Naeem Mohaiemen, one of the organizers behind Disappeared in America, wrote an interesting essay last summer about how some British Asians are flipping around the ethnic slur ‘Paki’:
About a decade back, Bangladeshi and Pakistani teenagers in England began re-appropriating the dreaded “Paki” word. Once a vicious epithet flung on London streets by white skinheads, the word was now a symbol of an assertive brown community. “Paki Power” graffiti appeared, a clothing label called “Pak1” did the rounds…and Aki Nawaz of punk-asian band Fun^Da^Men^Tal told the press, “We’re not Pacifists, we’re Pakifists!”“Taking back” racist epithets has long been a cultural touchstone, and a touchy one at that. I took to greeting my British Asian friends with “Paki”, but only when we were alone, never in front of white Brits. One day, I called my friend Usman and his father answered the phone. Mistaking his voice for his son, I launched into “Oii Paki, it’s Naeem!” The long, pained silence on the other end spoke volumes about how the older generation viewed this act of re-appropriation. He was horrified and disappointed in our lack of “historical context…”
Besides the use of “Paki” by British South Asian youth, Australian immigrants have started a gleeful website called “WogLife” and for the Jewish community there’s the in-your-face magazine “Heeb.”
Earlier, Abhi posted about the N word. Mohaiemen riffed:
… Chris Rock explains the ongoing fascination: “This word, it’s . . . the only thing white people can’t do. That’s the only reason . . . anybody writes about it. It’s like white people can’t believe there’s a thing that exists (that) they can’t do…”
The same thing happened with sexual language:
The mainstreaming of gay culture came through “Queer Eye For The Straight Guy,” “Queer Nation,” “Queer Theory” and the slogan that started it all: “We’re Here/We’re Queer.” Gay activists now argue in The Advocate that “queer” is more inclusive than “gay” or “LGBT.” Playwright Larry Kramer has now taken it one step further with his new book Faggots.Meanwhile, over in the feminist battlegrounds, Jo Freeman started the trend with The Bitch Manifesto and Germaine Greer continued with I Am A Whore. But a more formidable taboo was the “c-word,” broken again by Greer when she wrote Lady Love Your Cunt (1971). In spite of her efforts, the word remained taboo until movies started using it liberally.
My favorite moment of maledictory dissonance comes in Masala when Srinivas Krishna’s heroin-addict girlfriend calls him a Paki. He sits in silence, turns to the junkie (her eyes closed, head lolling) and says plaintively, ‘But I’m not from Pakistan.’ It’s literalist, absurd and touching all at once.
Update: Nawaz attributes the ‘Pakifists’ quote to Nu Conscious Kaliphz.
The word Paki HAS NOT BEEN RECLAIMED
And its not just an issue for ‘Muslims’ to reclaim the word, as it is a racist word that is thrown at Hindus and Sikhs as much as it is thrown at Muslims
This is just people in ivory tower theorising about ‘legitimising’ a word that is still spat at people in racist abuse and attack across Britain all the time.
This annoys the hell out of me
Naeem Mohainem is an example of somebody with a little knowledge talking Bullshit about something he does not understand. First of all he marginalises Indians, Hindus and Sikhs, by suggesting that ‘reclaiming’ the word Paki is a racist epithet that is only used against ‘Muslims’. Secondly, as an outsider to this country, and a man who spent a limited amount of time here, to draw the conclusions he draws, makes me think of nothing else but his ignorance and lack of credibility in describing the reality of desi life in Britain.
Rule number one for any journalist is: Dont chat shit. Learn that rule Naeem, you sap.
Aki Nawaz, whom this guy Naeem Mohainem quotes as an example of a person ‘reclaiming’ the word, recently CUSSED people who talk about ‘reclaiming’ the word Paki
Read the article, and then read the comments about it too.
My brown British friends (none of whom are actually Pakistani) toss around “Paki” all the time among themselves. Sometimes it’s meant as a teasing slur (like they’re doing something perceived as particularly Indian — the equivalent of FOB in the U.S.), sometimes it’s meant affectionately (probably like the n-word among black friends), sometimes it’s descriptive (“that is some proper Paki food!”). My boss, who’s Pakistani and good friends with Aki, calls himself a Pak all the time.
But often I think it’s used the way Chris Rock talks about the difference between n*****s and black people — the former represents everything bad about their race. So “Paki” is a way for brown people to label and separate themselves from what they see as negative aspects of their culture. (i.e. the Bangladeshi rude bwoys who show up to club nights and hassle the women and ruin the vibe, or Indian business owners who don’t pay people, etc)
I can see why some people think this is messed up, but this gora is just reporting what I see.
The reporter is not a gora. He seems to be of South Asian descent himself.
