In your view, how many North Koreans would have to register a complaint about the term with the Moderators before it became a slur?
Yes, Moops. :smack: Where did I get Mooks? Definitely Moops. You know, the folks who invade Spain.
If we ever need a slur for North Koreans, it’s a good candidate. Suitably cacophonous, and reminiscent of “dorks.”
Yeah, that is a Seinfeld joke, but in case someone misses it, the term is Moors.
So if the South and North Korea finally get together the disrespectful term would be SNorks?
I’m terribly sorry… ;)
Quite possibly in a headline or an OpEd piece; I don’t work in the NZ media anymore. And since the list of banned words for any media outlet exists nowadays as part of the organisation’s style guide in electronic form that’s not readily accessible externally, no, I can’t cite it. You still live in New Zealand. Go and ask the staff at one of the major newspapers there to look it up if you’re so determined. Or see if you can find one of the old print style guides floating around somewhere. I’m not sure if they still publish them anymore.
And of course it wasn’t a government proscribed list. For smeg’s sake. The style guides of major media outlets do generally reflect community standards though - the last thing the editor wants is the complaints about inappropriate language.
…your recollection of a style guide for a particular media organization is not the same thing as a “list of banned words.” And the fact that the major media outlets don’t use the word “Jap” does reflect community standards. You don’t need to read a “secret style guide” to understand that.
I really don’t know why I’m bothering, but a style guide for a media organisation typically has a section on “Words To Avoid”, which will include racial slurs or things like that.
Also, they’re not “secret” - many organisations did print physical copies of their style guides until recently (some probably still do) which are available for sale to anyone who wants one. The last few places I’ve worked at didn’t have printed style guides, just a wikipedia-style setup on internal servers where a journalist could say "Wait, is it “Barbecue” or “Barbeque”, or “Can I say ‘Shit’ if it’s in a direct quote?” and find the answer.
As regards to community standards, I believe we’re from different parts of NZ which might have something to do with it. Where are you from?
…I know what a style guide is. Its “secret” because it isn’t readily available, you can’t cite it, and I’d have to do your work for you to to find it. “Words to avoid” are not “banned words.” A style guide that may or may not have existed ages ago for one particular media outlet does not necessarily reflect “community standards.”
I live in the capital city: but the “major media outlets” that you claim “reflect community standards” are available all over the country.
Look: you claimed “Not offensive in Australia or New Zealand either.” But you are not in the position to make that claim. It offends me. It offends people I know. The Japanese Society of Auckland is on record as stating the term is offensive. The term, like many derogatory terms used to be used quite a lot, but as society has evolved things have changed. You don’t speak for me and you don’t speak for a lot of New Zealanders. You only speak for yourself and your experiences.
A couple will do just fine. 
If the average N. Korean was to read this thread, my guess is his reaction would be, “How do these [mostly] white people justify deciding FOR US if a word is a supposed slur? I don’t give a fuck! I live in a Marxist police state!”
WHAT ABOUT US MOOKS!!! :mad::mad::mad:
No, I’m not a mook.
But seriously, “mook” is an insult, slang possibly used by carnies. Harlan Ellison uses it occasionally. The Harlan Ellison Hornbook: Essays - Harlan Ellison - Google Books
It was popularized by Chicago columnist Mike Royko. I thought Cecil used it some, but his favored term seems to be “mope.” A people related to the Moops.
I suggest “Human’s of North Korea” as a neutral, non-biased, accurate term for them.
Shorten it to “Honks”
My impression was that Nork was informal US military terminology. I don’t see how it could be racial since North Korean isn’t a race, ethnicity etc, and the term obviously refers to North Koreans, not Koreans. So the parallel to ‘Jap’ doesn’t work. Likewise that distinguishes it IMO from cases where general racial slurs for Asians were used against Asian military opponents of the US but not (necessarily, though sometimes also) Asians of the same nationality allied with the US, such as calling North Koreans ‘gooks’ in the Korean War, whether or not South Koreans were also referred to that way.
I find ‘Nork’ hokey, but don’t see how it’s offensive in any racial sense. If the DPRK govt was passing judgement I assume they’d find it disrespectful and insulting to the country, but they’d find most discussion of the DPRK here and in English language internet discussion generally to be disrespectful and insulting, based on tone and content not just particular words.
Let’s try a hypothetical. You meet an Asian person who speaks English fluently, but with a heavy accent. You ask where they’re from, and they tell you they managed to get out of North Korea a few years ago and found refuge in the U.S.
Do you say, “Oh, so you’re a NORK?”
Yes, and they’d probably either laugh or be confused, I think their chance of being offended is actually pretty low. This entire thread is “being offended on behalf of other people”, and for what?
Again as I said above, find me a single person from NK who say’s it’s offensive and I’ll agree, otherwise it’s a neutral term with no history of being a slur and as we’ve established diminutives are not always offensive (eg Aussie, Kiwi, Brit, Scot)
But… mah being offended on behalf of other people! Recreational Outrage! TRIGGERED!
Again, I don’t think anyone uses the term to describe the people, as opposed to the government.
Well, I tend to take that poorly. Insult away! <old rolleyes>
What’s a Mook?
(An OP thread like this, of sorts. 30-sec vid clip)
As another data point, South Koreans are often called “the ROKs” in military parlance, with no hint of disrespect. I will say that I’m pretty sure “the ROKs” is used much more commonly than the term “Norks.”
And of course, do not confuse this term with the “ROCs,” referring to Taiwan.