# Why is "Jap" considered a slur? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 3, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537 "2012-10-03T00:52:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/21 "2012-10-03T08:56:27Z")
As far as I understand, VC is an organisation, not a race. Having VC parents does not make her a VC, and there are no “VC babies.” ---
**Author:** ![core\_dump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@core\_dump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/core_dump)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/22 "2012-10-03T09:06:17Z")
By that logic, a Christian (for example) isn’t a Christian until they are an adult and make a conscious action to affirm that. From age 0 until 18 they are just “nothing”. Hey, that’s a fine definition too. Just saying it’s not exactly realistic to expect that to always be recognized as being so. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/23 "2012-10-03T10:33:22Z")
It does seem weird though. Peace corp babies? Nazi babies? Salvation army babies? ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/24 "2012-10-03T11:16:06Z")
> [@grude](#): > > It does seem weird though. > > Peace corp babies? > > Nazi babies? > > Salvation army babies? Red diaper babies…though I’ve mostly heard it as descriptive, not pejorative. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/25 "2012-10-03T11:18:01Z")
Any ostensibly innocent word can become an offensive epithet, depending on the intent of the speaker and the sensitivity of the target. Even offensive epithets can become affectionate terms of endearment, depending on the same. The “Smile when you say that, pardner” effect. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/26 "2012-10-03T15:36:26Z")
> [@core\_dump](#): > > Her parents were, yes. She also claims to have been involved in an aircraft crash while a child being “rescued”. She turned out to be a pathological liar and she may have just been saying that because she knew I was a pilot and it would interest me. There was of course that crash in (what, 74-76’? hell if I know) but I didn’t know there were VC babies on that flight. Never looked it up because it ticks me off just to think of her. I’ve heard of people signing up their kid to their soccer team as soon as the kid is born, but never of doing so with a political organization. Most of them have a minimum age in the double figures. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/27 "2012-10-03T17:17:56Z")
Growing up in the DC area, I always heard “JAP” used a slur, but in a totally different way. It was an acronym for Jewish American Princess. I prefer to say, “Potomac Princess” since the stereotype is really a function of the local culture than any particular ethnicity. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/28 "2012-10-03T18:21:26Z")
I think Archie Bunker really did a lot to popularize jap as a put-down, along with spic, fag and ay-rab. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/29 "2012-10-03T18:31:36Z")
> [@core\_dump](#): > > She turned out to be a pathological liar… All of _those people_ are, you know! 😃 J.A. Prestwich made a damn fine motorcycle engine, however. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/30 "2012-10-03T19:04:49Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > I suspect that if you were constantly subjected to the term “yank” being used in a negative fashion, you’d come to be offended by it. It started out (probably) as a derogatory term, and is still used sometimes in a snide manner. We just own it. Or we’re too dumb to know better. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/31 "2012-10-03T20:07:54Z")
Novelist James Michener in a “Playboy” interviewed said he used to use the word because he thought it was a short, easy to pronounce word that someone could easily know what it meant. His wife Mari Yoriko Sabusawa told him not to use the word. He used it again and she said more crossly that William Randolph Hearst used that word to demonize her people. He used it a third time and she said “one more time and I will shove this glass cup down your throat.” That convinced him not to use it. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/32 "2012-10-03T21:27:06Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > I think Archie Bunker really did a lot to popularize jap as a put-down, along with spic, fag and ay-rab. Those terms were already widely used as put-downs. > [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Novelist James Michener in a “Playboy” interviewed said he used to use the word because he thought it was a short, easy to pronounce word that someone could easily know what it meant. His wife Mari Yoriko Sabusawa told him not to use the word. He used it again and she said more crossly that William Randolph Hearst used that word to demonize her people. He used it a third time and she said “one more time and I will shove this glass cup down your throat.” That convinced him not to use it. Given that Michener served in the Pacific during World War II, he should have been a little more sensitive to the word’s connotation. My wife’s parents were interned in the same detention center (Amache, in Colorado) as Mari Yoriko Sabusawa. If I were ever to say “Jap” around my wife, she would not stop at shoving stuff down my throat. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/33 "2012-10-03T21:58:02Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > There’s a zillion page thread on this in ATMB, where some claim that they are offended by the term “Paki” and that anyone using it might as well be wearing a white hood or a swastika armband- but oddly the one poster from Pakistan sates he doesnt find it in the least offensive. But others, who clearly knew better than him:rolleyes: (how parochial! how ironic!) were ready to be offended _for him_, since clearly he didn’t know better.:rolleyes: > > Mind you of course in context “Paki” and even “Jap” \*can \*be used as a slur, no doubt. “Paki” absolutely is a serious ethnic slur. In the UK. It is not a serious ethnic slur in Pakistan. So a Pakistani who lives in Pakistan or America isn’t offended, but a Pakistani who lives in London would be. I’m sure that if you went to Japan and asked Japanese people if they were offended if you called them “Japs” or “Nips”, they’d say no because the term is only an ethnic slur against the Nipponese in America. Likewise, “nigger” just means “negro” which means “black”. Feel free to use the word “nigger” in your everyday conversation, and when people get upset just explain the etymology of the word to them and that is sure to defuse the situation. An ethnic slur or an insult requires two parties, the person making the slur and the person hearing the slur. A term that is insulting in one context for one person might not be insulting to another person in the same context, or to the same person in another context. Different people in different context find words differently insulting, and it doesn’t make sense to complain about it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/34 "2012-10-03T23:04:36Z")
