jlee562
Sr Member
Re: Star Wars Anthology (Young Han Solo)
So, yeah, although the compound usage of "Frenchman" for example isn't considered offensive, "Chinaman" has a pretty long history of being used as a racial slur.
E.g.:
Although I might be doxxing myself, it's kind of personal to me (the Lee in jlee came from somewhere), because my grandfathers were both subject to anti-Asian racism. One side of the family spent the war locked up in a horse stall in the middle of the desert, just like George Takei and his family (see, there's a Trek tie in!). And after enduring decades of prejudice before the war, my paternal grandfather found himself in the care of a Japanese American business. Because of the prevailing racism against the Japanese at the time, he hung this sign in the window:
So yeah, it's a bit personal to me. I used to frequent the Fender guitars discussion page and folks would always talk about their "Jap" guitars, and I get that for most it's just a convenient truncation of "anese," but that's still a slur too. Plus, it just made more sense to call them MIJ because MIM and MIA were already understood to mean "made in Mexico" or "Made in America."
But I digress...I swear I don't mean to launch into these tangents.
Wait...
Calling men from China "China Men" is wrong?
What should I call men from China that won't hurt their Chinese man-feelings?
Is that even racial? I thought China was a country...
Usually I'm on your side, JLee, but...
WTF, man?
So, yeah, although the compound usage of "Frenchman" for example isn't considered offensive, "Chinaman" has a pretty long history of being used as a racial slur.
E.g.:
Although I might be doxxing myself, it's kind of personal to me (the Lee in jlee came from somewhere), because my grandfathers were both subject to anti-Asian racism. One side of the family spent the war locked up in a horse stall in the middle of the desert, just like George Takei and his family (see, there's a Trek tie in!). And after enduring decades of prejudice before the war, my paternal grandfather found himself in the care of a Japanese American business. Because of the prevailing racism against the Japanese at the time, he hung this sign in the window:
So yeah, it's a bit personal to me. I used to frequent the Fender guitars discussion page and folks would always talk about their "Jap" guitars, and I get that for most it's just a convenient truncation of "anese," but that's still a slur too. Plus, it just made more sense to call them MIJ because MIM and MIA were already understood to mean "made in Mexico" or "Made in America."
But I digress...I swear I don't mean to launch into these tangents.