Oh, my - I can't even make a journal entry without insulting someone.:( That was never my intention - even I'm not arrogant enough to be derogatory on purpose - I may say "fuck" too much as one of the commentators to my fic suggested in annoyance :), but that's not directed at anyone specifically, it's more a reflection of my crude attitude. Now when I think of it - you probably wouldn't call them that to their faces here either, but the word (and the people, we have many of them here), is so integrated in our society it soft of lost its edge. There are songs, played on the national radio using the word, it appears in the literature without anyone blinking (and not in the same way as the word "nigga", which is clearly meant to be deregatory) and when you walk the street, you could easily say: "oh, look, the gypsies!" without anyone batting an eye and calling you rasist. You wouldn't do it, when you want to be politically correct, though - I remember it caused quite a stir when a right-wing politician did it a few years back in a public debate, but it was a stir because he spoke of them as of "less" than proper Slovenes. I suppose it comes down to cultural differences - here it's not derogatory per se, it's more a description of certain behaviour. I would call myself a gypsy when I used to travel a lot and wasn't home much. I don't know how many Roma you have there and how are they integrated in your society, but here there are plenty and the only thing that distinguishes them from the local population, is their behaviour. If they want to integrate in the society, they can and no one would be able to tell the difference (you'd probably call those Roma without ever thinking of it) - but if they behave the way that lady did no one here would call her Roma (though that's what she is), but gypsy, without ever really meaning anything bad. Was it always a bad thing in English or did it ever describe a certain group of people with a certain type of behaviour? As an anthropologist I'd be interested to know.:)
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ninetydegrees
(no subject)
Now when I think of it - you probably wouldn't call them that to their faces here either, but the word (and the people, we have many of them here), is so integrated in our society it soft of lost its edge. There are songs, played on the national radio using the word, it appears in the literature without anyone blinking (and not in the same way as the word "nigga", which is clearly meant to be deregatory) and when you walk the street, you could easily say: "oh, look, the gypsies!" without anyone batting an eye and calling you rasist. You wouldn't do it, when you want to be politically correct, though - I remember it caused quite a stir when a right-wing politician did it a few years back in a public debate, but it was a stir because he spoke of them as of "less" than proper Slovenes.
I suppose it comes down to cultural differences - here it's not derogatory per se, it's more a description of certain behaviour. I would call myself a gypsy when I used to travel a lot and wasn't home much. I don't know how many Roma you have there and how are they integrated in your society, but here there are plenty and the only thing that distinguishes them from the local population, is their behaviour. If they want to integrate in the society, they can and no one would be able to tell the difference (you'd probably call those Roma without ever thinking of it) - but if they behave the way that lady did no one here would call her Roma (though that's what she is), but gypsy, without ever really meaning anything bad.
Was it always a bad thing in English or did it ever describe a certain group of people with a certain type of behaviour? As an anthropologist I'd be interested to know.:)