Talk:List of ethnic slurs

Dirty savage is a slur.

It was a slur like the N word but used to discribe first nations people 137.186.18.199 (talk) 14:48, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

It is also used to describe any group of people perceived as primitive and inferior. It is a generic insult not specifically an ethnic slur. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 08:57, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Then describe it as such. Just because it doesn't single out a particular race derogatorily doesn't mean it's not a racial slur. It does single out one's own race as superior when used (as you just pointed out), so it's still a racial slur. 2601:19E:8280:3050:CC6D:700A:593E:A117 (talk) 17:43, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps that makes it merely, an insult. It could be on another list, along with "dirty rat". Drsruli (talk) 01:03, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

Reliable sources

The sources used for this article are strange, and don't even cite many of the terms as a slur. 'Russkie' for example is only described in Lexico as 'informal, derogatory', is that enough to qualify as a slur? Many other sources state it is a term to describe an ethnic Russian without any negative subtext PrecariousWorlds (talk) 19:43, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

I oppose removing. A derogatory word used to refer to a particular ethnic would be a slur. The "-skie" suffix clearly mocks Russian names that end with "-ский". Are there other entries you feel are poorly supported? Richard-of-Earth (talk) 07:27, 31 January 2024 (UTC)

This is not an argument for or against it being a slur, but the "-skie" suffix is probably because the word is taken from the Russian word for "Russian", "Русский"(Ruskiy). I don't claim to know if this word counts as a slur and there are other slurs that come from an endonym like this, I just disagree that the word is mocking Russian names. Cyrusabyrd (talk) 14:13, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 February 2024

when i was a kid i was called "street shitter" in elementary school on a very consistent basis, and i feel incredibly misrepresented by it not being in this page. honestly its not too important to me, but it would make me feel a lot better (i am south asian and was consistently bullied on the basis of race, my username is not my name i wanna clarify)

if u do choose to include this, please include the following informations Term: Street Shitter Location of Origin: (tbh idk, but im canadian, so maybe North America?) Targets: South Asians Meaning, Origin and Notes: honestly im alright with this beign left blank, i dont really feel like more notes have to be added, the idea of typing them feels sorta racist Joe Walburg 24 (talk) 21:48, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Cannolis (talk) 21:51, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Make a list of slurs by race pls

that’s literally it 2600:1002:B008:EF3B:8112:ED72:4ECF:E7EB (talk) 20:23, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

See List of ethnic slurs and epithets by ethnicity. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 16:54, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

Someone please correct the 'translation' part of the "Schluchtenscheißer" entry.

"Schluchtenscheißer" does not mean 'person shitting in a cave' but 'person shitting in a ravine'.

"Schlucht f (genitive Schlucht, plural Schluchten or (poetic) Schlüchte) canyon, chasm, gorge, ravine"

The german word for 'cave' is instead 'Höhle' and has no relation to 'Schlucht'(singular of 'Schluchten').

Done. Google translate agrees with you. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 06:12, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

the entry is still saying "defecating in a cave"? D3in3n83nutz3rn4m3n (talk) 20:36, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

References

"Neechie" is not a racial slur, please remove it from this list

Im not sure as to why Neechie & various spellings thereof is added as a slur. I see the citation there, but i can see the source from which it originayes was made by two non-Native Americans who obviously do not know the context of this word.

I'm a Cree Native American & I speak Cree. "Neechie" is a word in both Cree (& Ojibwe) that stems from the word "Nicîwakân" which means "my friend", and obviously traditionally was used in the contexts of friendship & comradery before the introduction of the English language, and then later shortened in its slang form to still mean the same thing.

Neechie is solely used as an affectionate term between friends & particularly Native Americans: it gained popularity amongst other tribes later & is now also used as a term for other Native Americans as a show of comradery & friendship amongst tribes, but its basically used only between Native Americans because nobody else would know what it means (& so there is no use in using it for them).

Neechie is not and has never ever been used as a slur, or a derogatory term, and most non Native Americans don't even know what it means (& slurs are exonymys, so how could it be a slur if the word doesn't even mean anything derogatory, & outside groups didn't come up with it, and don't even know what it means?). The only way I can assume people thought this was a slur was because of that book, and the authors of that book added it because they were ignorant of Native American culture, saw a word amongst Native Americans beginning with "N" that means "friend", and assumed it must be the same as the N word for Black Americans. Ask any Native American (& particularly any Ojibwe or Cree) & they'll tell you this word is not & has never been a slur, has not ever been used to refer to people in a derogatory way, & has never been anything close to even being a swear word or a bad word. Artisticthunderbird (talk) 20:55, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

The citations says is was used as a slur. See this. And this book from 1967 says the same and mentions that it means friend. This one also and mentions that Indians use it among themselves. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 06:04, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

Zionist

Should be considered an ethnic slur for Israeli Jews. It's especially used by people who hate Israel and Israeli people in place of their nationality and it fundamentally reduces the mere being Israeli, living in Israel and not wanting to leave the country you were born in to belonging to a political ideology and historical movement. 2.38.205.185 (talk) 15:48, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

