Language and Terminology

X Why? Why? Historically used in a derogatory way to Black is a term that has been chosen by and is used by separate and segregate black people. White black people. There are lots of rumours that cause people decided this was the word that should people to feel uncomfortable about saying black, this be used to describe anybody who was not is untrue and as a descriptive term it is completely Black Coloured white, which may imply that to be white is acceptable. 'normal' or default. Originated as a term referring to black people The word black describes a skin colour, not the word as a variation of the Spanish/Portuguese noun nigger. Nigger is a complicated word as hip hop negro and descends from the Latin adjective culture has tried to reapporpriate it to mean ‘friend’. niger meaning ‘black’. Historically nigger was However even when people talk about appropriating used as an intentionally derogatory word as the word nigger its history still exists. The word is early as the 17th C. It has accompanied the inextricably linked with violence and brutality on slave trade, innumerable lynchings, castrations, Black black people’s self-worth and physical abuse on black beatings, acts of arson, and other racially bodies. No amount of appropriating can erase that. Nigger/Nigga motivated attacks against black people. The Allowing black or white pupils to use this word to slave trade alone saw an estimated 22-55 describe someone is unacceptable. million deaths of black people. Historically used to describe people of mixed ‘Mixed parentage’, ‘mixed heritage’ and ‘mixed race’ race or ethnicity. It is derived from the Latin are acceptable alternatives to describe a person’s castus, meaning pure. In other words half-caste ethnicity. However, when using ‘mixed race’, it is meant a person that was half-pure. In Australia, important to remember that ‘race’ is a social the term half-caste was widely used in the 19th construct and there are not different races within Caste - and 20th C British Commonwealth Laws to humanity. refer to the offspring of White Colonists and Mixed… Half Aboriginal Natives. Laws stated that the Australian government could seize such children and forcibly remove them from their parents. Derogatory terms to describe Gypsies or The terms Gypsy, Roma or Traveller may be Travellers often used to describe someone who appropriate but proceed with caution as there are is scruffy, creating negative associations with many different Gypsy and Traveller groups. gypsies. Pikey derives from pike, which meant to “go away from, to go on” and related to the words turnpike (toll-road) and pike-man (toll- Gypo / Pikey collector). Gypsy Gypsy orTraveller During the 1970’s and 80’s Britain was faced Pakistani is the correct term for the nationality of a with a wave of racist violence. This included person from Pakistan. Pak means ‘pure’ in Urdu and ‘Paki-bashing’ gangs for whom ‘Paki’ meant any Persian and stan is the Persian word meaning ‘place person who was presumed to be from South /Asian of’. Hence the name Pakistan means land of the pure. Paki Asia or of South Asian descent because of their The ‘i’ was added to ease pronunciation. People from skin colour. People from different age groups an Asian background sometimes refer to themselves and backgrounds were murdered or physically Pakistani as ‘brown’, which is an acceptable descriptor, along and verbally attacked. with the term Asian. Chinky (also chink) is an ethnic slur referring Chinese is the correct term for the nationality of a primarily to a person of Chinese ethnicity, person from China. China is the English translation for although it is sometimes used to refer to Zhongguo, believed to have become popular in the people of other Asian descent, or to people mid 19th C. Chinky who have physical features that are Chinese characteristic of many Asian people. .

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