File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0203, message 224


Subject: RE: Question: Race/Color & Thinking modes
From: "rebecca.fenton-AT-excite.com" <rebecca.fenton-AT-excite.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 18:38:50 -0500 (EST)



I've never heard wog meaning worthy oriental gentleman.  As far as I know, wog and wop are basically the same thing.  Wop seems to be more used in the United States, but wog is the term used in Australia to name Italians and Greeks.
<br />

<br />
Wog used to be very derogatory, and for the older generation of Australians it still his.  However, in the 80s, a group of Australian comedians of Greek parentage started a "wog-centric" comedy troup, eventually leading to a highly successful stage show "Wogs out of Work" and TV sitcom "Acropolis Now".  By taking the derogatory term and wearing it loudly and with overstated pride, it stopped being something nasty and started being a way for a particular ethnic group to use to identify itself.  Hence you start to find people who have one Italian grandparent identifying themselves to others as a "wog".
<br />

<br />
Rebecca
<br />

<br />

<br />
--- On Thu 03/21, Richard Knox <knox-AT-scvnet.com> wrote:
<br />
> "wop" = italian
<br />
> 
<br />
> -----Original Message-----
<br />
> From: owner-postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
<br />
> [mailto:owner-postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu]On Behalf Of
<br />
> Margaret Trawick
<br />
> Sent: 21 March, 2002 2:54 AM
<br />
> To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
<br />
> Subject: Re: Question: Race/Color & Thinking modes
<br />
> 
<br />
> 
<br />
> I thought that "wog" meant "Italian"!  Could almost
<br />
> swear that a teenaged
<br />
> boy of Italian descent told this to me in the sixties.  Is this a trick
<br />
> of
<br />
> my memory?
<br />
> 
<br />
> MT
<br />
> 
<br />
> 
<br />
> > Soumya,
<br />
> >
<br />
> > a wog is, as far as i know, a "worthy oriental gentleman".
<br />
> and it's worth
<br />
> > mentioning that for the British, who are said to have coined the
<br />
> term,
<br />
> "all
<br />
> > wogs start at Calais." or so the story goes. it seems the ladies
<br />
> weren't
<br />
> > worth classifying (wol?)
<br />
> >
<br />
> > the "banana" for people of asian descent with
<br />
> "western" minds is indeed
<br />
> > common as a ironic term among asians who emigrate especially to the
<br />
> u.s. --
<br />
> > so is the opposite, the "egg", though that is a rarer
<br />
> species. the egg
<br />
> would
<br />
> > be someone who is white outside but who has thoroughly adapted to
<br />
> asia,
<br />
> > either through birth or through long residence. of course, not all
<br />
> whites
<br />
> who
<br />
> > fall into this geographic category would qualify (in fact very few of
<br />
> them
<br />
> > do.)
<br />
> >
<br />
> > what a funny discussion!
<br />
> >
<br />
> > kirsten
<br />
> >
<br />
> >
<br />
> >      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
<br />
> 
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> 
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> 
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>      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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> 
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> 
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> 
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>      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
<br />
> <p><hr>


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