***
I loved the part where Harry's spoofing a phone conversation with the Queen:
"Granny I've got to go, send my love to the Corgis and Grandpa.... I've got to go, got to go, bye. God Save You ... yeah, that's great."
IN THE COMMENTS: Freeman Hunt says:
A royal Kowalski!
Walt Kowalski is the Clint Eastwood character in "Gran Torino," the movie we've been talking about over here. I'd written:
Does the movie legitimatize racial epithets? We have our snarling but lovable geezer spitting a hundred racist slurs — especially to refer to Asians — over the course of the movie. And, in trying to teach his young mentee how to man up — and not be a pussy — he encourages him to banter playfully using words like "wop," "mick," and so forth. You might want to say it's a hilarious slap in the face of political correctness. But I think the movie is pretty effective in selling plain old-fashioned racial talk.Freeman now says:
I think you're right about Gran Torino making a case for racial language in general. Having the character talk like that to everyone, people he liked and didn't like, people of his own race and not, sort of popped the bubble that these words should have special, almost magical, powers to offend. Especially with the juxtaposition of the racial insults against the real insults. The times you felt he was really cutting were the times when he called young men "pussies" because they deserved it.
Posts
36 comments:
I would've thought it - or hoped it, anyway. It's wild how light his comments were (really no big thing under the wartime circumstances he's in) and, still, they make the papers - like the editors have no common sense. Which, now that I think about it, I have no doubt.
There is hope for England and the Royal Family. A bit over the top on occasion but a fair sense of humor trumps his politically incorrect musings.
The Paki's are problematic these days as they dangle a foot over the precipice of radical Islamism. Describing certain radicals as "ragheads" is no more condescending than describing a western "Deadhead" as someone who drives to concerts in a converted school bus probably transporting heroin derivatives from those "Strawberry Fields" of Afghanistan.
We have another "Dirty Harry" on our hands!
Henry VIII was a cut up, too, wasn’t he?
A royal Kowalski!
I think you're right about Gran Torino making a case for racial language in general. Having the character talk like that to everyone, people he liked and didn't like, people of his own race and not, sort of popped the bubble that these words should have special, almost magical, powers to offend. Especially with the juxtaposition of the racial insults against the real insults. The times you felt he was really cutting were the times when he called young men "pussies" because they deserved it.
Raghead? I thought that was someone allegic to ragweed. Yeah, that's the ticket, he was referring to someone's allergies.
We talk about ragheads, frogs, and japs all the time. I think gaijin is a Japanese derogatory term for foreigners in general but what other derogatory terms are used to specifically describe Americans other than baby killers, murders, and capitalists?
Not sure why Harry needs to put this stuff on tape. Seems like the military would frown on such activities being recorded, regardless of who did it.
But, the kid has been on the front lines which is admirable. And, the Hewitt rumors must be bothersome.
Hopefully Harry has learned to limit video (and Nazi garb) fun.
Walt Kowalski is the Clint Eastwood character in "Gran Torino," . . .
Then I misunderstood.
I was thinking “Stanley” which kind of made sense, actually.
(Some of us try not to read about movies we've yet to see.)
You know, I'd almost rather see something like this out of Prince Harry instead of stories of him acting perfectly along the confines of accepted royal behavior. He's a soldier, and an officer, and while military personnel need to be disciplined and proper, I personally believe there still needs to be at least a hint of animalism about them. A bit of coarseness demonstrates a lack of uptightness and an ability to discern the difference between important and unimportant.
I'd worry if he was nothing but coarse, but my point is that I'd worry equally if he was never anything other than strictly proper. The former is a slave to his actions, the latter is a robot. Somewhere inbetween is where you find a thinking human.
In recent times there has been a trend by second and third-generation British Pakistanis to reclaim the word. The word has been turned into a keepsake for the young British Pakistani community that is not acceptable for someone outside the community to say it, including Indians and Bangladeshis.
Similar to other "high grievance" cultures like blacks and liberal hip-hop white "wiggers" saying they have proprietary rights to "nigger", or "niggah" or "niggaz" - and "outsiders" don't, unless granted specific permission by a Head Negro....