> [@grude](#): > > It does seem weird though. > > Peace corp babies? > > Nazi babies? > > Salvation army babies? [War Surplus Babies?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOhTMXpJekw) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/35 "2012-10-03T23:11:06Z")
I hope my Austrailian heeler doesn’t start calling my Welsh corgi a pommy. That could cause dissension in the pack. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/36 "2012-10-04T02:14:24Z")
> [@whc.03grady](#): > > I think I get why most of them are no-nos, but why is “Jap” bad? AFAICT, it’s just a shortening of “Japanese”. Is “Brit” a slur as well? > > And while we’re on the subject, am I, as a US citizen, supposed to be offended by “Yank”? Yes, you should be offended. It is not meant as an endearment. The only people I ever hear referring to Americans as Yanks are people I know do not like Americans. My grandmother for example. She will say Yank instead of American and when she says it, it sounds like she’s spitting. I don’t think the word Yank is ever used in the UK or Australia by people who like or are indifferent to Americans - only by those who are bigoted. Tragically, there are very many people who dislike Americans for no real reason at all. My sister for example holidays in Hawaii every year. She loves it over there, except that “there’s so many bloody yanks”. Bizarrely, she is a huge consumer of US culture, as are most Australian and British anti-American types. i have heard many Australians in particular say that ‘yanks’ are big headed and loud mouthed. The thing they don’t realize is that they only notice the loud, obnoxious Americans, and not the quiet polite ones. The real irony is that Australians have become increasingly loud mouthed and jingoistic over the past couple of decades. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/37 "2012-10-04T04:19:27Z")
Honestly, there are a lot of words (Bum, Fag) which can be offensive in one version of English but not the other. But no-one should castigate a Brit for using fag or a Yank for using bum. In the end, this is a American board. True it has a lot of International members, so if “Paki” was offensive everywhere BUT America, you’d have a point. But to think that the whole rest of the world has to conform to one tiny island is unresonable. If _you_ think “Paki” is a slur, _you_ should not use it. Dont try and foist your slang on the rest of the world, dont bring your prejudices here. Imasquare; many Southerners here in the USA use “yank” as a slur also. In fact to some of than “Damnyankee” is all one word. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/38 "2012-10-04T07:50:07Z")
[QUOTE] > [@Shade](#): > > It was news to me that “Paki” wasn’t offensive outside the UK (and some other commonwealth countries, I think?) Dopers said it isn’t regarded as being offensive in Australia. It _may_ be in Canada, but I’m not sure. It probably is in India, but then, so is ‘Pakistani’. What’re you gonna do? 🙂 > [@](#): > > But it seems exactly parallel to “Nigger” if not quite as bad – if someone from America discovered that (hypothetically) “Nigger” wasn’t a common slur in some countries of Africa, do you think their best reaction would be “Oh, ok then, everyone in America should stop being offended by it and if they don’t they’re stupid” or “Uh, well, ok, I’m kind of shocked, but if you don’t care, you don’t have to care, I guess?” And while I’m not sure what your point here is, I feel I should point out that it isn’t, at all, an exact parallel to nigger. That word had no context or reason for existence outside of a racial slur, although I believe it has been reclaimed to some extent by black people. ‘Paki’ is an exact parallel to ‘Jap’. It is also something of an exact parallel to ‘Brit’ and ‘Aussie’, with the (very) slight difference that those haven’t been used as slurs in your tiny corner of the world. > [@Lemur866](#): > > “Paki” absolutely is a serious ethnic slur. In the UK. It is not a serious ethnic slur in Pakistan. So a Pakistani who lives in Pakistan or America isn’t offended, but a Pakistani who lives in London would be. > > I’m sure that if you went to Japan and asked Japanese people if they were offended if you called them “Japs” or “Nips”, they’d say no because the term is only an ethnic slur against the Nipponese in America. > > Likewise, “nigger” just means “negro” which means “black”. Feel free to use the word “nigger” in your everyday conversation, and when people get upset just explain the etymology of the word to them and that is sure to defuse the situation. > > An ethnic slur or an insult requires two parties, the person making the slur and the person hearing the slur. A term that is insulting in one context for one person might not be insulting to another person in the same context, or to the same person in another context. Different people in different context find words differently insulting, and it doesn’t make sense to complain about it. It also doesn’t make sense to take a word that is insulting only in a certain very limited context (either the person being referred to or the person making the reference is a brit) and insist that its usage be moderated in all contexts. I’m not saying you’re doing that, but that was certainly the position of a large number of people on the [previous thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=658693) where this issue was debated threadbare. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/39 "2012-10-04T09:31:00Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I once had someone tell me, in all seriousness, that “sci fi” was exactly as offensive as… Well, y’know, the worst of the commonplace American racial slurs. “Sci Fi?” Come awn! Just like trekkers don’t like to be called trekkies and bikers don’t like to be called bikies I guess. Though of course they are not remotely on the same level as certain racial slurs. This Aussie thinks it’s all a bit silly. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537/40 "2012-10-05T15:16:27Z")
I’ve not reacted negatively to being called a Yank, since it’s not an insult in my (American) culture. The word has no “charge” for me. I have reacted to being treated rudely in London, though. Not the warmest people. Now, being pegged as a _rosbif_ when I was in France? _That_ stung. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jap-considered-a-slur/636537.md?page=3)