... To ask if you agree that "pikey" is a racist term and not just "slang"?

[carabos]

I am following a thread on another forum where a poster has used the word "pikey" in the context of a discussion about burglary. I called the poster on it and pointed out that I believe the term to be deeply offensive.

Another poster has come on and said that the first poster has been "naughty" for using "slang" and to watch out for the politically correct brigade. I am . AIBU?

YANBU

It is an offensive term, yes.

Pikey isn't a slang word to my knowledge and yes, in recent years it has become racially offensive.

Is this board obsessed with racism tonight?

Yes its a racist term

HTH

yes worra

every bloody thread

If it's used as a derogatory description of travellers then yes it is racist

What does pikey mean? Is it someone with a mohawk?

You is all racialist bastards

I don't think it's racist.

There isn't a 'race' to which the term is applied, is there?

I have never used
Or really heard of that word! What is
It and how is it offensive?

Genuine q from an ignorant poster btw

I thought it meant travellers, so I would have thought it is racist.

But then again, we are friends with a family of settled travellers who think it's funny to refer to themselves as The Pikeys, and that is how they are affectionately known by lots of people.

Pikey is used as a derogatory term for Gypsies and Travellers so yes, it's racist.

Yes Shelly Travellers

Ah, got it now. The urban dictionary is my new best friend

1. pikey From the English "turnpike", the place where itinerent travellers and thieves would camp near a settlement.

Pikey is not a racial group, the term is used to describe anyone who lives in a caravan or shares the same values and "culture" of "the travelling community", and whose main sources of income are as follows:

Stealing cars, flogging roses in pubs for "childrens' charities", nicking lead off roofs, burgling garden sheds, blagging entry to old peoples house to rob them, doing dodgy tarmac jobs ("we've got some black stuff left over from a job up the road"), sometimes with mint imperials used as a substitute for white chippings, or, reportedly, using snow to lay slabs on when the sand ran out, stealing your bollocks if they weren't in a bag and anything else that's not nailed down and anything that is nailed down but will fit in the back of an untaxed Transit when nobody's looking.

Characterised by lurchers on a string, a unintelligible language that "isn't English, it isn't Irish, it's just Pikey" (source: Film: Snatch), a penchant for harecoursing, ketamine, lighter fuel, fighting in pubs and shopping at Lidl.

Best avoided.

2. pikey
   A Gypsy or Circus person. British version of trailer trash. Also a dialect used by pikeys which is a cross between English and Irish.
   "I fuckin' hate pikeys"

3. pikey
   Originally a harmless slang name for a gypsy and/or traveller, being derived from the word 'turnpike.'

Now generally regarded as a term of abuse that encompasses any persons perceived as common, tasteless, flashy, in-bred, thieving and a whole host of other sins, the primary term is till applied to gypsies.

Once thought of as the type of person who sold you useless lucky heather whether you wanted it or not, the pikey is now the type of person who will uselessly tarmac your driveway whether you want it or not.

A popular hobby amongst pikeys is collecting; mainly dogs, horses, scrap metal and stolen goods.
Jesus, mate, who did your patio; a gang of pissed-up pikeys?

It was used to suggest a particular type of thief.

YANBU but as someone who moderates comments in another lift, I find it much easier to say bigoted, hateful and highly offensive rather than racist, as that avoids getting into the usual "but travellers aren't a separate race" argument with bigoted, hateful and highly offensive commenters. (Not you Lullabella of course, you agree it's offensive.)

My understanding of pikey (as opposed to say gyppo etc) is that it refers specifically to Irish tinkers. So in the respect of Irishness (rather than traveller status) then yes it is racist.

Hmm, not sure, I know it can be applied to Gypsies, but not sure whether thats where it originated, or whether it originated from "pikey" behaviour that people have since associated with Gypsies...

it's probably more offensive rather than racist, especially if you're pikey yerself

Travellers are an ethnic group and are protected by the race relations act

I always understood that it came from a name given to people who lived off the land and would eat the fish "pike" - not many people would have the required skills to prepare this tricky fish for eating or indeed would want to . Don't think its original intention was to insult but I'm sure it would if used today.

Clearly offensive, there are plenty of other words available..

Btw, Worra random post nothing to do with the thread, but I finally stopped mentally reading your name as "Worral" a while ago, having noticed I was wrong.

Unfortunately I have just noticed now that I was still making shit up inaccurate, as in my head your name was "Worraliability"

Travellers are a lifestyle choice ... their gentic make up is the same as yours and mine. Travellers are not a race or people. You have substrata which will include Romas (who are a race) and Irish who are a nationality all of their own; not forgetting New Age hippies travellers who just decide to walkabout..

If I decide to go live in a mobile home it does not make me a 'traveller'.

Pikey is slang. Not nice slang. But slang nonetheless.