Question for the South Asian folks
 

Is the term "brown" racist or offensive?

I don't think it is and I've used it (indeed, with brown folks), but I was having dinner with a few friends yesterday - white and yellow - and someone said they considered "brown" to be racist.

So, what do you think?

racist and offensive things are different for each person. Some people might think it's fine and some think it's offensive. You'll never get a definate answer. I personally don't think it's offensive. It's like calling a person white or black. I'm chinese you can call me yellow i don't find that offensive but hey that's my opinon. People out there nowadays will find anything and everything offensive unless it's politically correct.

I'm EI and I don't find brown offensive, most non-EI people I know always say brown and all EI's refer to white people as "gora or gori" which basically means white man or white woman. If we wanted to be PC crazy, the proper way of referring to someone white would be caucasian man or woman.

The first time I used the term "brown people" in front of my American friends they were stunned and thought I was being a Klan-level racist. These are white people who live in the south.


Just think how shocked they would be if I had used the word "dip"

I think paki, raghead, and hindu are racist terms. I don't think "brown" is a racist word describing EI people but everyone has their own opinion.

i dont see how its in any way offensive if its in a casual situation. i prolly wouldnt call someone "brown" at work or in a newspaper, but otherwise i dont see the problem. Brown people are pretty racist ourselves anyways. look at our words; gora, khala, china, its the same shit.

don't find it offensive unless someone says it like their trying to say it in a
derogatory way, then it's just retarded.

I grew up in Surrey so I have lots of brown friends. I call them brown all the time it kinda drives me crazy this new south Asian term that came out the last couple or years to be more politically correct. I even joke around with my brown buddys and say hindu and they call me honky or white boy but of course only my friends since other people may take it in a racist meaning which I dont mean.

Please clarify Hindu. Hinduism is a religion, and a Hindu, unless I'm mistaken, is a practioner of Hinduism. So, aside from painting all EI people as Hindu (when clearly they are not), how is this offensive?

Thanks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu

if brown is considered offensive, then i see a hierarchy of the colors

not meant to be offensive:

White
Yellow
Brown
Red
Black

and the most superior would be white blonde but we counteract that with dumbblonde but strangely enough it only applies to blonde women. Now if brown people wanna be called south asian does that mean they wanna be more yellow than brown? It would be far from racism but rather discrimination based on the hierarchy of colors.

Do you mean harm when you refer to them as "brown"? Probably not
They will either accept you calling them brown or you will accept not using brown. Usually you'll accept them and not use the word brown but if it seems like they are requesting something like that burqa story then u tell them to eat a dick and say canada is a free country bitch

Wow the day that people think colors are offensive.

i use the word dipper

didnt read all the posts..but i think it matter in "what context its used" quite simple..

Thanks knowledge man!:thumbsup:

He is referring to situations when people say "You fu*king Hindu!", not because the person is a Hindu, but becuase the person is EI. The word "hindu" by itself is not offensive, but it is being used in an offensive (or derogatory) way.

Actually, the word "caucasian" can be used to describe any of the indigenous people of Europe, North Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia. The proper, pure PC word for a European "white" person is "occidental."

the term Asians are now coined towards orientals (japanese, chinese, vietnamnese etc)...when it should really include middle eastern population, turks and even russians.

+1.

I never associated browns and russians with asians. But that's only cause
I considered the term to be used to specify a type of race, and not just
where people are from geographically.

My friends never found "brown" as offensive.
Btw, why are brown people called East Indian?
Is there West Indian?

native americans

Ever heard of the Caribbean?

The last time I went to the Carribbeans, there were black people there...

your white and yellow friends are sheltered

did your white friends only grow up with white ppl and yellow friends only grow up with yellow ppl?

because a majority of east indians in vancouver are sikh and they hate hindu's.

i'm an asian guy, and maybe it's just me, but it would seem weird to refer to an asian guy as a "yellow" guy?

most people go by "asian guy" or "chinese guy".... but it would seem weird for someone to call me a "yellow guy" for some reason...

go start another thead for yellow :haha: