The racist pejorative "kh" word?

[Acsenray]

I came across stories about an incident in which a Russian(-American?) film appreciation group decided to honor Jack Palance and Dustin Hoffman as “Russian People’s” favourite performers or something. As it happens, both Palance and Hoffman trace their ancestry not to Russia, but to Ukraine. Apparently Hoffman accepted the award and said something that made it seem that he thought that Kiev was in Russia. Palance, on the other hand, got up on stage and refused to accept the award because he was Ukranian, not Russian.

I was trying to find out a little more about this incident, in particular, (1) What was Hoffman’s reaction to the way Palance rejected the award and (2) why Palance didn’t say something before it got to the point of getting up on stage (probably because he was an ornery old bastard :D), but then I came across this account, which included this statement:

Speaking from Los Angeles, [Peter Borisow, president of the Hollywood Trident Foundation, a Ukranian-American group] commented on Hoffman’s statements: “I don’t think it’s necessarily Hoffman’s fault. I think it’s tragic that he doesn’t even know his own family history. His ignorance of the basic facts is shocking. That Hoffman lends himself, hopefully unwittingly, to denigration of Ukrainians (and thus of himself), as he did by endorsing a festival that featured the highly offensive and racist movie ‘72 Meters’ is very disappointing.”

Borisow is referring to Vladmir Khotinenko’s 2003 film “Syemdesyat-dva metra.” A drama surrounding events on the submarine “Slavianka”, the film portrays Ukrainians as bumbling fools and repeatedly refers to Ukrainians with the racist pejorative “kh” word. As part of the film’s plot development, the Ukrainian submarine’s Russian officers refuse allegiance to newly independent Ukraine, steal the ship and sail it to Russia.

Anyone got a clue as to what that “racist pejorative ‘kh’ word” is?

[Scumpup]

Khokhol. It refers to the hairstyle worn by the Ukranian cossacks: a topknot.

[Acsenray]

Any more background, details? What does it mean? What’s it’s history of use? etc.

[Surok]

And the Wikipedia entry tells you why.

I wouldn’t say it’s incredibly offensive - I’ve heard Russians using it in front of Ukrainians without blood being shed. And
in frivoulous moments, a friend and I have been known to refer to the Ukraine as ‘Khokhlandia’.

[Acsenray]

Ah. Thanks, guys.

[Scumpup]

Surok,
How offensive it is would be determined by who says it and in what context. Last year at a Russian restaurant in Pittsburgh, the singer (a Russian) called my wife a kholok when he was paid to sing “Happy Birthday” to her. She’s a Ukranian immigrant and I’m ethnic Ukranian. We weren’t too amused. How well do you respond to being called moskali?

[Scumpup]

@Scumpup

Surok,
How offensive it is would be determined by who says it and in what context. Last year at a Russian restaurant in Pittsburgh, the singer (a Russian) called my wife a kholok when he was paid to sing “Happy Birthday” to her. She’s a Ukranian immigrant and I’m ethnic Ukranian. We weren’t too amused. How well do you respond to being called moskali?

I meant to say he called her a khokhol. Khulak is an entirely different thing.

[Surok]

@Scumpup

Surok,
How offensive it is would be determined by who says it and in what context.

Yes, I agree. I should have made that clearer in my post.

[Schnitte]

There’s an anecdote which Nikita Khrushchev would frequently tell about himself, even at international meetings. Khrushchev himself was of Russian ethnicity, but he was born in Ukraine and served as the Ukrainian head of government and party leader for many years. According to that anecdote, Stalin, during a party in the Kremlin and under the influence of alcohol told Khrushchev: “Khokhol, dance the gopak”, gopak being a fast Ukrainian dance.

This prompted Khrushchev to coin the phrase: “If Stalin tells you to dance, a prudent man will dance,” which, as I read in a Khrushchev biography, turned to be something of a catchphrase in the Soviet Union.

The fact that Khrushchev would happily tell this story on many occassions might show that Ukrainians don’t mind that word to be used for them in a joking manner, but then again Khrushchev wasn’t really Ukrainian.

[Schnitte]

Correction: Khrushchev was born in Russia (albeit close to the Ukrainian border), but the family moved to Ukraine when he was a child. He often dressed according to Ukrainian traditions, but he insisted on being a Russian.

[Frylock]

@Scumpup

Surok,
How offensive it is would be determined by who says it and in what context. Last year at a Russian restaurant in Pittsburgh, the singer (a Russian) called my wife a kholok when he was paid to sing “Happy Birthday” to her. She’s a Ukranian immigrant and I’m ethnic Ukranian. We weren’t too amused. How well do you respond to being called moskali?

It sounds like it’s not too offensive if a singer at a restaurant would think it appropriate as a way to address a customer he is singing to… Did he seem to be trying to insult you?

-FrL-

[Scumpup]

@Frylock

It sounds like it’s not too offensive if a singer at a restaurant would think it appropriate as a way to address a customer he is singing to… Did he seem to be trying to insult you?

-FrL-

Yes, he did. He was drunk, too. It isn’t just my wife and me who thought so either. There were other immigrants there, some of whom were angered enough by it that they wanted to give the singer an ass-whooping.