to be appalled when 'intelligent' people speak of 'pikeys' and ' gypos'

[debs40]

I live in a small provincial cathedral city. It is a white, Daily Mail/Torygraph reading kind of place.

OK, I can sort of live with that even if it is all church schools and 11+. I've lately been taken aback by the easy resort to using terms such as 'chav', 'pokey' or 'gypo' on relation to anyone who seems less well off or intelligent. These people are police officers, teachers or immigration officers too!

AIBU to think this is dated and offensive? No wonder. Jimmy Carr always has a tour date here!

The Daily Mail openly sympathised with Fascism before the war, did it not? No surprise that its readers are a little right of centre and not amongst our nation's most trenchant thinkers ...

I like Jimmy Carr - though wouldn't like to be chums with him - and have no view on the Telegraph.

I think Gyppo is a "wrong" word because it's racist, but I don't think that chav or pikey, though deliberately offensive, are necessarily bad words. It depends on how much thought and discernment goes into their use, I suppose.

I just loathe Mail readers, really. That's the main thrust of my posting. I'll leave it there.

Do agree 'gyppo' racist. In fact agree with your whole post ManIFeelLikeAWoman

In my experience people have names for everyone and anyone who isn't like themselves.
Am more surprised that you think police and immigration people are intelligent what lead to that assumption ? Teachers don't tend to read the telegraph or DM in my experience or they wouldn't last long in teaching.

Thanks for saying I'm dim witted and racist. I really appreciate that!

Now is that worse than calling me a pikey?!

I admit I haven't found one comedian who I've thought, oh yes I agree with everything he or she has said, but on the whole Jimmy Carr is funny.

I see exactly what you mean ManIFeel

What do you do though when you live ( are stuck) in a town like this?? Argue with every use of the word/not speak to such people?

Mail reading is de rigeur here and you could not even have such a debate.

What a lovely christian town!!

But I think that JC makes jokes about everyone and his aim is to be funny rather than offensive, I am sure he doesn't believe in everything he says, he makes lots of jokes about women, but I don't think he hates women, I see him in the same way I see Sasha Baron-Cohen or Al Murray, he is taking the piss out of being offensive not trying to offend.

blondilocks. .. Saying that dim witted racists like him is not the same as saying you are a dim witted racist if you like him..!

Frankly, what I did was move to somewhere bigger.

Apart from that, what justabout says is true. Don't imagine you are "the only gay in the village" - even Canterbury had a university! And where there is a university there are cinemas showing intelligent films, and theatres where Jim Davidson has never played, and socialists and liberals and all sorts of fabulous creatures.

If all else fails, head for the library. They have notice boards, and they terrify Mail readers, who suspect witchcraft takes palce within.

I agree-broaden your friendship circle-Salisbury can't be lumped together as certain newspaper readers.

PMSL at DM readers being terrified of libraries, is there anything that DOESNT put the fear of god into them?

As the old joke goes, the best way to confuse a Mail reader is to tell him that Albanians are the natural predators of benefit cheats.

Daily Mail readers love tory voting white estate agents who drive black bmws.

Well it could be my fault after all for missing all those broadminded types on this tiny little town! I have lived here for six years and I have met alot of different types of people
But ..it is a right wing town and I'm appalled at views I listen to on occasion.

I did NOT say they get their views from the Mail but the views I hear are certainly reflected on that rag!

I think the term Pikey is racist too.

Debs

No criticism implied.

I have never been to Salisbury and have no idea what it is like.

It does, however, sound a lot like Canterbury, near to which I grew up. Very right wing, and very few people who are "different" so prejudices tend to go uncorrected. Which in turn makes it even less attractive to different people - vicious circle.

Nevertheless, in the area, if not in the town itself, you WILL find book groups, evening classes about phiosophy or literature or foreign languages or something which tacitly acknowledges that Salisbury is not perfect, still life or photography classes where creativity is not a swear word - -it can be done!

Good luck with avoiding the Mailers.

noonki

What race does it discriminate against?

I think it means someone with low standards of personal hygiene and generally lacking in self-respect/pride. Sometimes it means a yokel. Offensive, yes, but racist?

If anyone identifies that with a particular race, then THAT is a racist act.

Otherwise I don't see it, I'm afraid.

Being unkind is not nice, but it's not racist.

pikey is a derogatory term for travellers.

Pikey is, as noonki says, a racist term. Having had it used against me lots of times (even in front of my child), I take issue with hearing it used as an insult and will pick people up on it.

Disregarding the fact that "travellers" are not a race, or even a unified cultural group, then if people do use the word as a shorthand for that whole group of people, then I can sort of see where you're coming from.

But I think such people have "made" the word mean that, rather than the word meaning that and then entering common usage, IYSWIM.

That's not racist. That's racists.

Pikey does I think originate as a specific term to refer to travellers, so in the same way that gyppo is racist I guess pikey is, but my understanding is that not all travellers are gypsies and that gypsies have a culture of respect and keep their sites clean. Hence my understanding of the term is to describe travellers who are dirty and unpleasant, don't feel that is racist as i don't think that there is a 'race' of people who are dirty and unpleasant, just some groups of travellers who fit that description. I wouldn't use gyppo because that is a derogatory term for a specific ethnic group.

but surely any racist term is only offensive because people have made it that way.

Polak is a racist term used in the USA for Polish immigrants, in Polish it literally means 'Polish'.

I would never use any term that someone may find racist as it isn't up to me to determine wether or not they should find it offensive.

If there is any question as to whether they would I would not use it.

ManIFeel I hear what you say but, unlike Canterbury, there is no University! I think that does make a difference.

My original post did not imply everyone here says these things but that it is worrying to find such conversation so easily amongst people you would expect to know better! That is what I find disturbing

Polack is racist because it designates a race. The Polish.

Travellers are not a race. They are people who choose to spend their life travelling.

If I criticise that, or any stereotype based on that, it probably doesn't make me that kind a person.

But it doesn't make me racist, any more than criticising, for example, Mail readers.