How is the expression ‘an Indian’ not offensive?

[Yellownotblue]

As in, an Indian take away or delivery meal.

I find it quite odd to hear one specific type of cuisine referred to like this. Would you say “ we’re going for a French tonight” or “he invited me to his place for an Italian”? Somehow it seems dismissive and disrespectful.

For full disclosure, I’m not Indian but my husband is of Asian ancestry and our children have dual heritage. I’m British (first generation migrant). I was born and brought up in North America and can’t remember the expression ‘an Indian’ ever being used as short for Indian food before I moved to Britain.

I don't get how an "interest in linguistics" or asking cultural questions naturally turns into "How is X expression not offensive?".

That's not a neutral, curious question, that's a question of someone on the offense, pushing others to defend themselves. A neutral question would be "Why is it more popular to say 'having a Chinese' than 'having a French'?" (just pulling one out that I've never heard) which I'd guess would be from how popular such a cuisine is.

I'm an immigrant to the UK. I tend to say specifically what food rather than the nationality of it - so I'll say I fancy burritos rather than 'a Mexican' or I fancy chicken noodle soup rather than 'Chinese; (Chinese takeaways are the only place I've found so far in the UK that make chicken noodle soup like what I grew up with, everywhere else has really thin tiny noodles and little taste to the broth, even when it's technically made by the same company).

I think it's largely language habits building thinking patterns - to me, there are many types of Mexican food and I don't want all of it so I'm more specific whereas to my British spouse, it just means he wants something from a Mexican place (which is not lesser to French in a British cultural hierarchy in my experience).

Maybe your issues come from the fact that Indian is considered an offensive term for Native Americans?

This is what I thought this thread was going to be about when I clicked, and was fully prepared to explain that it's complicated, but some American Indigenous groups continue to prefer the term Indian, some of which stems from that being how they were referred to in treaties, some from American Indian Movements, so we go on how the person or group identifies. While some terms are more liked and have less baggage than others, there is really no universal term that everyone likes - much like not all European groups like being called European, but few take offense at (American) Indian unless there is malice, systemic power at play that has ignored a request for change (mascots are a common example), or a personal reason that can't be applied to everyone.

for those that feel ordering by number is offensive, I lived in China for 12 years and it was common in takeaway/counter type restaurants to order by number. Nothing to do with language barriers, it’s just faster.

The funny thing abut 'an Indian' is that, unlike most things discussed on MN, is is not regional or class-based.

I disagree with that. Maybe not regional, but definitely class-based.

@saraclara

You're doing a lot of back pedalling, OP. First your OP is about racism then you claim you're only interested in linguistics. Then you refer to Chinese and Indian being lesser cuisines, but later say you don't think they're lesser.

Why not just say, "okay, looks like I was wrong"?

Alcoholic?

My Indian family just make a joke of this

'Shall we order an Indian?'
'Yes what should we order him to do' ..

'I'll pick up an Indian'
'Ok but I'm heavy!'

Etc etc. We get Indian takeaways quite a lot for special occasions. Not everything has to be negative.

When I get takeaway I would ask do you want to go to the
Chip Shop
Pizza Hut/Dominos
Indian
Chinese
Mexican
Kebab (either Greek or Turkish)
KFC
Maccy D's

Or that cheap chicken place?

I don't use the Country for every cuisine, but some I do.

Yeh not offensive, and I'm a British Indian!

How else do you describe going for an Indian, Chinese, Italian, etc meal or restaurant?

Oh no Bananablondie must we?

You're probably right, I just can't be bothered!

@VanGoghsDog

Nepalese food referred to as an Indian takeaway would be inaccurate and offensive.

You can't really offend food though, can you?

It might be inaccurate but "offensive"? Get a grip.

