Why would Latinos think the term "pork chop" is a racial slur?

[Geoff_M]

Agreed!

Italian American here. Call me PC, but if some team wanted to call themselves the Dagos...I'd be pissed off as well. If pork chop's offensive to a certain group, don't use it. As has been said, there are millions of names out there, why not use a different one? "Oh no! We simply can't live unless we call our mascot "PORK CHOP"!!!" As if! Nothing like a bunch of white folks sitting around online laughing about how a minority group is offended by an apparent lack of sensitivity.

The problem is that even though there are a million possible names... there are millions more people and you can likely find someone that will take offense to pretty much any name you'd pick. So where do you draw the line? SOME, but not all Latinos, dislike the name. So how many "offended" people does it take to banish a word from our vocabulary?

Also, context is everything. In your example "Dago" is a word that is solely used as an insult. Not so with "Pork Chop".... The mascot is a pig. It's the name of the mascot (who I find lacking of Latino features from the photo), not the team. No player would take to the field with the name "Pork Chop" in big lettering on their jersey. The team name is "Ironpigs", which is a reference to the region's iron industry heritage. But perhaps to be safe they should scrap the pig theme entirely as some Muslims and Jews might find it offensive.

 

[DVCLiz]

May I interest you in a first-class, one way ticket to Utopia?

No one, nowhere, has a right not to be offended.

Fascism lives.

Sorry, I didn't realize my fascist background was coming through so strongly...

There are plenty of menacing names for sports teams. No one has to worry that the Dallas Ponies are coming to a field near you (although The Ponies did a great job in the under 6 rec soccer league my daughter played in - we trembled when we heard their name!)

Btw, I think the name "Pork Chop" for a pig mascot ins adorable and funny, and should be allowed to remain. It's one specific pig. But if the team were named The Pork Chops, I would say it needed to be changed. I think it's a context issue, as a PP pointed out.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Like I said earlier and others have said since, context is the key thing. The context in this instance is so far from a slur that it's absurd. If that's the case, then the NAACP and the UNCF should change their names because I'm sure that there are black people who are offended by the terms "colored people" and "negro".

As for sports teams, I'll agree the Cleveland Indians' grinning Indian logo is jingoistic. Thing is, are American Indians out there protesting on a regular basis, or do they only come out when the team in question makes the playoffs and championship series? When I lived in GA, the only time I remember protests against the Atlanta Braves was during the World Series in the 1990s. Where were the protesters in the 1980s when the Braves were losing? The name wasn't any different.

Names like Indians, Braves, Seminoles, etc. can be taken two ways. One way can be insulting or demeaning; another can be as a way to honor the group. Seminoles in Florida have stated their honor in being associated with FSU, apparently the Irish don't have a problem with Notre Dame or the Boston Celtics, and neither do Scandanavians with the Minnesota Vikings. My high school's newspaper was the Cherokee Phoenix, named in honor of the paper published by the Cherokee at New Echota, which was just a few miles from my home town.

Again, it comes down to context. Is the intent to demean? Does the name or object in question offend even those outside the group in question?

Side note about the Celtics, and maybe someone in MA can answer this -- What's with the mispronounciation? For a long time when I was a kid, I only heard the word pronounced "sell-tiks"; when I finally heard it pronounced "kell-tiks" I couldn't tell what the speaker was referring to.

And whatever happened to "stick and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"?

 

[Monte Cristo]

Side note about the Celtics, and maybe someone in MA can answer this -- What's with the mispronounciation? For a long time when I was a kid, I only heard the word pronounced "sell-tiks"; when I finally heard it pronounced "kell-tiks" I couldn't tell what the speaker was referring to.

I have never heard anyone around here calling them the "kell-tiks" always "sell-tiks."

 

[ckay87]

Why were Irish slurred with the nick names turkey or mick? Why were Italian's referred to as dago? Shall we go on? We could. But they all were and are offensive to people.
Doesn't matter if we know the answer, if it makes sense or not to us. The reality is that it IS a derogatory name.

No, but you see, "turkey" for example, is derogatory when referring to an Irish person. It is NOT derogatory when referring to a type of poultry.

In the same way, "pork chop" might be offensive when referring to a hispanic person, but it is NOT derogatory when referring to a piece of meat.

(Side note - it might, however, be offensive to a living pig, which, in my opinion, is the only issue here.)

It's all about context.

 

[profdsny]

Porkchop is not a Puerto Rican slur. It is a Portuguese slur. And when it is used by non-Portuguese it is generally used with an insulting intent.
The latino population is much larger than the Portuguese population in the US- so wouldn't get as much notice if he said we Portuguese are offended imho.

He is just wrong. And if anyone was calling him pork chop growing up it might have been because he was fat! not because he was Puerto Rican.

I know for a fact that it is a slur for Puerto Ricans. I worked in a Puerto Rican neighborhood for six years, and that was the term used by many to mock them. We didn't have, and as far as I know, never had a Portuguese neighborhood in Chicago. Not that calling either group that is right. Maybe where you are at it refers to the Portuguese. So, in a sense it's large that one group. As it is, as of 20 years ago, don't know how it it now, Portuguese was not considered by the government as Hispanic.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

You put that last line (bolding and italics mine) in a post defending "PC-ism". I find that so very amusing in its level of hypocrisy.

