November 10, 2003

NRO More

Posted by Kieran

I dropped by NRO’s The Corner a minute ago. I know, I know. John Derbyshire carries the conservative banner of civility-in-blogging by casually stereotyping jews and blacks in the service of a bit of backhanded homophobia. But I’m sure this is just more evidence that the left has no sense of humor. Meanwhile, Rod Dreher runs something under the headline “Pakis Against Bobby.” I hope Rod is just being pig ignorant here. And Kathryn Jean Lopez produces a one-sentence post. (Scroll down to “Bring the Cots.”) Parsing it is left as an exercise to the reader.

Posted on November 10, 2003 01:47 AM UTC
Comments

That Derbyshire NRO bit is incredible. It’s a wonderful exhibition of the perfect compatability of ignorance and prejudice.

Posted by shrinking violent · November 10, 2003 03:09 AM

Dreher is a total waste of time. I’ve read and contacted him through the Dallas Morning News blog. He’s totally blinded by ideology and assumes everyone else is as well.

Posted by dmn blog reader · November 10, 2003 03:23 AM

I’ve seen a lot of Americans refer casually to ‘Pakis’, so I have a feeling that it’s only has racist connotations here in the UK. But I could be wrong.

Posted by Keith · November 10, 2003 05:03 AM

I can’t speak for all americans, but I can’t remember hearing the term “paki” anywhere but in british movies etc. and obviously then only as a racist term.

Posted by laura · November 10, 2003 05:52 AM

I’ve seen it a few times on Usenet (including rec.sport.baseball in the last week), and I’ve actually had a debate on IRC about it, when I and another Brit complained when one of the Americans used ‘Paki’. He’d never heard of the racism implied by the usage in the UK, and saw it as no different to ‘Afghani’ or ‘Uzbeki’.

Posted by Keith · November 10, 2003 05:57 AM

Went to high school with a lot of people from S. Asia and don’t remember Paki at all, much less as a term of abuse - and as teenagers we were likely to find and use any and all of those that we could.

Posted by Doug · November 10, 2003 07:35 AM

I’ve seen a lot of Americans refer casually to ‘Pakis’, so I have a feeling that it’s only has racist connotations here in the UK.

BWahahahahaha. Because of course, epithets Americans use casually are unlikely to have racist connotations.

I’d have some of what you were smoking if I smoked.

But hey, I Went to high school with a lot of white people and remember Paki pretty clearly, as a term of abuse.

Posted by drapetomaniac · November 10, 2003 04:59 PM

(1) I’ve never heard “Paki” in the U.S. (except when listening to U.K.-imported culture). But there was a flap a ways back when Bush himself said, “We are working hard to convince both the Indians and the Pakis that there’s a way to deal with their problems without going to war.” So Dreher need be no more pig-ignorant than the Only President We’ve Got to use that phrase! Sighs of relief. (Well, except that the flap should have put Dreher on notice.)

(2)The Lopez post is actually the most cogent thing I’ve seen from her; in a sop to its right wing, Republican senators are holding an all-night debate on judicial nominations, so they’re bringing cots into the chamber.

Posted by Matt Weiner · November 10, 2003 05:02 PM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.