** Click here for Episode 117 **
Lock up Prince Philip, it’s time to continue the latest AMT trend, ‘Is that phrase racist, or just delightfully old-fashioned?’ Carol from Leeds enters the fray:
You guys were wondering if the Chinese had any sort of derogatory phases to referring to the whites. We call you guys ghosts, though I don’t think it’s meant to be that derogatory, it’s just referring to your pale skin? I grew up listening to people around me saying it and never thought it was racist. To be honest I wasn’t even aware that there was any hidden meaning, I thought it was just what we call white people, though maybe I was a racist child and grew up to be an old racist? All my friends are Caucasian, even though I don’t have many friends. Hahaha, it’s funny because it’s true. Hope this helps.
Here’s another expression from which it is probably sensible to refrain, courtesy of Jude from Shipley near Bradford:
I’m just listening to Episode 117 and you mentioned a westernised Chinese person is called a banana. The equivalent to this for black people is a coconut.
I first heard this said by a black colleague about another black colleague.
I want to apologise that I’m continuing your ‘is it racist’ thread.
Don’t blame yourself, Jude. We did ask.
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Tags: racist phrases
Answer Me This! Podcast 
November 21, 2009 at 9:24 pm |
Similarly but utterly differently, has anyone heard of the term ‘malteaser’?
it means a thick brunette woman.
As in, Brunette on the outside, blonde on the inside
not really relevant, george.
November 19, 2009 at 1:58 pm |
In the US, black people who are white on the inside are called “Oreos”, after the chocolate cookie (biscuit) with white filling. Not that I approve of this, nor say it, but just to differentiate from “coconuts”. But my favorite was Stephen Colbert’s description of Washington DC as “the chocolate city with a marshmallow center and a graham cracker crust of corruption. It’s a Mallomar, I guess, is what I’m describing, is a Mallomar.” An African-American city, with a bunch of soft white politicians in the middle … regardless of the metaphor, I’d like to state that I adore Mallomars. Much more than Oreos. MMM Mallomars.
November 19, 2009 at 12:36 pm |
What about “calling a spade a spade” or “that’s the pot calling the kettle black”.
November 19, 2009 at 9:43 am |
and why “Jungle Bunny”? even though I am a white (almost) middle class male aged 18-35 (the Aryan demographic) I have met a few people from Africa in my time and never once have any of them resembled rabbits to me, even the ones named “Harvey”. whats that about?