I'm assuming from this that we all pretty much agree that to be racist is to have a distaste for someone because of their origin and assoicated features and this should be consistant between every race of human being? Would I also be right in saying that alot of racism is based on the venom and hatred aimed at a fellow human being rather than the actual words or phrases?
Yes indeed AND the way it is spoken! Bastard can be a term of affection - as in you old bastard - spoken with affection, or you bastard, spoken with anger and the emphasis on bastard. Enough from me on this topic you old bastards
I am not sure. Perhaps at an individual level as opposed to an entire race. I do not hate Black people or Pakistani's but there may be some individuals from those ethnic groups that I do not like. If I hated or disliked a black man (for example) because he had done something very wrong to me and I lashed out with a torrent of abuse which included the word 'black' followed by 'twat', 'bastard' etc I would not be insulting his race, I would be insulting him/her as an individual. Abuse is generally made up of an insult 'twat', '******' etc but so often an individuals over-riding features are added for 'impact' so it becomes 'fat twat', 'skinny bastard', 'speccy ****' etc and I do believe in perhaps the majority of cases when a term like black bastard is used it is not meant racially, just the persons over-riding feature happens to be his skin colour, differing from the person offering the insult. I have never heard one fat man calling another fat man a fat bastard for example. When someone starts to use the term 'Paki' then it becomes a very, very grey area. Is that term used because someone hates Pakistani's? in general of is it only used because that persons origins appear to be from the region? (they could well be from India or Bangladesh)
Can I also throw the following in to the mix..... Going back many years (long before there was such a word as race-ism in the English language) when I was at school there was a guy there and although he was UK born and bread, both parents white true blood Scots his facial appearance has a slight resemblance to that of someone from Asian origins. His nickname, which he did not particularly like (indeed he hated it), was 'Chinky' Watson (his surname being Watson). As he resented that nickname because he felt he was being associated with looking like an Asian was he being racist?
