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Prince Harry...


Johnboy

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No doubt about what has become THE headlining news item today...

Gaza and Afghanistan has almost paled into insignificance in light of Harry's slur on our Pakistani friends - which happened as recently as 3 years ago but has only now come to light...

I am not a supporter of the Royal family - far from it, but I'd be grateful if someone could explain to me why the term "Paki" seems to cause so much offence?

It is after all only an abbreviation of Pakistani - I don't object if some calls me a "Scot"...

Do Australians object to being referred to as Aussies?

So what's wrong with Paki?

Someone enlighten me please....

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I think the word "Paki" has been regarded as racist and derogatory since the early 1970s when skinheads went around "Paki bashing".

It's been used also in terms of Asian corner shops but today its use is not regarded as being acceptable. A bit like the n-word (remember Ron Atkinson's use of it on TV led to his downfall ?) has become when referring to black people.

An unintended spin-off of this word has been that when the name of Pakistan is used on the TV and radio news it is frequently incorrectly pronounced as Pak-ee-stan.

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I saw the "offensive video" this morning on Sky news. It was no more abusive than any abbreviation is and pales into insignificance when the other offensive remark "raghead" is included in the same report.

If this had happened last week and not dragged up on a slow news weekend by the gutter press (is that offensive?) three years after the event, it might have been news.

As a retired serviceman who has been called all possible names for a Jock over the years I found the clip quite amusing and innoffensive. The two remarks were whispered and barely audible and obviously meant in a lighthearted manner as a troop of squadies waited patiently for their delayed flight at the International Airport that RAF Brize Norton is Not.

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Australian newsreaders call the Pakistani cricket team 'the P@ki's' and it is not said nor taken as being in any way derogatory, and in context it isn't, as they shorten every name. Here in Britain we are all so used to bending over backwards being politically correct that we suck our breath in with horror when someone uses the word in ANY context.

Lets save our condemnation for people who call others names as a form of persecution, intimidation, incitement, bullying or as a deliberate act of hurtfulness, not members of the British forces who are working in hard and dangerous circumstances and shouldn't be having to guard thir tongue 24/7 to save falling foul of the PC brigade at home.

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This ***** sums up Britain today. Politically correct, health & Safety mad and generally dumbed down, god help us if we ever had to go to war again, were so wrapped in cotton wool, I dread to think how we would cope. :rotflmao:

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It's totally f'king stupid that all our political party leaders have had to come out on TV to express their horror and condemnation of Harry's choice of words here...

PAKI is an abreviation for PAKISTANI... why should it be deemed racist or even mildly offensive?

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As with most things these days the offended bus is full to overflowing with many jumping on to score points for their own ends.

"I'm more offended than you are, so i am a better person" :rotflmao:

No... I'm more offended than you are!

Whatever happened to Sophie? She was an authority on PC... It would have been interesting to get her take on this...

Edited by Johnboy
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To be honest, I was more hacked off that this was dominating the news than any offence he may or may not have caused.

It's the whole Brand/Ross thing all over again and it's getting boring.

If someone calls me a Fat Barsteward, then surely it is up to me to decide if it caused offence? Granted, there's situations of bullying/intimidation where it's not so clear cut about others getting involved, but there's no evidence to suggest that is the case here.

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Someone complained to the mods on here a while ago as i used the term "Japs". I am with Johnboy on this...to me..it was a shortened version of Japanese, thats all, not a racist slur. I dont go getting all defensive if someone calls me a brit. I reckon i know who complained too!!

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All I can say is, it wasn't me. I know we had a spat a while ago over something similar but I think I may have wronged you having read some other posts you made. If that's the case, apologies. I've got some very good reasons to be particularly anti-racist.

(and I don't think Jap is especially offensive)

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The country has gone PC mad and its pissing me off too. I heard the story on the news and they actually played the tape so everyone could hear what Harry said. So, doesn't that make them guilty of being racist. Anyway, Harry said "My Paki friend" had he have said Paki xxxxxxx then I could understand. Had the statement have been made by a 'normal' squaddie then we wouldn't have heard a thing about it.

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Harry's no stranger to controversy. I'm more concerned about him referring to Muslims as "ragheads".

I shared a house in Aberdeen years ago with a British born Pakistani who referred to his friends as Paki's but took humberage at whites using the term.

So it is offensive to Pakistanis but not an international incident.

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or Bannerman

First and foremost I wouldn't want to indulge in or tolerate anything that could be construed as racist by any reasonable person (as opposed to the bunch of self appointed PC mullahs who seem to permeate our society these days.)

There are definitely grey areas and, for instance, as someone said earlier, the term "Paki" seems to be regarded as offensive whilst "Aussie" is not. The only reasons I can think of are that at some point, usage of the former has been made in derogatory contexts which have not applied to the latter, or that the PC lobby have deemed "Paki" to be more offensive since those from the northern part of the Indian sub continent can be regarded as "coloured" and many of them are immigrants to this country, while that is not the case with Australians (apart from Aborigines).

Basically, Harry is going to get slated for any step he takes out of line for several reasons. After all he is a Royal, he is a stupid Royal (eg he goes and wears a Nazi outfit to a party), he also habitually behaves in the classic "lunatic second son of the aristocracy" manner and the Royals have a track record for this kind of stuff anyway since his grandad (Phil the Greek) is about the most un PC person on the planet, casting aspersions varying from his Chinese hosts having "slitty eyes" to driving instructors in Oban being too drunk to do their job properly.

Whilst I wouldn't want to be racist in any way, I really can't abide political correctness either - indeed it is one of my pet hates. (Take a look at the "Singing Together" thread in Memories to see what I mean by political correctness.

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