Bush also used Pakis and got in a little trouble for it. Of course, being Bush, he also butchered other nationalities sensitivities - he had the Grecians, Bosnis, and Congolians.
The "Paki" word is in common use by Indians and Bengalis that have less than fond memories of Paks residing there. "Goat fucker" is another useful nickname for Pakistanis in Bangadesh.
John McCain still calls his jail guards "gooks" claiming that was the name they were called when he was there, and that is the name he still calls them by..
Lets not forget that more self-confident, non-grievance based cultures tend to shrug off the "Frogs", "Yanks", "Huns", "Gaijin", "Quai Lo", "Jap", "Nip", "Bubbas", "Lung Guyland Princess", "Slavs", "Russkie", "garlic eater", stuff. Or admit it irritates a bit, but that hearing it does not reduce them to quivering piles of traumatized, aggrieved protoplasm that "must" be apologized to.
She is as famous in Oriel as if she was the President of the United States, only she is not respected by any party.
Stanley Kowalski, from A Streetcar Named Desire.
(Some of us try not to read about movies we've yet to see.)
dittos..
After muttering about "Yankees" while with a foreign friend and noticing the puzzlement on his face, I had to explain to him the term does not apply to all Americans and is used with sincere fondness.
He was amused.
A couple of time late at night I have seen a PSA in Michigan, where a scold tells young people that using the word "gay" to mean anything but homosexual is bigotry.
Say what?
What is it about anti-heroes named Kowalski?
save_the_rustbelt said...
A couple of time late at night I have seen a PSA in Michigan, where a scold tells young people that using the word "gay" to mean anything but homosexual is bigotry.
Say what?
Those assholes make clowns of themselves, unwittingly.
All gaiety aside...
His comments fit in perfectly with the many racist bigoted fools who hang here.
Michael, you pussy.
Hey, Cedarford.
You submitted a post which did not attack The Jooz.
And you didn't add your favorite description "Trans-National Jews".
I guess that you don't think of that as a slur. (Some of my best friends are Trans-National Jews? Somehow doesn't sound quite Kosher, shall we say.)
Doesn't 'Paki' occupy roughly the same cultural space in Britain as the N-word does in the US, or am I wrong about that?
Perhaps a Britisher could answer the question (Britisher is a term I learned from my Indian relatives.....I think it's kind of old school, and, as far as I know, it is not an epithet, but I could imagine it being used as one.)
Either way, Prince Harry doesn't strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed. Wasn't he the one who wore that Nazi arm-band?
Oh, you know what else is completely pathetic? As a tween I was completely obssessed, like many tweens of my eighties tween/teen generation, with the clothes Princess Diana wore, and I would pore over pictures of her hats, shoes, and dresses, endlessly. I was kind of embarrassed by this and did in secret.
If I were a tween today, I would so be on some Young Royals blog, furtively looking at the clothes, like a total drip and loser.
One more thing on the Prince Harry stuff: yeah, he's just a young guy blowing off steam and I doubt he meant much by any of it, but don't you think by now he would get that when he, a Prince, says something, it's not like an everyday guy saying the same thing? Maybe that's just the breaks when you live off all the money given to you by the Queen or the State or whatever.
I think I could learn to zip it for that kind of cash....
" Michael said...
His comments fit in perfectly with the many racist bigoted fools who hang here.
2:26 PM
Ann Althouse said...
Michael, you pussy."
LMAO!
Either way, Prince Harry doesn't strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed. Wasn't he the one who wore that Nazi arm-band?
I thought it was the other one.
And I thought it was completely stupid to get upset about a Nazi costume when people often dress up like monsters. That's the *point*.
I heart Harry.
The royal family is low class.
LMAO!
I second that.
I recall clearly when "Brit" caused serious lip-curling amongst the upper middle-class RAF officers we knew from the local Air Force base in California, where there was a contingent for God knows what reason when I was middle-school aged. The kids showed up in the local schools, and the mums at the PTA and shopping at Stater Bros. supermarket.