I think Indian, Chinese, Italian food is more common place. So a going for a Chinese is used. I’m not even sure if we have a French restaurant or takeaway in my town, if there was I would hypothetically say do you want to go to the French place ? Referring to the single French place in town as opposed to the one of many Chinese takeaways.
And If there has been any aggression on this thread it’s because people are getting tired of people looking for offense in everything. All this shit does is feeds the right wing view of PC world gone mad and the real issues get brushed over, in favour of dm readers getting upset over a click bait headline.

@Yellownotblue

There was a restaurant in the USA on the street I lived on who claimed to be America's finest Indian restaurant! Don't think Asian food is that common or popular outside of major cities though so you may simply have not heard it (due to tech sector there were many Indian expats where I lived and the annual Brits vs Indian cricket grudge match was huge!)

The irony is that many restaurants in the U.K. are Bengali/Bangladeshi. Real Indian food (well it's very regionalised) can be quite different. I mostly cook southern Indian style myself.

I dont think it is offensive to call Indian takeaways/restaurants Indian when they are run by people from other parts of South Asia because they choose to market them as "Indian Restaurants". In the same way I, an English person, could start a "French" Restaurant if I so wished and would expect people to refer to it as such.
Arguably I suppose Indian people could get annoyed at people from Pakistan calling their restaurants "Indian" but I dont think they do (as far as I know) so lets not go stirring pots that dont need stirring.

Seems to me like the op has just thought "I want to find something I find offensive" and this is the best she could come up with. We could all do that if we wanted surely.

@steff13

As an American, someone saying they're going for an Indian does sound odd to me, because we don't say it that way here. We mostly just say Indian, or Chinese, or Mexican, etc. But I don't think it's offensive. 🤷‍♀️

A lot of phrases you all use sound odd to me, and vice-versa, I'm sure. Like, why do you say "in hospital" instead of " in the hospital?"

We also say ‘in church’ (eg married in church, ‘ I can’t come on Sunday because I’ll be in church’) ‘in school’ (‘He’s not in school yet because he’s only 3’ ) This is because ‘the’ is a definite article and refers to a specific place, not the institution/situation in general. Saying ‘in the hospital’ would prompt a response of ‘Which hospital?’ Oh and I would say ‘Going for an Indian’, just as I might say ‘What do you fancy this evening- Thai, Indian, Japanese?’ But I’m not suggesting a romantic liaison!

I woukd say, we are having:
An indian
A chinese
An italian
A thai
A mexican

But I wouldn't say a French.... Probably as I wouldn't be getting French food.

"I literally have never heard anyone say ‘going for an Italian’"

So you keep saying, we go for an Italian at every opportunity.

For those questioning going for a French. We say fancy going for a Rouge?

Oh FGS. What is wrong with the world?! Everyone finds bloody EVERYTHING offensive. Let’s all just stop speaking, or communicating in any way whatsoever, then no “offence” can be caused. FML.

@DavidsSchitt

"I literally have never heard anyone say ‘going for an Italian’"

So you keep saying, we go for an Italian at every opportunity.

For those questioning going for a French. We say fancy going for a Rouge?

Whereas I have definately heard Americans ay "we are having Italian* tonight" when having Lasagne or similar

*well actually Aytahlian but it means the same

You looking to goad?

@LookofEvaBraun

I get what you mean OP, it's also odd if the Curry houses are owned and staffed by people who come from Pakistan, not India.

No no no 🤦🏻‍♀️.

They are serving food from their culture and it's being sold as 'Indian' as frankly 1960/70s white people could understand 'what kind of food it would be' that better. So when you see the menu, it's their cuisine, not them making another region's cuisine. It's not odd at all.

If you were to go to India and ask for a curry, most people would look confused and ask why you wanted a sauce without any rice or veg/lentils etc. 'Curry' is a British term.

You can tell you were brought up in North America op.

Americans!

However we don't normally say, in any reference to food, "We're going for a yank"....

Why are you all assuming that OP is necessarily American?

I was born in North America and I’m Canadian.

Shock Horror. Person moves to a different country and is surprised its has a different.culture.and.language.

Starts hand wringing as no one is behaving and and speaking in a "normal" way to them.