spear chucker ?

I dont understand how this is used as an insult. Africans defeated italy with spears, and the Zulu won a battle against the Dutch with only Skin shields, and Spears. I find that very impressive.

Just about every culture knew, and understood how tactical, and important the spear weapon was. It was the main weapon of the Spartans. So how did this term become derogatory for only Black "negroid" African people?

This is a serious question.

Outdated weapons tend to become objects of ridicule. In the same way spears seemed laughably primitive to the British of the 19th century - whom I believe coined the term "spear-chucker" - their rifles, sabres and cavalry units seem ridiculously outdated to modern armies.

Originally posted by Constantine XI Rifles work better than spears, if you want to dispute that then I challenge you to a duel, I get the rifle and you can have the spear.

What's the initial distance between the two parties? :P

Add to that, if its a repeating rifle, gotta love it!

Its pretty obvious to understand in that battle what the better weapon is. My point is none of the europeans would say this about the Japanese, and their samurai. And there were battles where the traditional Samurai refused to use the gun/rifle, and got destroyed easily, yes there are no racial remarks about them.

Originally posted by dieheart Its pretty obvious to understand in that battle what the better weapon is. My point is none of the europeans would say this about the Japanese, and their samurai. And there were battles where the traditional Samurai refused to use the gun/rifle, and got destroyed easily, yes there are no racial remarks about them.

Japan today is one of the most developed nations on the planet, many African nations are still tribal and backward. No Japanese today spends his life relying on his samurai for a living, many Africans still rely on their spears to get by. Racism in the USA towards African Americans has traditionally been higher than towards Americans of Japanese descent.

Mix these three reasons, and you have your answer.

Well what about the Native Americans. Same issue, and there are developed area's of africa. Its not like the whole place is tribal, and being tribal is not always a bad thing imo, but either way, I still think its a bs derogatory racist remark.  

Well on the issue of insults making sence, what the hell dose "Seppo" a common Aussie term of endearment for Americans come from? Or Kraut, or Hun for that matter.

"Seppo" I have never heard of before, sorry but I can't help you there. The word "American" is four syllables, so naturally Aussies are going to find a way to say it shorter and quicker. So we usually say "Yank". It's a friendly enough term, like the nicknames "Aussie", "Kiwi" or "Brit".

Kraut is a reference to sauerkraut, which people in the Anglophone world perceive as being a common German dish. Some people also call Indians 'currys', Asians 'rice' and sometimes even French 'frogs' (a reference to their penchant for frogs legs. These are sometimes considered mildly derogatory, though not malicious, and say more about the person using them and their inability to characterise foreign peoples beyond their cuisine.

The term "Hun" was an erronous perception the British Empire participants had of the Germans in WWI. It comes about through an incorrect perception of Attila and his Huns as being made up of Germans, as they invaded the Roman Empire through Germany and a large part of their forces were allied Germanic tribes. It was the best the British and their Anglo-Celtic Dominions could come up with to demonise a nation of people whom they had otherwise been historically on generally good terms with until a decade before. This sort of nationalistic demonisation of wartime enemies was common currency in the early 20th century's propaganda machines.


Edited by Constantine XI - 16-Apr-2009 at 12:34

Originally posted by Balaam "Seppo" is short for septic tank, and yank rhymes with tank, and an American and septic tank are full of the same things so thats how seppo came about.

 I hadn't heard of "Seppo" before either.