Whatever your ‘Brown British’ friends may do or say amongst themselves, please dont confuse it for any legitimisation of the word in public discourse at any level in the UK. You have a limited understanding. My niece was spat at and racially abused by being called a Paki just a few days ago, and it makes as much sense as me going to America and saying, hey, all you desis, its great how Sand Ni**er has been ‘reclaimed’ by you guys, its soooo empowering and blah blah blah
Another thing. Comparing the word to how you guys use FOB shows how little you understand. The words to compare it with are n***er, chink and yid. And please read Aki Nawaz’s comments on the link I gave. He speaks the truth.
Just to throw a little more light on this subject – in India, people frequently refer to Pakistanis as Pakis. But most of it is more banter than anything else. There are no personal feelings hurt because there are no Pakistanis living in India to hear this word and get offended.
Questionf for the british friends. Do Indians use the word Paki for Pakistanis in Britain? Do they get offended when they are called Pakis because their origin is not from that country or because they percieve this to be a racial slur?
anon
If Indians use the word in a derogatory way to refer to Pakistanis they are stupid and at a par with racists and those few Pakistanis who use pejorative terms to describe Indians. To be ignored.
It is a racial slur but it does contain the de-humanizing ignorance of national ignorance and origin. That is secondary to the hatred it effects as a racist epithet, though.
Ah, nice reference to Srinivas Krishnan’s Masala. One of the first films I saw made by Indian-American (I could be mistaken, the film was shot in Toronto and he could be Indian-Canadian).
The first time I came across the word “Paki” was in Canada, where it is also used in a demeaning and racist manner. Anyway, this whole conversation about the word “Paki” reminded me of the time that our President referred to the people of Pakistan as “Pakis”
Was that just another one of his lexicon malfunctions or the beginning of the “legitimization” of this word. Anyway heres a report on one journalists viewpoint of Bush’s use of the word.
‘Pakis’ Remark Draws Fire for Bush
by Robert Matas With reports from John Saunders and Reuters
 U.S. President George Bush has unwittingly used an offensive racial slur against the Pakistani people that the community has been trying to squash for at least 30 years.
Mr. Bush used the term Pakis in remarks to reporters yesterday, when discussing the possibility of nuclear rivals India and Pakistan going to war. The word has the same impact in the Pakistani community as the term nigger has for American blacks, said Aziz Khaki, vice-chair of the Muslim Canadian Federation.
“It’s a very derogatory term,” he said yesterday. “People use the term when they do not like you. It is used against people of colour.”
However, the term may reverberate with more force outside Pakistan than inside the country.
Athar Razvi, a Toronto-area writer who often visits his native Pakistan, said the word lacks impact there.
“Actually, this [word] is a creation of the British media. The British are known for giving names to peoples and nationalities. It started in Britain, the word Paki, and it was here [in Canada] about 25 years ago, and it was taken as a kind of bad name to call a person from the subcontinent. . . . But I don’t think the very word Paki, in Pakistan, will be taken as seriously or in as bad a connotation as people may think. If he had said something bad about Islam, that would be something different.”
Speaking about the confrontation between India and Pakistan, Mr. Bush said he did not believe their tension has yet been defused. “But I do believe there is a way to do so, and we are working hard to convince both the Indians and the Pakis there’s a way to deal with their problems without going to war,” Mr. Bush said.
I’d say the word “Paki” is used in Desi-Canadian (2nd gen) circles in a reclaimed/joking sort of way. You can call a friend that, in jest – but you’d never use it with someone you didn’t know. It was historically most definitely a slur, and no one would look too kindly on a non-brown using it.
-D
Paki is not very common as a racial slur in the US so Bush was not being a racist when he said that. As I understand the term ‘Paki’ is more of a racial slur in Canada. It is only a matter of time before this term is imported to the US as well. Punjabi boy’s analysis on the usage of the word ‘Paki’ is right on for UK.
Punjabi Boy – Thanks.
In India Paki certinaly does not refer to race (as we are all from the same race). It refers to somebody from Pakistan. I guess someone came up with this short hand because Pakistani is relatively a long word. For the most part its not even religious term because I have heard some of my muslim friends also refer to someone from Pakistan as Paki. Its especially used when India is playing cricket. It was also used a lot during the Kargil conflict.
So I guess in different countries there are different contexts for the word.
I have to state up front that Naeem is a friend of mine and so what I’m going to say is colored. My first reaction was to immediately leap to his defense. But I took the time to read the article, and I still think you’re all being a bit unfair to what it tries to do in total.
It’s a fairly thoughtful piece looking at a reimagining of Birth of a Nation by DJ Spooky in the context of reappropriating language. The specifics on “Paki” might be off (or not, depending on who you are and what circles you travel in), but the central point that there’s a reclamation effort around the word doesn’t seem to be contested in the comments of this post, Punjabi Boy’s points notwithstanding about how he chooses not to engage in the project (which is fair enough).
