literally another aussie in london

Words you can’t say in London: Paki

I think by even writing this here i am breaking some sort of law England has.

Ofcourse in Australia Paki means a pakistani, the same way a yank means an american a pom means an englishman or a kiwi means pity.

I have tried, valiantly, to reclaim the word for good, but apparently i got here too late.

The ‘racists’ have already used and abused it.

Those wacky racists.

So now I have to change my vocabulary because a bunch of skin heads got pissed that they had to buy a paper from a brown man.

I am not a man who changes easily.

I still call radios the wireless, and when i was born no one did this.

But i don’t want to look like a racist, unless its against South Africans, then i’m ok with it.

Recently i was in a bar with some well respected men about town, and i tried to defend my use of the word, they agreed i was not being racist by saying it, but nevertheless asked me to say it a little less loudly.

Subtlety has never been a fine point of mine.

Since i am not a racist, mostly, and don’t want to offend any people for whom the word is a deep seated insult towards, i will try my best to put it back in the holster.

And remember kiddies racism is bad, if you really don’t like someone, be more creative with your insults.

Also feel free to give me some love for mentioning the phrases black cunts and then paki in two successive posts, that takes real skill.

October 22, 2008 Posted by Jrod | living in london | racism | 17 Comments