a very brief guide to derogatory terms down under

[deird1]

This is most recently prompted by Weird Al's Word Crimes (which is an awesome song/video that you should check out, regardless of my upcoming comments).

For those of you who aren't aware, it's a parody of the HIGHLY offensive and rapey song Blurred Lines. But, in getting rid of the horribly offensive lyrics (and keeping the awesome tune), Weird Al has unknowingly added a lyric that non-USians often find quite offensive. That being: "you write like a spastic".

*facepalm*

So, anyway...

There are many American terms that I don't see as all that offensive. I mean, I get that they are, but I don't really encounter them in everyday life, so they're totally divorced from the emotional context that they'd come laden with if I were hearing them in America. So, in an attempt to understand the American context, I have to link them to an equivalent Aussie term, and think about how that term sounds to me.

This is an attempt to do the same back to Americans.



A Short List of Unpleasant Words

When referring to our country's original occupants, go with either "Indigenous Australians", or "Aborigines".
Terms you should definitely not use:
"Abo" - which would be roughly equivalent to "nigger"
"natives" - no equivalent term, but make it sound like they're fauna or flora
"blackfella" - inoffensive coming from an Aborigine, but coming from a white person, it'd be roughly equivalent to calling a black American "boy"


We don't really say "faggot". But we have a word of equivalent value: "poofta". Don't say this out loud ever, unless you're intentionally trying to be horrible.

And... "spastic". Which would be vaguely equivalent to calling someone "retard".



So, there you go. Fresh knowledge. Use it wisely.

Comments

[ceciliaj]

I was also offended by the song's use of spastic, and I am from the U.S.

[korafox]

(US person, here via network)

Much appreciated, and very fascinating. I already knew some of these but not others, and I'm not certain my internal calibration had "poofta" at that level of derogatory. The only time I can recall hearing it was in a Monty Python sketch, and outside of cultural context it sounds like a fairly silly word, although clearly meant to offend.

Actually the one that requires the most mental tweaking as a US person is "native" since our PC term is Native American. It still wouldn't come across as polite to refer to an individual as a "native", and I can definitely see the connotations that you're talking about. But it unfortunately doesn't seem like using the term would be as offensive here as it is for you.

Thanks again for the information. Always good to come pre-armed against cultural/linguistic missteps. :)

[velvetwhip]

Actually, spastic is offensive in this country too and I have not heard it used like this since... oh, the 80's? I was stunned to hear Weird Al use it so casually in his song.


Gabrielle

[frayadjacent]

Thanks for this -- I didn't know about "native", though I think I have usually said "indigenous" or "aboriginal australians". I agree that "spastic" is offensive in the US, but, like "retard", it's not as universally acknowledged as such by Americans as many of your other examples. I still hear people use both of those words in the US (and I've heard a number of Australians say "retard"). D:

[bruttimabuoni]

Yeah. Used to be a perfectly good word, of course - our charity for people with CP used to be called the Spastics Society, in my memory (must have changed about 1990 when the weight of offensive use got too much), but it's long lost to polite conversation now. The boyf has CP. I... don't like using that word.

[lliira]

Yeah, "spastic" is offensive here... to people who are young and live online. I don't think it really is widely seen as offensive, especially to people of Weird Al's age, and most certainly not on a level the n-word is. The n-word is so extraordinarily offensive here for white people to use that I cringed when I saw it written.

[megpie71]

Well, you can say "poofta" to someone... it's just that you have to either know them really, really well (to the point where either you're both aware it's an accurate label and they're okay with you using it, or where you're both aware it isn't an accurate label, and they're okay with you using it) or you have to be willing to spend the rest of your evening in the local Emergency ward, getting the contusions and breakages seen to.

"Spastic" and "retard" are both offensive here in Australia, just to clarify.

Offensive language for people who aren't of Anglo extraction generally includes references to their non-Anglo origins, but the general-purpose term for non-Anglo people who aren't of obvious Asian origin is "wog". (This is also a bit of general-purpose slang which means any unnamed minor illness. Some comedians find confusing the two to be incredibly hilarious). For people who are of obvious Asian origin, the derogatory term is "slope".

Further reference for Americans: using any of these terms in public to people you don't personally know will provide you with ready access to study another fascinating part of Australian culture, namely our medical system. The hospitals are free, the ambulances aren't, and they get your details from the hospital paperwork.

[lizbee]

"Poofta" and its variations are useful, though, for spotting the American Anglophile who hasn't done her research.

[nimthiriel]

The good thing is that Weird Al acknowledge finding out that it is offensive (apparently he didn't know), and publicly apologised for it.