Basis of Racial Slurs

     Where do racial slurs start?  We all know about the "N-word" and how derisive it has become, but how about all those other words used around the world that are race based?  While the  "N-Word" has basis in the Spanish, French, and Latin words for black, it was  transformed into a slang word to by slave traders in the 1600s to identify the goods they had to sell. Since then it has taken a life of it's own with meanings dependent upon the speaker or the receiver.  In other words; I can't use the word without it being derogatory, however a black person can use it to identify a comrade or friend.  Very few words in the English language hold this wide a spectrum of definition but this is a testament to it's dubious beginnings. Why do words like this come about though?  As with the slave trade these words created a dehumanized depiction of a race of people allowing the speaker to apply less than human status to the slave. Calling a slave a "negger" makes them less human and thus able to be sold as property the same as a farm animal or a pet. It's a form of social engineering that allow despicable acts to be done on other humans and has been going on for as long as humans have been on the planet.

     Another way these terms develop is due to military conflict.  Two examples of this are the terms Tojo and Kraut. These words were used by Allied GIs during World War II as derogatory slurs to identify enemy forces. I know that sounds like a fairly benign definition but rest assured when said during the WWII era, the tone was definitely with hatred. But what was the basis of the words?  During WWII, Hideki Tōjō was the Prime Minister of Japan and General of the Imperial Japanese Army.  His name was used to identify all Japanese combatants by the soldiers and was picked up by the civilian populous as a racial slur towards all Japanese.  Hideki Tōjō was thought to be the mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor so a lot of hatred toward him boiled over to the rest of Japan as a result. Kraut was a term derived from the German food sauerkraut.  The common theme here is the use of nicknames and slurs that dehumanize our enemy.  Allied soldiers weren't sent into battle to kill people, they were sent to kill an sub-human nameless enemy.  All Japanese where Hideki Tōjō and all Germans where Himmler and Hitler.  These were serious motivating battle cries that were extremely effective at encouraging ferocity in battle and solace in the aftermath.  You can look at almost every conflict around the world and find similar slurs being used by both sides to dehumanize the enemy.  It makes killing easier.

     Even in todays "politically correct" world we still see these terms come around.  If you where to walk into a military camp in Iraq or Afghanistan and use the term "hajji " or "raghead" every GI would know exactly who you are talking about.  These words are rapidly becoming racial slurs even though they have benign beginnings.  The real definition of Hajji is a honorific title giving to a Muslim that has completed the Hajj and in that region is considered a good thing.  "Raghead" refers to the headdress worn by the locals.  When these are uttered by a GI however it's spoken with disgust and disdain and takes on a whole new meaning.  During one of my recent deployments a co-worker of mine said he was going to the "hajji-store", meaning he was going to the shop run by the locals.  One of our other co-workers happened to be of Indian heritage and took offense to him using the term.  Both of them knew the origins of the word but it was the way the word was used  to made it offensive.  It ended up getting pretty ugly and finally the commander had to get involved finally deciding that it was a racial slur, not in the definition but in it's contextual usage.

     This ability of humans to dehumanize our enemy will not go away.  If a superior race from another planet came and invade, we would come up with a derogatory term for them.  I'm sure if the Zaphoids from Zaphod landed today the term "Zap" will have a whole new meaning.  Our ability to dehumanize our enemy allows us to do things to them we can't do to other humans.  Sometimes we use this for good but, as in the case of slavery, it can become an evil thing.  If the slur is conflict based, we need to be able to turn it off once the conflict is over.  You will still hear people referring to Japanese and Germans as Tojos or Krauts and this is truly terrible.  Pick a racial slur and most likely it had a legitimate meaning at one time but it's relevance has long since passed and the only thing left only creates pain now.  No matter if you use these words as a positive or a negative we need stop using them so their derogatory definitions only exist in our history books.