It's a specific political ideology, not a slur. It doesn't even single out any ethnicity as many Jews are not zionist and many zionists are not Jews. 173.246.95.46 (talk) 18:56, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Calling an Israeli a Zionist is like calling a Mainland Chinese person a Chicom or a Russian a Commie, it reduces a person's identity and essence to the ideology or political movement that spawned his country - or its current political constitution. Yes, Zionism is (was?) a political movement, but it doesn't have this connotation when an Israeli is called this, it means a refusal to recognize the existence of an Israeli Jewish people. Note that I'm referring to Israeli Jews here, not to all Jews. An Israeli Jew is Israeli like an American Jew is American or a Russian Jew is Russian. I'm talking about refusal to recognize an Israeli Jewish people in particular, not a refusal to recognize Jewry in general. To give you an idea of the rejection of the Israeli Jewish people's existence, it isn't rare for Israel itself to be called "the Zionist entity" in far left, far right and Islamist spaces. Not because Israel is the product of Zionism, but because they want to wipe out the country and until then they refuse to recognize its existence as a real country, only as a special political enterprise or organization. This rejection of Israel's existence also goes through the refusal to recognize the existence of an Israeli people. 2.38.205.185 (talk) 21:07, 2 April 2024 (UTC)

The Israelis that I speak to say that "Zionist" approximately translates to the equivalent of "patriot" according to how the word is used internally.Drsruli (talk) 17:00, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Origin of "Kanake/Kanacke" (German) and maybe also "Canaca" (Chile)

En Wikipedia has the article Kanak people which descibes the ethnic group who has used the word as a self-denomination for centuries. (please pardon my bad English, i am de-N). --2003:6:33AE:3D79:887:3A2:56E9:9524 (talk) 09:54, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Gringo is not a slur

At least in the Spanish speaking side of Latin America, gringo is not a slur. We simply do not refer to people from the USA as “americans” since we consider the entirety of the continent to be America. Gringo is a lot shorter than Estadounidense and much less of a mouth-full, but it ultimately means the same. AsuMadreDeCiudades (talk) 01:13, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

Can confirm.

In general many of these words on the page don't seem to be pejorative. There may be a more casual use of the word "slur" applied to this list. Drsruli (talk) 00:59, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

There are words that can be used as a slur, but can also be used informally and it depends on context. That makes an article like this very difficult to agree on. Words like "cracker" are similarly difficult to categorize, because there are situations where someone who self-identifies as a cracker in one context could take offense to being called one in another context.

My (limited) understanding of the word "gringo" is that its similar, I have seen it being used derisively to single someone out for speaking Spanish poorly, or as a pejorative for white people, but I've also seen it used as a neutral informal word for anyone from the United States. Its also possible that it means something different in English than it does in Spanish, which is a feature of a lot of the words on this list. If that's true maybe it could be worded to clarify. Does any of this track with your understanding of the word? What are some ways we could find sources to back this up? Cyrusabyrd (talk) 12:51, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

This could be said of any designation. It is entirely possible to use "African-American", just for example, as a slur, IN CONTEXT. But only if it continues to be predominantly used in that fashion, does the term itself become offensive. Drsruli (talk) 16:58, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Auto-archiving period: 90 days

Seems a bit short, the talk page is active but not THAT active. Request extending it. Drsruli (talk) 01:11, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

"Yankee"

I think the description of this word could be improved.

The article lists this as being a slur used by Dutch speakers and then elaborates on some other uses. I think the use by southerners against northerners and the use by people outside the US against people from the US should be their own categories, as these are two different meanings, similar to how other words are divided when they are used in different places to mean different things. Whether it counts as an ethnic slur specifically is probably up for debate, but assuming it should be here I think it could be better.

Its also odd to only explicitly cite Latin America as a use against US Americans when this is used almost everywhere to my knowledge.

(as an aside, I think 'People from the United States' is more correct than 'Americans' to describe the targets and words like Пиндос(pindos) should also be described this way)

I might rewrite this as:

Targets: People from the United States

First applied by the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam to Connecticuters and then to other residents of New England, 'Yankee' and derived terms like the Spanish yanqui or Japanese yankī are used internationally, often mockingly, to refer to Americans and American influence. The phrase "Yankee go home" has been used as a slogan against American imperialism in Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Most linguists agree that the origin is Dutch, possibly from Janke ("Johnny") or a dialectical variant of Jan Kaas ("John Cheese").

Targets: Northerners of the United States

Used in the American Civil War by Confederates as a derisive term for northerners, the term is still used today in the United States as an informal and sometimes pejorative word for people from the northeast, particularly New England.

I am new to contributing to Wikipedia so I won't make these edits myself on a page that I imagine is fairly contested, but if people agree with my changes I will work on tracking down references. Cyrusabyrd (talk) 08:09, 26 April 2024 (UTC)