:10Z")
It’s the heads not the eyes? What is the BB? Unless it’s devoted to asian insults that’s rather stupid - it’s a common word, how do we do without it? Though there may be some reason - someone complained and the mods found the highest level of censorship available. ---
**Author:** ![andymurph64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@andymurph64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andymurph64)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/17 "2003-07-01T21:26:46Z")
BB is the WWIIOnline forums. {Btw, check out the game. It’s great.} ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/18 "2003-07-01T23:54:37Z")
When i saw this thread title, I immediately started wondering what “slope” could be a slur for. The only thing I could think of was that it was against the Mayas or possibly Mexicans/Hispanics in general, as the Mayas and some other tribes did manipulate the skulls of infants so they could grow to have a long, sloped head. However, being that there aren’t really any pure Maya’s left anymore, and the ones who live don’t do that, I was unsure if I was correct. I guess I was wrong, after all. Huh. Asians, you say? I have never heard that term attributed to them. Although granted, I have really never heard anyone speak to them in malice like that would require to use slurs. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/19 "2003-07-02T00:17:23Z")
What **mhendo** said. Given the difference in the ethnic makeup of our respective populations, “slope” in Australia is the Asian equivanent of “nigger”. It is that bad. A word to be steered well clear of. Many formerly offensive racial slurs in Australia have gained acceptance by the communities they were originally intended to insult, much as certain elements of the black community in the US have tried to adopt “nigger” as their own, with varying degrees of success and controvesy. This process has been much more successful here, and words like “wog” can be used as terms of endearment or friendly jibes amongst friends, or in very informal situations - even by members of other ehtnic groups (not recommended for newcomers to try it fresh off the plane though). However, “slope” has NOT gained this acceptance, and it’s quite possible it never will. It is considered highly offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576/20 "2003-07-02T01:52:23Z")
I agree 100% with **TLD** and **mhendo.** “Slope”, “coon” and “boong” are all beyond the pale. Extreme;y offensive. “Slope” is very well known in Australia and one of the worst insults for South-Eastern Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, etc not included) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-slope-a-racial-slur/185576.md?page=2)