- Mar 2, 2015
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I never really understood why Pakistanis living in England have taken umbrage at the term "Paki". I'm not an idiot. I understand it's a perjorative term. They had to cop being called "f**kin' Pakis" or people saying "Go home, ya Paki bastards" etc etc. But really, this is the equivalent of me being called a "f**kin Aussie". Unless it's used in a derogatory manner, then how can it be offensive? The word on it's own isn't derogatory. It's just a truncation like "Japs", "Iti's", "Argies" or "Aussies".Can go in reverse too. As mentioned earlier, Paki wasn't offensive when I was growing up in the '80s, it was literally just shorthand for Pakistan. But as the world got 'smaller', people understood how it was used elsewhere and kinda self regulated, which has to be a good thing.
I'm sure there are Japanese people who would hate being called "Japs", but did anyone mean to be derogatory when they referred to the "Japs" in WW2? It's just a shortened word.