Hey Jake, whatever floats your boat. You can call yourself whatever you want to call yourself and use whatever language you prefer. After all the primary purpose of language is to express ideas in greater detail, and the more colorful the language the more detailed the message being expressed.
The word “Asian” denotes location the same as European, African, North American, South American, etc. Calling someone black, white, yellow, purple, green, or red is just using an adjective to state the color of the person in question. You can always try to read more into these words, but you will just be reaching for controversy that’s simply not there.
“Nigger” has a the relatively modern-day stigma of slavery and oppression (mostly in the US), though the words “Niger,” “Niggardly,” etc. have far different meanings and derive from a different time, context, and language.
“Gweilo” is generally considered a derogatory word amongst educated locals whom have bothered to study a little bit of history and reflects just as badly upon them as it does the white people it is used to describe. To see a white person and think they are a ghost, even in the early 1600’s, is simple stupidity. That truly is a dye luk lei…(forgive my poor pinyin).
Beta, sorry to hear you have been referred to as a Chinaman and Chink. It doesn’t surprise me when you consider the location and the history of its peoples.
The point is, don’t throw around language unless you understand it fully otherwise you just look crass and passé. I would recommend all of you to read a book titled “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, it’s a bit dry but it won the Pulitzer Prize and will really make you think about why some societies are more advanced than others.
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