As part of American communities that are reclaiming and creating new words all the time (desi? queer? ABCD? brown? indian? bangali? when were these positive and/or extant phrases in American society 20 years ago?), I think the article is an interesting discussion.
Okay–I’m still working on “ABCD”, but the rest of them are pretty valid 🙂
Paki Please.
i agree with anon – from visiting india – paki is just short for pakistani. damn the British for turning it into a slur!
Punjabi Boy — it’s perfectly possible for the word to be used among brown friends (as I have observed time and time again over the past few years) AND also still be used by racist Brits as a hateful slur. Like n****r, he word doesn’t only have one meaning or intent. My Gujarati friend who uses the word the most was actually hospitalized a few months ago when a guy on a bus bashed him over the head with a wine bottle and called him a f-ing Paki who should go back to where he came from. It doesn’t mean he uses the word to his friends the same way.
I read the article, I know what Aki thinks, I’ve hung out with him several times (my boss and my boyfriend have known him for years) and interviewed him twice. He has his opinions, just as my friends have theirs. Heck, Asiana magazine recently had half a page devoted to the debate, with two brown women defending each side. Obviously the issue is complex and people feel many different ways about it.
martian anthropologist
The debate is not really very complicated at all. Apart from a few people (amateur and clever anthropologists) who wish to make fairly crass attempts to ‘reclaim’ a word that was never owned by us in the first place, that was minted and coined as a cheap and handy way to spit on us and cut us; people who get excited about identity politics and sociology and dont have to suffer the word, or see family members or friends suffer the word, in many different places at many different times, I reckon people should not extrapolate from their limited sample of conversations with a few British desi friends a conclusion that is at odds with a lifetime’s experience of myself, my family, every single one of my friends and about two million other British desi’s.
Saurav
Naeem is very glib and misinformed on this issue.
looks to me like the people who have a problem with the word paki are those who got beaten up and called paki. my paki coworker calls himself paki all the time. i call him paki. btw… im indian. i suppose we’re both 2nd generation… our parents having brought us to the US. can you argue with the fact that derogatory terms are being reclaimed? my whole name…zimblymallu is an attempt at reclaiming. do a google on zimbly and see what happens. im tired of stupid jokes like that. only coz they’re all so repeated. somebody come up with a new one. FOB, desi, brown… are all words that south asians use for each other. why let others know that you are bothered by paki? you continue the oppression by letting the “gora” affect you.
Wow zimbymallu you are so empowered and reclaimed
Seriously man, I wont be condescended to by people who know nothing about the dynamics and history of life for desis in Britain.
Punjabi Boy, you’re willfully missing my point — I know and live and work with people who have been beaten up and spit at their whole lives, with “Paki” being used in a horrid way, and yet they STILL use it as a friendly manner among themselves. I myself make no judgement, nor am I trying to reclaim it for anyone, I’m putting forth a point of view which is simply different than yours, and saying obviously people disagree. Why are YOU the only person out there who is allowed to speak on “the dynamics and history of life for desis in Britain?” If ZimblyMallu uses that moniker as a way of poking fun at things, why does that annoy you so much?
Even Asians in Media did an informal non-scientific survey, with 33% of respondents saying “Paki” was acceptable in certain circumstances. Your point of view is not universal, that’s all. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be respected and listened to, but so should anyone else’s, especially those who HAVE suffered violence and still maintain a different opinion than you do.
for anyone interested, you can get some footage of DJ Spooky and the trailer of the Birth of a Nation remix here that Naeem talks about.
The person maintaining the site has asked that you download the large files to your computer to save her server from crashing.
Hi good people- ok for the record and on this subject- I have never endorsed the word in any form- the quote “we are not pacifists we are pakifists” was a quoted by the band Nu Conscious Kalphipz but was used by a Gaurdian journalist in an interview with me -I never thought of the quote and neither would I drop to such a stupid level.There is no reclaiming postion becos the word was never ours – some of us that wish to endorse it are way off the mark and stupid- my position is clear we do not need to stoop to such levels to insult ourselves-
be strong or shut the f**k up
aki from fun da mental
Paki means pure person. Everyone from Pakistan should be proud to be called a paki. I know I am.
In Australia, the word Paki is not a slur. TV reporters use it as in “The Aussies take on the Pakis in 1 day cricket” and in conversation “is he Indian or Paki?”. Even on the politically-correct ABC radio talkback “how are the Paki’s going in the cricket, John?”
