Sandra

The signs may not be there - but the ignorance is, 18 years ago I was turned down at one doctors in the UK cause the reception said they did not take transients! My new UK mainland job insisted on me having a green card to work and when I asked was my British Passport good enough - they asked how I got hold of one of those!

The terms are not important was what I meant it is all to do with attitude - I would rather be called a bog arab by my mate affectionately than have one sneering comment about my qualifications being genuine as they didn't believe the Irish had an education system.

It hasn't made me bitter though! I came to Aus so I can laugh at all the poms

Sandra

Slippers

Why not?

Don

Most spelled it 'gweilo' (white devil) when I worked in Hong Kong.

Cheers - Don

Ceri

Why?
You are joking aren't you ? things like "rag head" "rice eyes" "spud pickers" "sheep shaggers" are meant to offend, unlike "taffy", or "Jock" or even "Pom" - there's a difference between being damn right old racist offensive than a "friendly joke"


The one I don't get to be honest with you is "Abo" - why is this considered racist? anyone know - it's just shortened word to me, as aborigine is hell of a mouth full to say in a quick spoken sentence. They shorten Pakistan's here to Paki on the cricket matches on TV - but never shorten Aborigine to Abo as it's seen as racist - why? can anyone work this out why is it ok to shorten another race by not ok to shorten aborigine ?
I don't use this word in public for this reason - it may offend someone.

cheers

P.S Don- how about this one Yang guay-dz ( foreign ghost or devil) - another way to say Gwilo (or the way you spelt it Don gweilo)

Yang -ren ( a yank)
Bai - cher ( moron)
er bai wu (bimbo)


Gan bay (cheers)

spelling probably way off

Slippers

When I said "why not", I know why I don't use them or any terms like taffy, jock, etc, as well, it's just that you seemed to be saying that it all depended how you say things not the words you used and so I just wanted to see if you didn't use them cos you appreciated that no matter how some words are used they may cause people offense.

pommie bastard

There are many insults for an aborigine and Abo is not one , the funnest I heard is Ding because thats the sound you get when they hit the car bumper , relates to the way Abos up north hitch a lift they stand in the middle of the road.
No one in the UK has to put up with what the Abos do here and that has made them a bitter disenfranchised people , who live on the outside .
The jails are full of them and alot of crime is commited by them because they have been treated as sub-human they behave in the worst of fashion , I do feel sorry for them.

Ceri

"G'day you taff b*stard"

" Taffy B*stard !!! "

see the diff - hard to write sound - lol - first one is a joking manner , friendly banter if you can imagine the tone
Second one is said in a different tone - an insult

That's what I meant, but things like "rag heads" - can not be used in any other way than to be insulting.

cheers

PB there may be different racist terms for an Aborigine - but I was asking why Abo is considered racist. Have you ever heard the Term Abo on national tv here - it's considered un PC, racist.

Don

In my 4 months in QLD, I saw Abos being treated in an appalling way...by the police. One time there was a small group in a public park, just chatting (not drunk or raucous), and the police just came and drove them away into twos and threes with a fair bit of prodding. The Abos do seem to get a rough deal.

Cheers - Don

Atticus

I can only tell you of my experience in Australia and this was back in 1994 on a WHV I worked 3 months in Sydney before travelling all round the coast to Canberra, Melbourne etc I flew over to Tasmania by the time I had got there I was quite tanned and being of Welsh/Asian extraction I tan very well - it was the first time I got a vibe off people - in Sheffield (the town of Murals) the old bat wasnt happy about serving me but she did because I wasnt leaving until I was - she didnt say she wasnt going to serve me but her body language and the way she spoke with an attitude gave me that feeling - I continued my travels upto Hobart I was the only coloured person from Devenport to Hobart and everyone kept staring at me - they just hadnt seen a person my colour before or hadnt seen one in a long time - a young boy in a supermarket started jumping up and down on seeing me and yelling at his mum "there's an aborigine" over and over - I laughed and said that unfortunately I wasnt. His mother was embarrassed they werent being nasty just didnt know what to say or anything - I hitched with a friend and people picked us up and were very nice. When I got back to Melbourne I continued with my travels to Adelaide and then onto Perth by this time I was skint and an ex-con - biggest meanest looking man I had ever seen (he told me he was an ex-con and proceeded to tell me about life in prison - not nice!!) bought me food all the way from Adelaide to Perth - I would have expected him to be nasty and ignorant but he was so sweet.

