derab

Personally I object to POM, I will accept Brit or Anglo without a murmur. once the P word comes out, I see it as carte blanche for me to use Wog, Paki and convict in my normal conversation with that particular social group, this makes my thoughts about the OP's screen name as a starting point in this thread interesting.
As a side note I even know New Zealanders who object to being called Kiwi.
As for the general level of racism in Australia, as far as I can tell it's roughly at the level that England was in the late '70s or early '80s. back when an Asian was someone who had origins East of Burma, not East of Istanbul.
While Australia is getting a lot of stick regarding the handling of the boat people who come via Indonesia, is that any different from the way the British Authorities treat the truck people who come through the Channel tunnel, or the Americans with their Desert runners from Mexico.

fish.01

While I agree with your general sentiment...Paki causes confusion in Australia with some as they don't know it is offensive.

knockoff nige

Ignorance is no excuse. In fact, that's what racism is.

fish.01

While of course it is personal opinion, I personally totally disagree with calls like this. There is a lot of overt racism across the UK and I think calling one country more than another often slips more into our own nationalism than any true apples v apples judgement. It is impossible to tell imo.

fish.01

Totally and absolutely disagree. It is a British offensive word. It is not beholden on every Australian to research what words the British have made offensive with their British immigrants. Can a list be made and sent over weekly ?

Agreed that if a British Asian arrives in Australia and tells an outback Aussie bloke that it is offensive where he comes from then I think the Aussie should stop.

knockoff nige

If you don't know of a word then why would you use it? If you've heard of a word which classes a particular type of people, it makes sense to find out if its offensive or not prior to using it. If a word suddenly changes meaning to an offensive one, you'll hear about it.

fish.01

Because they do know of the word. Paki has been used in Australia for many decades as just another innocent shortening word...just like we shorten almost all words possible.

Beoz

What on earth are you on about? Why would someone bother researching if a term is offensive somewhere in the world before they use it.

fish.01

Without wanting to put words in his mouth, maybe Nige thought Australians heard the use of the term by some other group like the British and then starting using it without enquiring whether it was offensive or not. To give him the benefit of the doubt he may not have realised how long term established it has been in Australia already. Of course the benign use of it is dying out now as many Australians have travelled to Britain or read about it on the net. His broader point that people shouldn't offend where possible is a good one.

Amazulu

We're not in England, Souties

Mr Grumpy

That is a very arrogant and British-Centric attitude.

The same could be said for the British slang term for cigarette 'fag'. Say that word in the USA and you can be charged with a hate crime in certain states.

Your reasoning 'ignorance is no excuse' would get the average person sentenced to 10+ years in prison.

old.sparkles

I have to say that I have heard young blacks using the n word - they shout to each other my/me n*****. I have heard whites using it when in the same group of friends.

There is a lot of racism about round here, some from white british, some from those from asians, poles, etc. I think that wherever you go in the world, you will find elements that are outwardly racist, some who are quietly racist and those who couldn't give a damn where you come from as long as you are genuine if that makes sense.

Nice Guy

I like turtles.

eddie007

In the biblical sense? Or made into a nice soup?

knockoff nige

Impossible, I'm not british.
If you use the word 'fag' towards a group of people then yes, you are being offensive. If you use it in description of a cigarrette, you are not being offensive and if someone gets offended by it, that is their mistake not yours.

Same goes for other words with different meanings.