I think the story about General Pershing’s troops singing their regimental song “Green Grow the Rushes” (along with it’s very offensive parody about a Mexican prostitute named Lupe)probably did lead to the Mexicans calling them “Green Grows”. Another popular
tale was that the american troops had green uniforms and the Mexicans
lined the streets when the cavalry would ride through their towns and
shouted “Green Go” at them.
Tars - this is an example of ‘hip’ Japanese. Flipping words around first was popular in the media/TV world, and it filtered down to university students and younger generations. Gai-jin becomes jin-gai, san-gurasu (sun glasses) becomes gura-san, hon-mono (the real thing) becomes mono-hon. You get the idea. Has zero to do with foreigners knowing the term ‘gaijin’.
Gaijin in Japanese is no more offensive than foreigner is in English. People making an effort to be polite - more for the sake of the foreigner, not for the sake of using correct Japanese - will use gaikoku no hito, or gaikokujin. The media as well will use gaikokujin, further proof that the ‘be PC at all costs, even in the face of common sense’ is not only a US thing…
I think it’s great when these supposedly offensive terms are flipped around and used by the same people their meant to demean. Kind of satisfying to deny bigots the pleasure of trashing someone because of their race. Travelling in Japan, we always refered to ourselves as “crazy gaijin”. And we often were-- stumbling over our lack of understanding of the culture. Travelling to Cabo the first time, we all looked at each other and just said: Hey, this place ain’t Mexico, it’s just us gringos here. And it was. Gringisimo!
I’ve recently read that one city in CA is trying to ban the use of the term “nigger”. Or maybe not completely ban, but official launch a campaing to eliminate it’s use. Good luck!!
That site has a rather antagonistic view of Mexican and Latin American immigrants. They are not necessarily an unbiased source of linguistic information. If you believed them, every Mexican or Latin American who ever used that word was a bitter resentful racist. The reality is that word means all sorts of things in different countries, from “white”, “foreign”, “Anglo”, “blond”, “European”. The bottom line is it means someone “different”. For instance, when I was leaning Portuguese from a Brazilian (a very blond college student of German descent) I was surprised to learn his definition of “gringo” included the Spanish speaking peoples of Latin America outside of Brazil.
In Mexico it has gained its common meaning mainly because in much of Mexico, foreign visits and contacts overwhelmingly involve North Americans.
Also, most native Mexicans will insist that Mexican-Americans such as me are every bit as “gringo” as any other Yankee.
In Mexico, gabacho is a rather stronger epithet for Anglo-Saxon/American. That word is actually an old Spanish epithet for the French which was transferred to Mexico, and altered to refer to Mexico’s northern neighbors.
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Why am I not suprised?
I have never, ever, considered “gringo” to be an “offensive racial slur.” I’m sure somebody out there does though; the best I can hope for is to never meet this person.
I did not know that. Thanks.
gora(h) is a word in Hindi/Urdu that literally means fair (as in complexion). Not literally the same as ‘white’. A description of an Indian girl on the lighter end of the skin spectrum would legitimately entail ‘gori’ (gori is the female noun)
The word is used to distinguish.
Someone can group all “gorahs” as being or doing something, but it can’t be used impolitely anymore than using the English word “whites”
You would, however, be incorrect. (Not least because the tale in which the Yankees are singing Green Grow the Rushes is associated with the U.S. conquest of Mexico in 1847-1848 under Winfield Scott, twelve years before Pershing was born.
I grew up right on the border, and “gringo” is one of those words that can really be offensive or not offensive depending on the context used. Interestingly enough, however, I don’t think that I’ve ever heard someone use the word “gringa” in a non-offensive way, (although I’ve never been to Chile.) “Gringa” seems to carry so much more than a female version of “gringo”.
I guess I’d say that gringo is offensive in the sense that someone is being insulting. So it may be offensive in situ, so to speak. Outside of that, it doesn’t bother me. But that may be my whiteness talking; to phrase it in an offensive manner: why should I care if some spic calls me a gringo?
If a member of another “group” is insulting my “group”, well I can’t say I care because my “group” is better than her’s anyway. If she uses it in a friendly way, in a “hey, you took my french fry you son-of-a-bitch” sort of a way, then why would it be offensive? It’s a sign of affection.