They also took great offence at the then-popular song, "The Battle of New Orleans" ("In 1814 we took a little trip...."), and had their own, alternative version, also recorded by the Kingston Trio or whomever, where the British came off not as badly.
I recall them using "Paki" (a new term for me) in somewhat the same spirit as "Aussie," or, for that matter, "American." You know, with the slight lengthening of the "mer" with an unmistakable downward note of condescension. They also used the N-word casually, not quite realising its meaning and history in the US, but rather as a mildly derogatory term for Africans from their recently dismembered Empiah, er, 'Commonwealth.'
But "Brit" was an Irish term of insult, not to be tolerated.
Normal blokes, or at least members of the officer class in those distant, very early Vietnam days, who didn't go unnoticed by a 14-year-old.
The Royal Family stand for nothing so much as tradition, and whose members can still display such time-honoured attitudes as helped the British remain oblivious to what the natives really thought whilst they conquered half the globe.
No one's commented on the question about his ginger pubes. When I first heard the tape, I thought it sounded exactly like one of those pushy papparazzi who are always ambushing VIPs in airports with really dumb personal questions.
Now, I think it may have been the same sort of send-up as the phone call to Granny.
I think gaijin is a Japanese derogatory term for foreigners in general but what other derogatory terms are used to specifically describe Americans other than baby killers, murders, and capitalists?
I think "Yankee" is pretty much it. In Japan, there's also Ame-kou, which is apparently an insulting term for Americans. And Yankee, apart from being used for Americans, is also used for Japanese hooligans and delinquents, which is insulting in another way. There's words to insult Whites in general, like Ketou, I guess. But not a very rich field for Americans specifically, at least that I know of.
Also, re: Gaijin, it's considered a little rude, apparently, but lots of gaijin talents in Japan refer to themselves as "gaijin," so it's not like it's all that rude. And I don't think this is like Blacks calling themselves the n-word. It's not like calling China Pokopen, or calling a Korean Chon. It also ranks below sankokujin.
Here's a good one, apparently used in China: 美帝鬼子 (seems to show up more as 美帝的二鬼子). Cannot pronounce it, as I don't speak Chinese, but it means "American Empire, Devil Child," or "American Empire, the Second Devil Child" (the first presumably being the Japanese Empire.)
I got this out of Japanese wikipedia, but the number of hits on Chinese sites is much lower than I would expect if it were really in wide use, so it may be something that hit Japanese media, but wasn't really all that big in China.
A couple of time late at night I have seen a PSA in Michigan, where a scold tells young people that using the word "gay" to mean anything but homosexual is bigotry.
Hmm, what does that say about the Flintstones Theme Song?
"We'll have a gay old time."
OMG. I have never realized how insidious the gay lobby is. They were inserting code words into TV programs clear back in the 1960's.
LMAO
Third.
"The royal family is low class."
"Oh Kettle, thou art Black!" - Pot
Paki, Brit, what the heck is the difference in terms of a slang usage? It is an abbreviated version of the longer word.
It isn't like Harry used that quintessential British word - wog - which is as close to the N-word as you can get in the good old UK.
Gee, an officer BSing with his troops? Using less than delicate language? However could such a thing happen?!?(\vapors)
From what I've heard troops say to each other in the past, and some of the back & forth my son's reported, they're lucky they didn't get something that'd fry their recorder. You can't always be aware of someone recording every damn word.
Of course, most of this is just Harry trying to appear cool and tough - it cannot be fun being the only member of you officer cadet class to have a full time bodyguard. Also, the British Army is just generally way more crude and rude than the US or Canadian Army - the C word is practically a term of endearment. Finally, since in the UK almost everybody is some sort of minority (whether an immigrant or a Geordie, a Mick, a Welshman, a Yorkshireman, etc) that they tolerate a little more "ethnic" humor as long as everybody gets to play the teaser and the victim.
For some reason I think "Pak" is OK, "Paki" is objectionable, but don't hold me to it.
"Wog" is very useful for discourse among Americans because we haven't got the hang-ups about its use, i.e. Ann will let us use it.
Post a Comment