For decades, many words have been used to prejudice people in from a certain ethnic group or race. Since childhood, we grew being taught that we ought to ignore individuals that use foul language. However, everyone is aware of how some words could be really hurting to another person. It can really hurt when somebody starts hurling hateful words and names towards us. Moreover, it would be more hurting if racial or ethnic slurs were to be used against someone.
Racial slurs could have been used as a joke, but others use them in a patronizing manner resulting in feelings of hatred or violence. There are numerous slurs existing amidst citizens in our nation. This paper focuses on ‘spic’ as a racial slur. The paper also gives an account of the mentioned …show more content…
The author referred Canal Zone as the ‘land of Panameǹos’ and added that in the Zone, the inhabitants were referred to as ‘Spigoties’ and more often with a touch of despise as ‘spigs’.
The word spread to the north where it was already in use by 1916 along sections of the U. S.-Mexican border. During this time, the Scribner’s Magazine writer overheard border patrol officers at Fort Bliss use the word ‘spicks’ as a offensive term for Mexicans.
While most theories accounting for the origin of spic relate it to the people of South and Central America, the Italian-Americans and Italians too are targeted by the word. Other people maintain that the term ‘spiggoty’ is a vague version of spaghetti though this theory lacks sufficient material to back it up.
Another theory claims that the term ‘spic’ is the abbreviation for Hispanic. However, the word ‘Hispanic’ was not frequently used in America until the mid-70s when a person’s racial identification was made an option by the Census Bureau. Spic had appeared in books and newspapers prior to this thereby ruling out the ‘Hispanic’ …show more content…
Actor and comedian John Leguizamo in 1992’s ‘Spic-O-Rama’ play demonstrated such an act. At the play’s opening, teenage Miggy remembered a time a boy had called him a stupid and ugly spic. Miggy said that he could have beaten the boy but he opted not to engage in such an action. He demonstrated how he welcomed the insult in his character by proudly saying that he actually was a spic.
It is also worth noting that respect for one another is the key to live in harmony. Learning to honor another person regardless of their race, ethnicity, or skin color is an aspect ought to be embraced to eradicate such discriminating sluts. In addition, such words should be transformed to have positive meaning than their original abusive meanings. We should also avoid transforming non-insulting words to slurs. However, despite everything a person’s origin and ethnicity or race will never change and we must learn to appreciate that and people of a certain race ought to embrace and be proud of who they
Racial slurs could have been used as a joke, but others use them in a patronizing manner resulting in feelings of hatred or violence. There are numerous slurs existing amidst citizens in our nation. This paper focuses on ‘spic’ as a racial slur. The paper also gives an account of the mentioned …show more content…
The author referred Canal Zone as the ‘land of Panameǹos’ and added that in the Zone, the inhabitants were referred to as ‘Spigoties’ and more often with a touch of despise as ‘spigs’.
The word spread to the north where it was already in use by 1916 along sections of the U. S.-Mexican border. During this time, the Scribner’s Magazine writer overheard border patrol officers at Fort Bliss use the word ‘spicks’ as a offensive term for Mexicans.
While most theories accounting for the origin of spic relate it to the people of South and Central America, the Italian-Americans and Italians too are targeted by the word. Other people maintain that the term ‘spiggoty’ is a vague version of spaghetti though this theory lacks sufficient material to back it up.
Another theory claims that the term ‘spic’ is the abbreviation for Hispanic. However, the word ‘Hispanic’ was not frequently used in America until the mid-70s when a person’s racial identification was made an option by the Census Bureau. Spic had appeared in books and newspapers prior to this thereby ruling out the ‘Hispanic’ …show more content…
Actor and comedian John Leguizamo in 1992’s ‘Spic-O-Rama’ play demonstrated such an act. At the play’s opening, teenage Miggy remembered a time a boy had called him a stupid and ugly spic. Miggy said that he could have beaten the boy but he opted not to engage in such an action. He demonstrated how he welcomed the insult in his character by proudly saying that he actually was a spic.
It is also worth noting that respect for one another is the key to live in harmony. Learning to honor another person regardless of their race, ethnicity, or skin color is an aspect ought to be embraced to eradicate such discriminating sluts. In addition, such words should be transformed to have positive meaning than their original abusive meanings. We should also avoid transforming non-insulting words to slurs. However, despite everything a person’s origin and ethnicity or race will never change and we must learn to appreciate that and people of a certain race ought to embrace and be proud of who they