... 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?

I don't know about the other thread, I haven't seen it. No, I'm not saying necessarily that all travellers take stuff, of course not - I already said, someone told me it is a cultural thing, and I don't know if this is the case or not. No one here seems to be denying it and it seems to take place blatantly where I live as though it were condoned. As though it were a way of life. I don't KNOW any travellers personally and I don't know if they approve of it or not, but members of the travelling community In This Town have a reputation for stealing and appear to do it openly. I'm saying that. And only that.

Whether it is a cultural feature I do not know but I have been told it is. Can anyone state factually whether this practice is condoned among travellers or not? I'd be intersted to know.

For the time being I will use derogatory expressions when describing those who steal my property. I have explained to my children that it isnt a term that should be used to describe the entire community.

I really don't see what this has got to do with Eastern European people who to my knowledge have the same culture as most of us regarding property and theft.

No travelers I know would condone that behavoiur. To use derogatory expressions that refer to them as traverlers, ie 'pikeys' is a discugsting thing to do. You may well be justified to call the specific one's responsible something, which doesn't refer to their living style, like arsehole, bastard whatever. Though I doubt that you know who the individuals are and suspect because of this you are happy to insult the wider community because of that. not really very fair.

No I take your point, it's not fair and it isn't right, and I will stop it.

I'm sorry.

If you know members of the travelling community and they do not condone this behaviour, then the information i was given before was incorrect, and I accept that.

Thankyou for setting me straight.

I am confused though...if 'pikey' means traveller then obviously it shouldn't be used as a derogatory term. However if it isn't a derogatory expression to begin with, why do travellers object to it?

sorry, my brain isn't working terribly well this morning.

Jane I totally agree however it appears that if you disagree with certain people on this thread then you are a Nazi. As someone who would have been persecuted by the Nazis had I lived in Germany I find such accusations abhorrent. They reflect badly on the accuser and highlight extreme ignorance.

I will also continue to use the word Pikey to describe people who live by their own rules with scant regard to the people living around them. People who steal, take part in animal cruelty (hate coursing which happens regularly around where I live) and people who try to steal land that does not belong to them.

It is their choice to live like this, it is not a "culture" or race and therefore as I am not applying the word generally to any one race or culture, only to law-breakers therefore I do not feel I am being offensive or racist.

There are genuine persecuted people all over the world and we'd do better to help those who are born onto terrible lives, than protect some fictional culture.

Generalising any one group eg Roma or Irish as pikeys us wrong, and it is utterly unacceptable calling a child this name, but i do not do that, The only people I refer to as pikeys are criminals.

Well that's what I was using it to mean, Poppadum - someone acting in a criminal manner.

But I was using it only for those criminals I knew (yes I do know who they are, at least by reggo number if not by name) came from the travelling community, which I can see was a crossover and implies prejudice against travellers. Which I admit I had until someone told me, just now, that travellers do not universally condone stealing in this manner.

I hate, hate the term, 'chav', so if anyone is going to get offended by the term, 'pikey', I am happy to jump on their offense bus. The chav word appears to normal playground currency and refers to low income families.

We had some neighbours for a few years, and I was only on nodding terms with them, but they both wore sweatshirts saying, 'Pikey Collective', on the back.

My husband is a banker and I have noticed recently that this has become a derogative term.

I have done some extensive educational work of children from travelling families and worked closey with people who support these children.

They consider the term racist.

(will get dh a sweatshirt with 'banker collective', and see if he gets verbal or physical abuse, apart from his daily dose from me).

But bankers are not an ethnic group, sorry, his is Swiss-owned.

If I were called Pikey I would be affronted.

To repeat, I will continue to use the word pikey to describe people who steal, torture animals and land-grab.

I will refer to travellers as travellers, and Roma as Roma.

Travellers and Roma are not pikeys by definition. They should therefore not get offended when I use the word pikey as it is nothing to do with them, unless they also happen to steal, torture animals or land-grab.

We may have to agree to disagree.

People who 'pinch things' are criminals. Or theiving bastards. That is not relevant to this discussion of the term, 'pikey'.

I had never heard the term until one of my brothers moved to the North of England. We were driving through the outskirts of the town he lives in when he told me that this was where all the 'pikeys' lived.

I had to ask him what he meant and he told me it meant gypsies or travellers. I was bemused because we were driving through a housing estate but didn't question any further.

It's not a term in common usage where I live and I can say genuinely that other than my brother I've never met anyone who used it in real life.

Do I think it's racist? I absolutely do.

I think that people tend to despise the social class directly below them.

And by, 'class', I mean income bracket.

plenty of people who live in the 'normal' community could be discribed as 'in a class of their own', what would you call them?

Okay. I'm not interested in anyone's income bracket. There are people who have more money than I do and I think of them in derogatory terms purely based on their behaviour (or taste, sometimes) so ime it has nothing to do with money.

I just don't like stealing and I despise those who see it as a reasonable way of earning a living.