I grew up in Virginia, North Carolina, and Arkansas. It didn't matter that my family was on the Union side of the civil war, but it did matter that we weren't damned Yankees.

When I lived in Pakistan and India I got called angrez (English), gora (white folk, I think, it's been too long), and feringhi (foreigner) all the time, and it didn't bother me. But being called Yank or Yankee always raises my hackles (still does).

It's not rational. I know it's not rational. But the feeling is still there.

Daniel, we can always reclaim "Norkskie" and "Squarehead."

But we don't really need to. Those words no longer carry any sting, but the reason is that they no longer correspond to any negative stereotypes in our society, not becaue they were liberated from those stereotypes by their association with a comercial product.

Sorry folks. Apparently I'm not getting the right words out of my head.

Have you ever just gotten into a conversation with only half an idea of what you were going to say and then ran into a dead end, because you really didn't know where it was going?

This is where I am. I really really don't think I have all the answers, I really fight to try and understand what it is like to be other people.

I really do care.

I just can't seem to figure out where my rambling ends up.

I based my statement that I was upsetting people by the fact that my postings were not well received.

This is my fault, as I did not know where I was going, I was trying to pull together a lifelong quest for knowlege, hope, peace and understanding, etc, plus trying to think the best of Dairy Queen.

I have no special love for Dairy Queen, but no special animosity. I can only use the hate and animosity directed at me growing up fat and shy and *try* to extrapolate it to others and their problems.

I do not think I can lead, I don't especially *want* to lead anything in particular. What I wanted to do is voice some concerns, to ask questions, and thereby understand more.

Again, I guess I never had the clarifying thought to finish the road, as I didn't really have an end in sight. All I had was the vague uneasiness about atttacking a word just because it's similar to another word.

I wanted to stop because I don't have all the answers, I don't think I have all the answers and I thought it best not to keep trying until I at least know where I'm going.

And really? I don't like causing people I care about needless bafflement and because I can't seem to focus tonight.

I based my statement that I was upsetting people by the fact that my postings were not well received.

What I'm doing is disagreeing with you. I don't have to get all upset to disagree with someone. I'm not quite Allyson, but it's no big. I wish people wouldn't disagree with me, because why? But I'm mostly past letting it spoil my dinner.

All I had was the vague uneasiness about atttacking a word just because it's similar to another word.

That wasn't what I was doing.

It's funny, I never minded Yank. However, when I would see signs like "Yankee fuera" painted on walls near the base in Spain, it would peeve me a little. That said, I was never treated with anything less than politeness by my landlords and the vast majority of businesses and just plain people. There were a few businesses that discriminated against Americans (eg. bars that placed cover charges on Americans, but not on Spaniards) and I chose to boycott them. In general, if I was in a town that wasn't that close to the base, I didn't run into any problems other than any other tourist of any nationality. For some reason, in communities close to the base, American sailors are looked at as "wealthy." In comparison to the local population, we probably were. But I still didn't like getting ripped off.

I wouldn't go there with wop.

You bet your ass you wouldn't. Nor guinea, dago, ginzo, guido and goombah. My father still gets the racial slurs, and I get them, from friends and acquaintances who think it's "cute." It's demeaning, yet I'm being uber-sensitive when I ask them to cease and desist.

I might joke with an Irish person about being a mick - I wouldn't go there with wop.

I gotta say...I would probably get pretty pissy with someone who made a joke like that with me.

Nor guinea, dago, ginzo, guido and goombah.

Goombah? I thought they were those guys in Super Mario Brothers.

Goombah? I thought they were those guys in Super Mario Brothers.

They are. "Goombah" is the bastardization of the word compare, which means a close friend. Second-generation Italian-Americans who only knew certain words and phrases of Italian, as well as lacking the accent to pronounce them properly, invented their own pronunciation which transformed them into wholly Italian-American words. "Rigot'" for ricotta, and "fungool" for vafunculo are just two examples. Italians have no clue what is being said when their relatives from the States use these words.

Edited to fix formatting.

Goombah? I thought they were those guys in Super Mario Brothers.

They are.

Oh, der.

smacks forehead

I was, of course, talking about Super-fucking-Mario Brothers.

"Goombah" is the bastardization of the word compare, which means a close friend.

Huh. Do Italians make it a habit of jumping on the heads of their close friends? That's not very genial.