Europeans heap insults upon each other. Let’s focus on the French for a moment.
‘He lies like a French bulletin.’ Dutch saying
‘A fighting Frenchman runs away from even a she-goat.’ Russian saying
‘The French do everything; they know nothing.’ Italian saying
And of course ‘dirty cheese-eating surrender monkeys’. This list could extend down the page. Add the rest of Europe and surrounds and you’ve got yourself a novella. Heap in the rest of the Caucasian-mix areas and it’s grown into a dictionary. Not to mention the additional volumes of insults the rest of the world heaps upon their neighbours and themselves, often colourful and imaginative beyond belief.
The typical example is syphilis. The British call it the French Pox. The French called it the Neapolitan disease or the Spanish disease. The Russians called it the Polish disease. The Polish and the Persians called it the Turkish disease, the Turkish called it the Christian disease. The Tahitians called it the British disease. To Indians it was the Portuguese disease, to Japanese the Chinese pox. Everyone blames this virulent STD on whoever they dislike the most – usually their neighbours.
Why do we insult people and racial stereotypes? There’s another volume. Creating unity against an ‘other’ that might otherwise be nebulous, elevating known mores against perceived inferiority (the freak-show factor), or simply making some nonsensical sense in an insane world. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the process, it’s obviously some sort of universal safety-valve. Comedians and satirists are at the forefront of this process, and it’s a dangerous line to tread, as we remember vividly from Charlie Hebdo and the numerous bloggers who have been imprisoned, whipped and executed for utterances most of us would think not even controversial, let alone a crime.
So why, today, can you call a Frenchman ‘filthy’ and have it considered a ribbing joke, but call a Mexican or a Bangladeshi the same you’ll be outcast forever?
Perhaps we shouldn’t call anyone ‘filthy’. Generalizations and stereotypes are what they are: grossly inaccurate and unfair, but they serve some purpose. The benefits and detractions of racial and cultural slander are for this discussion an irrelevance. If you’re allowed to insult one race, you can insult another. Segregation of insultability is an absolute anathema to equality and freedom of expression. It destroys the cultural safety valve. It leads to monstrosities like Donald Trump.
‘He lies like a French bulletin.’ Dutch saying
‘A fighting Frenchman runs away from even a she-goat.’ Russian saying
‘The French do everything; they know nothing.’ Italian saying
And of course ‘dirty cheese-eating surrender monkeys’. This list could extend down the page. Add the rest of Europe and surrounds and you’ve got yourself a novella. Heap in the rest of the Caucasian-mix areas and it’s grown into a dictionary. Not to mention the additional volumes of insults the rest of the world heaps upon their neighbours and themselves, often colourful and imaginative beyond belief.
The typical example is syphilis. The British call it the French Pox. The French called it the Neapolitan disease or the Spanish disease. The Russians called it the Polish disease. The Polish and the Persians called it the Turkish disease, the Turkish called it the Christian disease. The Tahitians called it the British disease. To Indians it was the Portuguese disease, to Japanese the Chinese pox. Everyone blames this virulent STD on whoever they dislike the most – usually their neighbours.
Why do we insult people and racial stereotypes? There’s another volume. Creating unity against an ‘other’ that might otherwise be nebulous, elevating known mores against perceived inferiority (the freak-show factor), or simply making some nonsensical sense in an insane world. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the process, it’s obviously some sort of universal safety-valve. Comedians and satirists are at the forefront of this process, and it’s a dangerous line to tread, as we remember vividly from Charlie Hebdo and the numerous bloggers who have been imprisoned, whipped and executed for utterances most of us would think not even controversial, let alone a crime.
So why, today, can you call a Frenchman ‘filthy’ and have it considered a ribbing joke, but call a Mexican or a Bangladeshi the same you’ll be outcast forever?
Perhaps we shouldn’t call anyone ‘filthy’. Generalizations and stereotypes are what they are: grossly inaccurate and unfair, but they serve some purpose. The benefits and detractions of racial and cultural slander are for this discussion an irrelevance. If you’re allowed to insult one race, you can insult another. Segregation of insultability is an absolute anathema to equality and freedom of expression. It destroys the cultural safety valve. It leads to monstrosities like Donald Trump.