Is this offensive or not? South Island girl

[BastetsWhiskers]

I was trying to run a comb through my hair very gingerly yesterday (knots) when I was told I looked like a South island girl. From someone in their 70s.

Is this an offensive phrase? I don't even know which south island they were referring to.

This isn't entirely serious, I wondered if it was something which shouldn't be said. And where the island is.

Uppity: It's an epithet used by White people in the Jim Crow era to describe Black people they believed weren't showing them enough deference.

It's far more malevolent than a synonym for "arrogant," though. Per PBS' long-running "American Experience" series, many Black men and women were lynched by White mobs for seeming too "uppity."

"It was and remains an insulting way to describe a Black person because it suggests that they are 'too big for their britches' or are demonstrating a sense of dignity or autonomy they are not supposed to possess," said Krystal Smalls, an assistant professor of anthropology and linguistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The insult was frequently lodged at President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama throughout the 44th president's two terms, usually by conservative opponents who claimed they were unaware of the word's racist origins. And American and British journalists have used the term to describe Meghan Markle, who is biracial, after she became the Duchess of Sussex.

Thank you. Every day is a learning day as they say. If I had been going to use uppity it would have been in relation to a Hyacinth Bucket type of person, genuinely did not know any other meaning behind the word.

What's offensive about that?

There is far too much transference from US cultural politics to the UK, we share little with the US race issues here.

I agree.

”Uppity” was commonly used in the past in the USA in the phrase “uppity (n-word)” and is therefore still highly offensive there. A lot of people in the UK are unaware of this association and just know it as a word to describe someone who has a bit of an attitude.

@TreadLight ahh, I completely misunderstood!

Given the response you got, I'd say you effectively made your point! 😅

Thanks for posting this. All the references to searching for offence and purity spirals was making me want to scream.

If I’d heard this comment I’d have had the same response to the op. Not quite sure what was being referred to, but a suspicion it was likely to a certain ethnic group. And if it was - meant offensively or not - it quite clearly is racist. Comparing someone looking disheveled or comical to an having the characteristics of an ethnic group - especially a colonised ethnic group - is racism 101. It’s blindingly obviously demeaning and othering, not something only the purist anti-racism activists could be expected to know.

If people can’t recognise that and see that it’s different to using the word pyjamas or saying someone looks French then I despair.

Many people of colour in the UK do not agree with you.

Depending what type of hair you have, they could have been reminded of those paintings of south sea pacific island girls.. desperately trying to think of the name of the painter and which island(s) but I have a vague beautiful picture in my mind of a woman combing her hair!🙂🤷

I could not agree less with you both! You have no clue what you are talking about, putting it politely.

I think that you are talking about Paul Gauguin.

@LadyKenya , could you expand on that. I know on this side of the Atlantic the white population has a history of racism, with the 1919 race riots a particular low point. I am not clear, however, why the odious actions of white people towards black people thousands of miles away should be the cornerstone of race relations in this country.

We can do better than the US, unless you think every white person is responsible for the actions of every other white person. That's a dangerous path to follow and one which is intrinsically racist.

Yes that's it 🙂 Until we hear back what the person meant we have no idea if it was a racist slur on unkempt hair or a compliment on a scene that many painters have found beautiful

No, I am not going to. If you are interested in learning then there are plenty of resources available to you (plenty)! Lots of well known black people in the UK have written about the racism that is rife here. Just from the tone of your post tells me a lot.

Ok you really do need to see the film 😂 if you've got 1.5 hours to waste. I don't recommend.

It's nothing about race, in a nutshell there are two islands that don't know about each other. One has beautiful women, and brutish men, and the other island handsome men and brutish women.

Basically they find out about each other and the beautiful women leave to capture the beautiful men and marry them. Which they do. So it's more about vanity than race.

Like I said it's a bizzare 1958 film, based on mother nature and father of time conducting an experiment. If anything the brutish men are the hard done by ones. 😳

All of those expressions are racist though. They might not have been intended to offend, but ignorance doesn't make it OK.

I also would assume it was a reference to the film South Pacific - I would take it as a compliment!

Thelastofbus · Today 11:18
I'm surprised words like pyjamas and wearing mufti for school are allowed

It's crazy to think of this as cultural appropriation. All languages borrow words from others as they encounter other cultures. There are Latin words in Welsh, from the time of the Roman Empire and Hindi words in English from the time of the Raj. It's how languages work. Any linguist will tell you that these words/cultural encounters enrich any language because they often supply a new word for a new concept or object.

The French use the English word for weekend because they didn't have one. English borrows Schadenfreude from German because it's a concept we didn't have a word for.

What's the problem, as if the world didn't have enough REAL problems at the moment? Waste of energy and totally misdirected anger to get het up about borrowed words.

Like I say, I don't believe that a 1950s film about "wild tribes" (including "ape people") on a "tropical island" dressed in leopard skins has nothing to say about race. Think of the stereotypes it is playing with about civilisation, culture and primitivism.

Well let’s see shall we? The Godfather of my daughter is Jamaican and one of my oldest best friends and a colleague when we work together on equal terms. He is married to a Spanish lady and when she is Christened I will become her Godfather.
I am also very close to his family and friends some of whom are in the trades and work for or with me some times.
My Missus ( now separated but still my best friend) is Czech. My children have dual nationality both English and Czech. My family background is Italian Irish and Welsh so what is there to be racist or prejudiced about.
Do you think I am prejudiced against my own or my children’s background perhaps? I’d love your full intelligently thought out explanation if you’d be so kind as to provide one. It is my opinion that racism should be called out for what it is which according to my whole extended family is malevolent abuse or prejudice against a person simply for the colour of their skin not a comment or a word innocently said.
I’m colourblind when it comes to people I see every human being as part of the human race and don’t think anyone should be classified according to the colour of their skin or their family background. That’s what a lot of the historic and ongoing resentment stems from imo.
I won’t ever be a party to treating anyone differently from the rest of my friends or family simply because of their colour any more than I’d treat my Down Syndrome cousin differently ( apart from making suitable allowances according to his needs) at any point whether in a family gathering or any other occasion but maybe that’s just me.
I’ve never been one of the waiting to pretend to be offended brigade because I have more important things to use my intelligence for.
I apologise if that offends you too but then if it does I suppose everything does and I wish you well in your glass tower. Regards, David the Decorator.

P.S. Would someone be so kind as to tell me what ODFOD means please as it’s not a phrase I’m familiar with? Thankyou.

I guess it is technically racist on the fact that it's referring to well race, however there's nothing discrimatory or unpleasant conveyed.

People from Africa tend to be dark skinned. There, is that racist? What long straight black hair like a Chinese person? Ooh racist. Pale skin and freckles like a Celt...tall and blonde like a Swede....I could go on

Love someone who is only 50 trying to leverage the moral highground of WWII!!

I'm older than you and find it relatively easy to navigate the world without thinking "you can't say anything these days".

Well I congratulate you upon finally having the time to do so. Perhaps things are moving on a little faster and more differently than I can afford to devote the time to keep up with working 10 hours a day 6 days a week then doing admin after work for 2 hours then having a bit of time apart from a couple of pints at lunchtime as my personal reward before doing all the housework after Skypeing with the kids doing dancing and watching their music practice in the morning. I’m so sorry I don’t have the time until I retire to jump upon every passing bandwagon. Unfortunately when I do retire from my trade if we haven’t all been blown up I intend to buy a boat to take out charter fishing trips off of the South Coast so I still might not have the time but for now that is a pipe dream.