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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to pull someone up on the use of the word 'pikey'?

49 replies

BasinHaircut · 08/12/2015 16:20

Its just as bad as the other 'p' word isnt it? Completely xenophobic.

Especially when the justification of it is that 'they dont pay council tax' or 'just look at the state of the local greenspace after the fair has been to town'.

The person who I have pulled up reckons that its OK because 'the dictionary says its just a word to describe Gypsies and Travellers'. I have no words for that.

This is from a person that has been sharing multiple posts and making comments comdenming people who 'blame all Muslims for Isis'.

Apparently thats not the same becuase some 'pikey's' once ripped off thier grandparents so of course they are 100% in the right.

Idiot.

OP posts:

bumpertobumper · 09/12/2015 20:44

Just to add, OP obviously yadnbu!

squiggleirl1 · 09/12/2015 20:49

Is the other 'P' word not 'Pavees'?

scarlets · 09/12/2015 20:53

I've seen it used a fair bit lately on social media in respect of that boxer, Fury, to explain his backwardness.

mimishimmi · 09/12/2015 23:01

Yep,and we all know that those who hate Muslims want to come after, and have done so before, the rest of us too...

UterusUterusGhali · 09/12/2015 23:05

My ex was from Cornwall and said he was part Pikey. I assumed he meant traveller for years, but turned out he meant not MC.

Mrsbird311 · 09/12/2015 23:20

Where I'm from pikey means thief and the term chav refers to a young lad, bit of a naughty boy

Iggi999 · 09/12/2015 23:21

Frilly these days it would definitely count as racism.

blueemerald · 09/12/2015 23:24

I've had countless conversations with a few of my black colleagues about how using the term pikey or gypo is not acceptable and in fact is similar to using the word nigger.
They don't get it. Worryingly we all work in education (teachers or TAs).
I think the meaning has become diluted but that doesn't erase the origins.

Iggi999 · 09/12/2015 23:25

I was told by an English guy (I'm Irish), that it was a term referring to anyone Irish??
An example Eva of the conflation of two racist ideas - all Irish people are gypsies and all Gypsy Travellers are bad.

RealityCheque · 09/12/2015 23:28

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

2rebecca · 09/12/2015 23:28

Pikey means gypsy/ traveller to me. Many travellers don't actually go anywhere and are more extravellers so gypsy seems moredescriptive but isn't liked by some people although I think it's a nicer more romantic word bringing to mind gypsy dresses and flake adverts rather than static caravan parks of illegal squatters.
I suspect the current generation travel so little and grumble so much when they are moved on that in 50 years time the terms will be obsolete anyway.

TheLambShankRedemption · 09/12/2015 23:34

Perhaps the Irish traveller connotation has been resurrected with the film Snatch, were Jason Statham uses it about brad pitt's character and his friends and family on the site.

Mmmmcake123 · 09/12/2015 23:35

I had never even heard of the term pikey until it was mentioned in a Guy Ritchie film!

munkisocks · 09/12/2015 23:36

I was robbed by travellers too in our area. But it's not acceptable to use the term.

TheLambShankRedemption · 09/12/2015 23:36

Where not were

Scarletforya · 09/12/2015 23:38

Pavee isn't offensive though squiggle Travellers use that word themselves.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 09/12/2015 23:44

Yes we had our caravan stolen by travellers, (and the police did fuck all about it). I still wouldn't call anyone a pikey.

kali110 · 10/12/2015 06:20

Only heard it a few times.
Once by travellers themselves calling themselves pikeys.

Original poster

BasinHaircut · 10/12/2015 08:05

reality how charming

And just to be clear, using your logic I am allowed to call all Muslims terrorists, assume all Irish people are in the IRA..... I could go on.

Just because travellers are a less fashionable minority group, doesn't mean that the entire culture can be treated with such contempt and it is acceptable to use such disgusting derogatory language when talking about them.

OP posts:

Iggi999 · 10/12/2015 08:09

when the 'pikeys' are in town - theft, burglary, assaults and other crime markedly increase
...and when Realitycheque is on a thread, the level of racism and bigotry markedly increases.

QueenArseClangers · 10/12/2015 08:13

Fuck of Reality Cheque.
I'm from gypsy stock and I've got every right to be pissed off with your racist fuckwittery.
Reported.

LaLaLaaaa · 10/12/2015 09:14

Also reported that post. Disgusting.

Hate the word pikey - it's racist.

MangoBiscuit · 10/12/2015 09:36

Where I grew up we had quite a lot of travellers, there was a permanent site nearby. Pikey was used as a term for rough, dodgy travellers (with other terms being used for rough, dodgy people from other groups). But it wasn't used to describe travellers as a whole, possibly because that would have been insulting to some of our friends and school mates. Wouldn't dream of using the term now of course.

noeffingidea · 10/12/2015 10:24

I'm familiar with this word. My ex was from the east end, it was used in the scrap metal trade. I know one guy used it to describe himself, perhaps in a similar way that some black people use the 'N word'.I wouldn't use it myself though because it's obviously one of those words that causes offence to a group of people.

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