Tony:
At 10:25 13/03/98 +1030, you wrote:
>I can't agree 100% with Kieran Daly's protest.
>I'm an ex Pom myself and know lots of other ex Poms and we frequently refer
>to each other as Poms as a term of endearment, just as other groups use
>other terms.
Interesting point. However, if you were to refer to Italians/Greeks as
"wops" and/ or to indiginous Australian as "coons," "abos," etc ... you'd be
in HEAPS of bother. Yet "Poms" is somehow accepted as beng different. It's
okay to use derogatory terms in this case.
Kieran is of course technical correct; the use of the term is racist (and
technical illegal so lomg as there remains one Pom who objects to the term).
Usage may well have taken the sting out of the term - and, indeed,
acceptance by Poms that they are, after all, no more than Bloody Pommie
Bastards not worth a dingo's third turd may well enhance the term BUT it
remains racist in essence. Not that the average pie-eating,
pissing-drinking half-brained Aussie would know the difference.
Julian Bielewicz
Past President
Queensland Ornithological Society
12 Florence Street
Kippa Ring, Q. 4021
Australia
Tel: +61 7 3283 4921
Fax: +61 7 3889 4272
email:
URL: http://www.ecn.net.au/~julianb/home.html
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