In Perth people were really nice no problems - certainly got jobs quick enough stayed for 3 months making money to fund the next leg of my journey travelled all down the coast and just kept getting browner a few vibes in some places but nothing was said - worst vibes were in Broome but having said that also met very nice people - No probs in Darwin, Alice Springs or Cairns in fact in Cairns got offered a job to do topless waitressing at the local aussie rules game - despite being broke I turned it down!!! By time I got back to Sydney I was practically black - I got stared at getting back to hostel but only because I had a giant rucksack with a digeridoo hanging off it together with a ridiculous straw hat on my head that I thought was cool (it wasnt!!) - 1 week into being back in Sydney a man in a bar (he was very drunk) starting making ape impressions at me - a good kick in the balls soon set him straight - added to that the owners threw him out! Unfortunately Im not the "turn the other cheek" kind of person!!

Anyway after all that long story above - you must be all tired!! I apologise - point - being that people are ignorant everywhere you go doesnt matter who they are where they live or what background they come from you will find ignorant people - people I expected to be ignorant were lovely and people I expected better of (old bat comes to mind) were ignorant.

You cant go over with any expectations just take it as it comes. Australia is very multi-cultural except when it comes to the Aborigines at least in my experience.

All the best and apologies for waffling!

rizalan

sashimi

Yang ren actually means a person from the West. Yang meaning foreign, but normally used about people or things from the West. Ren : a person, so yang ren means a foreigner (in the Chinese speaking world). But I agree that it's often used to mean an American, at least on the Mainland, any white person must be American as they don't seem to acknowledge that there are any other Western countries bar America.

On the Mainland a gweilo is a laowai -

- and you're right Ceri, the Chinese can be extremely racist, me being a whitey never felt it that much, but try being a black person and you know what I'm talking about.

Sashimi

Ari

Hmm... What about Jews?

Bilbo

Jews I know in Sydney through business have not talked of problems and understand that non-Jews have limited understanding of their traditions so try to fit and mix in.

mr mover

work hard Wesley ,and in this country you will ,be RESPECTED..........mm

Mandy Bale

Most of the 'Aussies' I have met tend to use these 'offensive' names more openly and more in light hearted humour than people would dare in the UK. I haven't come across any real malicous racism around here but I've heard it can be quite bad in some places. Its amazing how many different cultures there are here, I'd say it was more culturally diverse here than the UK and I would say that people are more used to it all, but what do I know, I don't really know much about it, I tend to get along with anyone.
The other day I went to this park near Sydney with the kids, there was a Muslim family in the park with their kids, to which I thought 'great some other kids for mine to play with', but when my kids got there they started to call their kids away. You could see that their kids desperately wanted to play but they kept calling them away. Now I could have took this the wrong way and thought 'how racist' but I just thought maybe they were about to leave anyway. Who knows, but I can see a lot of people could take that the wrong way. I do sometimes think that 'racism' is in the eye of the receiver but I'm not saying it doesn't exist as there are some mean people out there with some serious 'blinkered' vision.

Mandy

karawara88

When I was last in Perth, I found the "racist" terms a bit shocking but its like many expressions that get used, different country, different meanings.

The actual racism is no different in Australia as it is in UK.

Except, I did find that Brits from the 70s generation are openly racist.

Not racist against any particular colour or creed, they hate everyone. !!

Its almost as if they moved over in the 70s and decided they owned the place. !!

Thats my observation for what its worth.