I don’t understand all the fuss about what word people choose to call this or that ethnic or national group. I think that it is the context that lets you know the intent of the user. George Bush called them Pakis, not Pakistanis. Is it really a stretch to use the short form rather than the long form? How is it any different than calling a Polock a Pole. Or a Nigger a Nig-Nog? It is a short form of the word Pakistani. I have used it, and will continue to use it. Sometimes it is hurled in anger at a non-Pakistani who happens to be brown, maybe because the speaker thinks that the person in question is a piece of shit, and want him to feel it. I am 3/4 Polish and 1/4 German. There are all kinds of names for us, and I don’t feel so insecure that I mind terribly overmuch if people say Polock or whatever. I think that we live in a volatile, politically hypocritical world where no one says what he or she feels like saying anymore without first weighing who it is going to offend. Sometimes we mean to offend deliberately. Why can’t we just learn to accept the reality that racial venom is sometimes the most effective way to get under someone’s skin. Eg. If I call you a thief, what do you feel? But if I call you a Nigger instead, you feel something, don’t you? Because I have penetrated your armour, and have attacked not what you stole, but who you are, the very thing that you cannot change. Having said all of that, what do I purpose behind the free use of hateful terminology? Simply that it is effective, and we don’t have to get all worked up over it. In every epoch, there is someone who suffers the jabs and ridicule of the ruling majority. Once it was the Irish, the Italians, the Poles, etc., then it was the Chinese, now the blacks and browns of the world. Who cares? Doesn’t life go on regardless what words come out of peoples’ lips? And doesn’t Howard Stern make millions doing what you all say shouldn’t be done? Get a life, man. Racially charged language is a staple of life on this planet. It has always been with us because of our divisions, and because of sin. In this present evil age it will never die, no matter how many radical dreamers there are who want things to be idyllic. Only in the coming age will all recongnise that they are one, and really mean it in their hearts and in the way that they order thier speech. For now it is grace under pressure my brothers!
I live in Canada, I’m a white guy but I live in a predominantly Indian/Pakistani neighbourhood, we get along great, love the people and the cuisine for sure. Obviously the word ‘Paki’ is perceived as racist because of previous connotations it was used in. I guess some people might think of it like saying someone from Iraq is Iraqi or Afghanistan is Afghani. Since alot of times we shorten the name of our contry of origin. My dads from Eastern Canada, a place called Newfoundland which was dropped as a British colony the same year India and Pakistan gained independence. Guess what people from newfoundland are called? NEWFIES! That is derogatory but is VERY common, I don’t flip out about it, its only a word so chill out, hey pass the butter chicken!
I was once called a fucking paki by a stupid brit in school i felt hurt and angry and i wish i could kill him
We should no be ashamed to called a “Paki”, its just short to represent people from Pakistan. As a “paki” myself and a proud one to be called “paki”, if anyone in the street should at me “Oi Paki” I would have no problem.
Proud Paki. Mohammed Malik. Paki-stan.
I think Paki is a racial slur word in the UK. But in the US and in India we don’t mean it as a slur. I don’t need to resort to ‘Paki’ to slur our Pak brethern during Cricket (esp if they are winning). I’m better at insults than that!
Just out of interest what do pakistanis call the Indians? From my understanding it is Hindoos is used as a derogratory manner by some. Is this true?
Hey, im a british pakistani, and i’ll be honest. yes the literal translation pf the word is not offensice. but unfortuanely, over the past 50-60 years in the uk, the word was used by non asians in a negative manner and with negative intent to upset asians etc. that is why brit pakistanis and indians/bengalis find it offensive, cos most time it is used by non asians it is in a negative context(note, its only the minority and most of uk people of all colour are fine, including whites and uk asians). yes, when im with my asian friends i say the word like its my last name, but im wise enough not to say it infront of people of other races, as i would not want to encourage them to say it, and that it was ok. how bad is the word? well, lets just say its bad enough for you to lose your job(here in the uk). british asians make upo the biggest ethnic minority with 5% of the population. in summart the negative use of it and the riots where it was used alot by white people eg f’in P, P B!TCh etc
so please yes we are hurt if said in uk,and it will no doubt lead to somebody beiong hurt, thats how bad the word is over here in uk
It’s the intent behind the word, obviously.
if someone called me a paki here in the US, i probably wouldn’t give two shits. it’s an insensitive, racist comment, but the weight it holds is nearly negligible given that it is the united states.
however, in the UK, i’ve been called all sorts of things — Jasminder, paki, sand nigger, and i was even told to learn bollywood dances involving me walking out of a lake dripping wet. all of these comments came from white, british, inebriated men (of varying ages). in the UK, it is that much more volatile simply because of the history of colonialism.
consider the context.
“Jasminder” is a slur? The closest I could find on the subject was this.
i think it’s indicative of gendered racism.