8 Asians

The origin of ethnic slurs

By Ben | Monday, February 4, 2008 | 14 Comments


If you’re easily offended by racial slurs, do not read this. The intent of this post is to look at words targeting a certain populace is later on applied to a general population.

I was reading my daily dose of news when I ran across some things about the current Republican candidate, Senator John McCain, and something he had said back in 2000. Apparently in response to a question, he replied:

“I hate the gooks,” McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. “I will hate them as long as I live.”

At first, I was in shock since McCain was a Vietnam veteran. It’s not like I’ve never heard derogatory words before, but my initial reaction was:
“Wait one second. Isn’t that the wrong people?”

So I did some research. Apparently the word “gook” comes from hanguk which is reference to Korea: “han” is a reference word towards Korea and “guk” means country. This is similar to Mandarin where Korea would be said as “han guo” in the same referential pattern. But apparently after the Korean War, the term was then used by American soldiers against the Vietnamese, and currently is more generally used against anyone of Asian descent.

But what was really interesting is that there is a generalization going on with all of these slurs; every single one that used to be directed at a certain type of person usually designated by skin or country, is now used in a more general sense against the entirety of Asians. Buddhahead, chink, and a whole bunch of others happen to now be termed for Asians in general.

I’m also curious if ill education has to do with the perception growing from a targeted to a general populace. If you’ve noticed with the slur “gook”, it went from something that had some historical meaning to later on where all Asians are being called that word. The same could be said about many of the other Asian slurs along with other ethnic and religious slurs.

Have any 8A readers noticed similar things going on through the ages? I would imagine that geographical locale would make a huge difference if your ears have picked up on the language and gives a lot more value in deconstructing why and how the words are used. Yet, when these demeaning words are generalized, it loses the effect that it originally had. Either way, they’re bad words.

Photo Credit: (CrimsonNinjaGirl)

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14 Comments to “The origin of ethnic slurs”

  • jozjozjoz wrote:

    When I was first called a “gook” (I was probably in first or second grade) I was like “What?! I’m not a gook! I’m a chink!”

    Funny thing is, I’m not even a chink… I’m a tink! (Taiwanese-American, baby!)

    Posted on 04-Feb-08 at 2:48 pm | Permalink

  • Mike wrote:

    On a side note, when I first learned the term “jap,” it meant “Jewish American Princess,” and not as a derivation of the word Japanese. (I grew up in a predominantly Italian & Jewish community.) This occasionally led to some wacky hijinks.

    “She’s such a JAP.”

    “What? She’s not Japanese. What do you mean… oooh, oh yea. Right.”

    Posted on 04-Feb-08 at 4:29 pm | Permalink

  • Jesse! wrote:

    But lots of slurs came about “legitimately.” Negro comes from latin for black, and the OTHER derivation of the word was considered proper at one point (and is still used way too much in rap lyrics), and happens to be close to the German word for Negro, which is Neggar… Spic came from a shortening of hispanic. Nip, similar to gook came from Japanese name for Japan: nipon. And whitey? rather lame attempt at making fun of the word white.. yet there it is…

    sooooooo… does it matter where the word comes from or how it’s used? Is it all tone? Does power need to be taken into account? Voice? All of the above?

    Still not sure where cracker came from… color of flaky skin?

    Posted on 04-Feb-08 at 4:43 pm | Permalink

  • darkmoon wrote:

    Right. The point of the post was actually more of the fact that these days, the word has lost the legitimacy. Most of the words used that I pointed out do not actually tie to any particular “racial” value anymore. Thus, does that not illegitimize the slur?

    I suppose having heard the generalizations, it makes me wonder if it’s just racists not caring, or if it’s due to actually not being educated proper usage of terms. From my perspective, if someone called me by the wrong slur, I would probably just laugh. Truthfully, I’d probably laugh even if they called me the right one.

    As far as the Negro derivatives… it really doesn’t matter which romantic language you use, but everything in itself is derived from the Latin root: nigrum.

    In any case, the point is more so on generalization that makes the name lose value. From my perspective, hey…. not my loss, it’s the racist’ loss.

    Posted on 04-Feb-08 at 6:26 pm | Permalink

  • SomeoneElse wrote:

    Actually, I think that the term Gook originated during the Phillipine-American War, when U.S soldiers referred to the Filipinoes as “Goo Goos”, which then evolved into gook.

    Posted on 05-Feb-08 at 5:24 am | Permalink

  • darkmoon wrote:

    Actually…. kuk, means person in Korean (phonetically is “gook”). gugu from the Filipino uprising in 1899 really doesn’t tie in exactly in my opinion. In accordance to certain research, the actual origins aren’t clear.

    Trying to relate gook to “kuk” makes a lot more logical sense, then trying to tie “gugu” to it though. From historical context, I think that it’s just coincidence that earlier there was a word that sounded sort of similar. Han-kuk, versus gugu,…I’d take the former to be the start of its etymology.

    Posted on 05-Feb-08 at 11:21 am | Permalink

  • Bertie wrote:

    LOL @ Mike. Totally.

    East coast, baby! East coast!

    Posted on 05-Feb-08 at 12:13 pm | Permalink

  • Xxxtine wrote:

    actually, “gook” 국 is the equivalent of “guo” 國 which means land. “Saram” 사람 is the equivalent of “ren” 人 meaning man or person.

    Hence you would say, “han gook saram” to mean a person from Korea in Korean similar to saying “han guo ren” as one would say in Mandarin.

    As for where the racial slur came from, I’m rather confused since I always thought ‘gook’ was derogatory to Koreans and something other term was used for the Vietnamese.

    Here’s my issue though … they call America “Mi Gook” 미국 or “Mei Guo” 美國 meaning “Beautiful Land” … “pfft” says the Canadian :-P .

    Posted on 05-Feb-08 at 2:35 pm | Permalink

  • Mike wrote:

    @Bertie: East Side! (I’m making the letter E with my fingers right now.)

    Posted on 05-Feb-08 at 7:59 pm | Permalink

  • darkmoon wrote:

    WEST COAST!!!! (makes the W sign with fingers).

    Posted on 05-Feb-08 at 9:12 pm | Permalink

  • Ernie wrote:

    OMFG. (brings his two fists together, all ten fingers spelling out O-M-F-G)

    Posted on 05-Feb-08 at 9:24 pm | Permalink

  • jozjozjoz wrote:

    Ernie wins!

    Posted on 06-Feb-08 at 7:32 am | Permalink

  • Takeo wrote:

    I’d cut McCain some slack if I were you guys. I agree the slur is wrong but I’d take it with a grain of salt considering who it comes from.

    If you endured 7 years of unending torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese, I’m sure you’d be mad too. And NO ONE reading this blog can honestly claim to know anything at all about what that is really like and if there’s anyone who’s earned his right to say what he desires, it’s Senator McCain.

    Posted on 07-Feb-08 at 3:01 pm | Permalink

  • darkmoon wrote:

    Umm. You missed the entire point if you thought it was about McCain at all. The McCain article was just a lead-in.

    Posted on 07-Feb-08 at 3:30 pm | Permalink

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