CNN FOUNDER Ted Turner said he didn’t realize he was offending anyone when he said to a group of business leaders last week, “The Chinese are very smart. Just think: Have you ever met a dumb Chinaman?” Ignorance was also the excuse Rosie O’Donnell used in December when she made her ching-chong joke and it was the same one Adam Corrolla trotted out before that. Well, TMM has compiled a hit list of Asian fightin’ words, from “Apu” to “Wog,” so we won’t have to hear that lame excuse again…for another few months.

Apu: a person of South Asian descent; derived from the Indian character on “The Simpsons,” Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon

banana: an Asian who “acts white” (yellow outside, white inside)

Charlie: Vietnam War era slang for a Vietnamese guerilla, abbreviated from the radio code for Viet Cong, i.e. V.C. or “Victor Charlie”

Chinaman: an offensive term for a person of Chinese descent
(see below)

Chinaman’s Chance: also “Chinaman’s Chance in Hell”; a phrase roughly equivalent to “snowball’s chance in hell.” Refers to the low social status of Chinese laborers who helped build America’s first railroads in the gold-rush West. Given low-paying, dangerous jobs, they were heavily taxed, had few legal rights and faced physical abuse. Recent uses: U.S. senatorial candidate John Spencer used the term during the New York Republican primary to describe his opponent’s chances of defeating Hillary Clinton in a general election. Spencer apologized for what was widely considered a racist figure of speech.

ching chong: a derogatory phrase that attempts to mimic the sound of the Chinese language by those who aren’t familiar with it; probably arose as an insult during Australia’s gold-rush era with the arrival of Chinese prospectors; the phrase is often combined with “Chinaman” in nursery-style rhymes, such as: “Ching Chong Chinaman sitting on a fence / Trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents. / Along came a choo-choo train, Knocked him in the cuckoo-brain, / And that was the end of the fifteen cents.” Recent uses: Shaquille O’Neal to fellow NBA star Yao Ming; Adam Corrolla to Asian Americans; Rosie O’Donnell to all the people in China.

chink: disparaging term for a Chinese person; derived from the original definition of chink, i.e. a narrow opening, crack or fissure, as in a person with “chinky” eyes

Chino: Latin American/Spanish term used to describe all East Asians, presumably because an Asian person must be Chinese

coconut: (North America) a South Asian who “acts white” (brown on the outside, white on the inside)

coolie: applied to Chinese labors who built America’s railroads in the 19th century. The word sounds like “bitter work” in the Chinese language. Also a racial epithet for Indo-Caribbean people, especially in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and South African Indians, where it is considered on par with “nigger”

cunt-eyed: an adjective for a person with slanted eyes

curry-muncher: (Anglophone Africa) a person of East Indian origin

egg: a white person who has an obsessive love of Asian culture (white on the outside, yellow on the inside)

Flip: shortened version of Filipino

gook: derived from U.S. military slang for an Asian person, especially an enemy (e.g. Koreans or Vietnamese during the Korean and Vietnam wars). Probably derived from the Korean words “hangook” (meaning Korea) and “mi-gook” (the common word for America). American troops may have misinterpreted someone saying “mi-gook” to mean “I am a gook.” The word persisted during the Vietnam War, perhaps because the Vietnamese also use similar-sounding words (“My-Quoc”) for Americans; Recent uses: In 2000, presidential candidate and Vietnam vet John McCain dusted off the term

hapa: (Hawaiian) generally refers to a person who is half Asian and half white; once the equivalent of “colored,” it has been re-appropriated by many in the mixed-race community

Jap: abbreviation of Japanese, used perjoratively during World War II when America was at war with Japan; was reportedly uttered by the two men who beat Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, to death in 1982

macaca: a racial epithet used by French-speaking colonials in Africa to refer to black Africans; may be derived from the genus name for macaque monkeys, Macaca; the term gained widespread attention in 2006 when Virginia Sen. George Allen called an Indian American campaign worker S. R. Siddhartha by that name

Mongoloid: offensive term related to the 19th-century racial category for peoples of Central and East Asia; also once used as a synonym for retardation and people with Down syndrome

Nip: a Japanese person (from Nippon, the Japanese name for Japan)

one-woman kamikaze: first used by writer Norman Mailer in reference to book critic Michiko Kakutani

Oriental: considered somewhat acceptable when describing certain objects, i.e. an Oriental rug, but considered patently offensive when applied to an Asian person or to Asian people

Paki: (U.K. and North America) highly offensive term for a person of Pakistani or other South Asian descent

Patel: a derogatory term for someone of Indian descent (Patel is a common Indian surname); featured in “Glengarry Glen Ross”

raghead: (U.S.) someone of Middle Eastern descent; (UK) a Sikh, or any South Asian

ragtop: (Canada) a Sikh, a South Asian, or Arab

skib/skibby: World War II slang for an Asian prostitute; probably derived from the Japanese word “sukebei,” or lewdness

slanty-eyed cunt: a term often applied to Margaret Cho and Michelle Malkin

slope, slopehead, slopy, slopey: (Australia) a Vietnamese person; (U.S.) a person of Asian, especially Chinese, descent; apparently refers to the sloping (and therefore “primitive”) forehead of the East Asian skull

Twinkie: an Asian who “acts white” (yellow outside, white inside)

wog: (U.K. and U.S.) a South Asian, Arab, or native of India; purportedly stands for “Wily Oriental Gentleman”

Main sources: Racial Slur Database and Wiki’s List of Ethnic Slurs •