You appear to be confused here. India is not in the Middle East, it is in Asia.

Interesting that you bring this up. I notice that you purposefully left out a part of the definition. Care to retract your statement that it is not racist? Here, let me help you.

If it is derogatory towards a "race" would it not be "racist"?

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Anyone ask Hillary what kind of underwear she wears, yet?

Lt. Gov Diane Denish on Bill Richardson "The governor, she said, "pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg."

I notice that you left out all other parts of the defintion too. How come?

Because marshmallows don't have bones.

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Anyone ask Hillary what kind of underwear she wears, yet?

Lt. Gov Diane Denish on Bill Richardson "The governor, she said, "pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg."

Do you speak Spanish, Portuguese, etc? If so you'd understand the translation of gringo to English has no racial connotations. Unless foreigner is to be construed as a racial slur.

Matt, you keep beating yourself against the rocks to criticize Chavez. I don't understand, because for someone of your ideological mentality there is plenty to criticize him on legitimately.

Why do you feel the need to construct an argument based on falsehood? "Gringo go home" simply means "American go home" in a not very nice way. And we're supposed to be surprised? He called Dubya the devil, for Christ's sake.

It is simply not a matter of race. Yes, most Americans happen to be white, but that's empirical evidence. If I were to go down to Latin America they'd call me Gringo too, even though I'm half Colombian.

I think a more apt comparison than "nigger" would be something that I'm sure the southerner members of this board will understand... "Yankee go home."

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

This is almost exactly like the debate on the term 'hajji' in a different thread.

Andrew

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Ethanol is a fabulous solution to our energy dilemma because it will provide more fuel for us to drive around and look for food.

-- Unknown

Why isnt Jessie Jackson and Rev Al Sharpton people speaking out? LETS BOYCOTT CITGO!!

BOYCOTT EXXON- MOBIL = Until gas goes down below $2 a gallon
BOYCOTT CITGO = Until Chavez is removed from power or he dies.

He's young... could be a while. What are you suggesting?

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

It most certainly was, I don’t care what they teach you guys today.
It was not universal or with more then one meaning.

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Only a liberal would know how hard it is to get a nicotine patch to stick to a monkey.

Im suggesting to do what Pat Robertson said

Gringo is not a bad word, that is all.

Yeah, I'm sure Chavez meant it as a term of endearment and respect.



It's a derogatory term (the only kind of term Chavez would use for Bush) based on race / national origin.

Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

OMG is there really a fight about this? Clearly it was meant as a disparaging comment, clearly it has ten times more to do with national identity, rather than racial identity as you'll be hard pressed to glean out the racial differences between Chavez and Bush. As for boycotting Citgo, go for it, I think it's the best way to express your anger. Too bad that won't do anything to stop price gouging.

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Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

FWIW (and probably not too much), my personal experience is that the term is racist in nature. There is a sizeable Hispanic population in my area, and, growing up, I worked closely with a lot of Hispanics (my fluency in Spanish helped). Generally, they used the term in a racist way and also in a friendly way (calling me 'gringo', for example). I think the term was used toward me in the same vein that black people call one another "nigga". Anyway, my experience was that it was used predominantly to describe white people who were wealthy and generally rude. It was only used to describe white people, and it was never "friendly" (with the exception of what I mentioned). Personally, I believe that this qualifies it as 'racist' - at least, in my experience.

And, on a side note, one of the most startling things to me, growing up and associating with a lot of Hispanics, is that a lot of Hispanics are virulently racist toward one another. When I worked as a golf caddy, I worked with a lot of Hispanics, many Mexican. However, there were also some Salvadorians, Hondurans, Puerto Ricans, and Venezuelans. If someone would blithely and ignorantly refer to any of these as a 'Mexican', they would become furious. I originally thought it was because they were incensed that the 'gringo' couldn't be bothered to learn their country of origin, but that wasn't it. Apparently, Hispanics from those countries, living here, believe that Mexicans are genuinely inferior... I learned this by having several of them tell it to me in no uncertain terms.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson