The word 'spic'

carlop

I was out last night with a few Spanish mates in town, they were with a pretty big group, and I heard them referred to as 'spics' a couple of times. I'm not some crazed member of the PC brigade or anything but I was wondering how bad to be people think this word is? Is it a racial slur or is it a harmless nickname?

Mark200

Never heard of it before

biko

As bad as kikes and **** I think, actually maybe not as bad.

FlutterinBantam

carlop wrote: »

I was out last night with a few Spanish mates in town, they were with a pretty big group, and I heard them referred to as 'spics' a couple of times. I'm not some crazed member of the PC brigade or anything but I was wondering how bad to be people think this word is? Is it a racial slur or is it a harmless nickname?

HISPANIC, it's a shortening of that AFAIK.

Not usually used as a harmless nickname

dr.bollocko

Damn that petrochemical industry.

carlop

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

HISPANIC, it's a shortening of that AFAIK.

Not usually used as a harmless nickname

Ah yeah I know where it comes from, its just that its used so much more than other racist terms and doesn't appear to have the same taboo about it.

For example last night we were in a bar and someone came out of the jacks, looked around and said jesus the place is full of spics. Now if I'd been out with a group of black people I'm guessing he wouldn't have said 'jesus this place is full of ****.'

Kold

It's pretty bad form, alright. Mostly it's just the N word that's off limits for direct use but that is a term of racial abuse. It doesn't have the connotations of the N word though.

ART6

biko wrote: »

As bad as kikes and **** I think, actually maybe not as bad.

Or as bad as "Paddies"??

Simi

Given that it's an almost exclusively american term, that's not as widely known as other forms of racial slurs I wouldn't see it as being that bad tbh.

It is mainly used in a joking manner outside america, i'd imagine. Tbh I don't see why people get all riled up about this sort of thing.

phantom_lord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAazd7VgrBE

DirkVoodoo

Great video!

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Yea that word is quite racist... Same as the N word... Not very nice to be honest.

FlutterinBantam

carlop wrote: »

Ah yeah I know where it comes from, its just that its used so much more than other racist terms and doesn't appear to have the same taboo about it.

For example last night we were in a bar and someone came out of the jacks, looked around and said jesus the place is full of spics. Now if I'd been out with a group of black people I'm guessing he wouldn't have said 'jesus this place is full of ****.'

Quite possibly it's because it doesn't refer to a particular skin colour but rather an ethnic origin,which seems to be a bit more acceptable than raw skin colour.

OK?

monkeyfudge

People using the word are either racist or extremely ignorant.

A lot of people seem far too comfortable throwing the word 'chink' around too I find.

mike65

Spic is a bit like Dago and Brit bastard, on the second tier of common abuse.

Mike

ronnie3585

Highly offensive;

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spic

Professey Chin

Its bad but i find "spink-sponks" worse

anonymous_joe

If used in a derogatory way it's bloody awful.

df1985

ive spent a couple of summers working in spain, and although i wouldnt class it as bad as **** if used in the wrong context,it can cause offence.it all depends how you use it.

Aodan83

Whether or not its as bad as the "n" word should be irrelevant. Surely we should have no place for derogartory terms like "spic" in the first place.

Terry

Did you not think to ask your Spanish friends how they felt about it?

Kold

I made up my own racial slur. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pinkdick

Tigger

While the exact origin of the word isn't known, some Latin Americans in the United States believe that some of the Ethnic groups referred to Hispanic Americans using the word as play on their accented pronunciation of the English word "speak" (as in "No spic English").


is it racist to lol this

Lockstep

As far as American TV is reliable, it's very bad.

Overheal

It would be somewhere in severity between "Jew" and "N_____" as a racial slur, so it is quite offensive, yes.

Kold

Overheal wrote: »

It would be somewhere in severity between "Jew" and "N_____" as a racial slur, so it is quite offensive, yes.

Jew isn't a racial slur.

hullaballoo

Kold wrote: »

Jew isn't a racial slur.

Yeah, but he spelt it with a German accent.

mumhaabu

It is an American term that not alot of English speaking Europeans know of, I have heard it in New York and it is highly offensive akin to "N" for African Americans. Spiclita is often used to refer to a female Latino and spiclet for Latino children similar to niglet used of black children. If you ever played the GTA 4 video game or other similar ones you'd soon pick up on the American slang which is quite offensive to those involved. Gringo is a popular derogatory (although tolerated by the liberal PC brigade) that is used to refer to white people by those of spanish speaking backgrounds.

All those words are extremly derogatory and using the word spic amongst white people can have bad consequences as alot of "White" people are actually Hispanic and with the melting pot of America it is hard to tell who is who, whereas you can tell a black person rather easily. It is probably something picked up by J1'ers and they use it here in an attempt to seem modern and cultured. :rolleyes: *spontaneously vomits*

Latino people in America get alot of abuse and quite often it comes from blacks and Asians as the way it goes in America is, Whites either like or hate everybody, blacks blame everybody for their own self inflicted problems, Latinos dislike blacks and Asians consider themselves above everybody but really aspire to White Culture, obviously these are sweeping generalisations but it is how they are portrayed but there is an element of truth in it especially when you look at the voting records of the various ethnic groups.

Also I must add Latino women are gorgeous!!

Fanny Cradock

monkeyfudge wrote: »

People using the word are either racist or extremely ignorant.

A lot of people seem far too comfortable throwing the word 'chink' around too I find.

Oddly enough, I've heard people refer to a Chinese takeaway as a Chinky.

Sir Gallagher

mumhaabu wrote: »

It is an American term that not alot of English speaking Europeans know of, I have heard it in New York and it is highly offensive akin to "N" for African Americans. Spiclita is often used to refer to a female Latino and spiclet for Latino children similar to niglet used of black children. If you ever played the GTA 4 video game or other similar ones you'd soon pick up on the American slang which is quite offensive to those involved. Gringo is a popular derogatory (although tolerated by the liberal PC brigade) that is used to refer to white people by those of spanish speaking backgrounds.

All those words are extremly derogatory and using the word spic amongst white people can have bad consequences as alot of "White" people are actually Hispanic and with the melting pot of America it is hard to tell who is who, whereas you can tell a black person rather easily. It is probably something picked up by J1'ers and they use it here in an attempt to seem modern and cultured. :rolleyes: *spontaneously vomits*

Latino people in America get alot of abuse and quite often it comes from blacks and Asians as the way it goes in America is, Whites either like or hate everybody, blacks blame everybody for their own self inflicted problems, Latinos dislike blacks and Asians consider themselves above everybody but really aspire to White Culture, obviously these are sweeping generalisations but it is how they are portrayed but there is an element of truth in it especially when you look at the voting records of the various ethnic groups.

Also I must add Latino women are gorgeous!!

That's racist against ugly Latino birds.

carlop

Terry wrote: »

Did you not think to ask your Spanish friends how they felt about it?

Yeah obviously I did, they'd never heard of it so I don't think they really knew what to make of it. When I tried explaining it, I wasn't sure how exactly to classify it as an insult eg. how bad it is, what I could compare it to etc. hence the thread.