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.