BTW...where on the computer does it tell you a person's skin color?? Is there a special button somewhere or do I need an upgrade????? You seem to know that everyone on this thread who is deriding extreme PC-ism is white...I'd be interested to know exactly how you know that by being on the computer. I love to learn new things.

Don't tell me you were offended? Your post hints at the fact that you might have thought that that stab at white people was...dare it say it...un-PC?!? Oh my goodness gracious...who'da thunk it!?!

Fortunately, except for you, everyone else who read it saw it for what it was. My faith in the DISboards is restored.

 

[profdsny]

Okay, last post and I'll be quiet. Up until a very few years ago the high school teams in a town in Pekin Illinois (there is also at Canton) were officially known as the Chinks.

 

[lillygator]

this is so ridiculous....the world has gone too PC.

I think Pork Chop is a cute name for a pig....come on people!

 

[Heidict]

My husband is 100% Puerto Rican too. He grew up in the Bronx. Never ever heard it used as a slur against him(heard other things but not that one) And here in NJ there is a large Portuguese population in one part of the state and it is used against them on construction sites.

I guess ignorance knows no bounds. I'm sure that it has probably been used against even more then Puerto Ricans and Portuguese.




My Dh thinks the whole uproar by a few people about it being used as a nickname for a PIG is stupid. Context seems to be lost on some people.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Names like Indians, Braves, Seminoles, etc. can be taken two ways. One way can be insulting or demeaning; another can be as a way to honor the group. Seminoles in Florida have stated their honor in being associated with FSU, apparently the Irish don't have a problem with Notre Dame or the Boston Celtics, and neither do Scandanavians with the Minnesota Vikings. My high school's newspaper was the Cherokee Phoenix, named in honor of the paper published by the Cherokee at New Echota, which was just a few miles from my home town.

It's amazing how money (or "scratch") can soothe over any feelings of insult.

Frankly, I never heard pork chop as a derogatory title. I have learned something from this thread. Thanks.

 

[flipflop]

Side note about the Celtics, and maybe someone in MA can answer this -- What's with the mispronounciation? For a long time when I was a kid, I only heard the word pronounced "sell-tiks"; when I finally heard it pronounced "kell-tiks" I couldn't tell what the speaker was referring to.

QUOTE]

Not from MA but the word "Celtic" when used as an adjective like "Celtic Cross" - is pronounced "kell-tic" not "sell-tic"

This is what I found when I googled it:

The "c" at the start of "celtic" can be pronounced soft, like an "s", or hard, like a "k". The most common convention is to always pronounce it with a hard "c" ("keltic") except when using it as a proper noun (e.g. Celtic Football Club, Boston Celtics, The Anglo-Celt newspaper). In Irish, "c" is always pronounced hard, like the letter "k" which is never used in Irish words. The Greeks were the first to write about the Celts, using the word "Keltoi", which suggests that the hard sound is also historically accurate.

 

[LisaNJ25]

My dfi's father was from PR so she's half PR and we eat pork chops frequently.

Apparently they didn't get the memo.

So is my hubby and my kids.... that is not a word I would think as a racial slur.... People are nuts these days...

I think PorkChop is a cute name for mascot. thats a pig.. hmmm maybe I should be offended since I am not thin and there is a character called Porky Pig

People really need to get a life...

The baseball team should of kept it.

 

[SamIAm21]

I'm learning something everyday...never knew turkey was a slur for the Irish...



Just wanted to point that out...

The mascot for the team is a PIG. Now they want a name for the PIG MASCOT. Pork Chop is cute to me. Do you see the connection between a PIG and the name "Pork Chop?" I guess they could name him "Bacon" but that probably offends someone, I'm sure!

It would definitely offend police officers because as a youth we used to say, "Hey I smell bacon". That meant the police were nearby (Pigs = Bacon).

I think Puerto Rican people are offended by it because their native diets consisted of a lot of pork. Cubans could feel the same way though as their native diets also consisted of a lot of pork.

 

[Linxzy]

Pork chops? Whats offensive about pork chops? I'm puertorrican (and still live in PR) and I don't see what is wrong with pork chops. *shrugs*

If it is about killing pigs, we kill lots in Christmas time. I really don't get it. Sometimes people just talk to get attention, apparently.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

OH! My! GOODNESS! I just had to look up "Pork Chop" in the Urban Dictionary. One of the definitions was a police helicopter. I CANNOT stop laughing.

Disclaimer: My DH is a police officer.

 

[Golf4food]

Dp

 

[Golf4food]

DP for some reason...

 

[shirleyb]

Why were Irish slurred with the nick names turkey or mick?

Hmmmm, so maybe Disney should change the name of Mickey Mouse so as not to offend Irish? It's the exact same thing. Now do you see how ridiculous this is?

 

[luv2nascar]

I'm offended they changed the pigs name. I was deeply disappointed when I saw it in the paper. I am unaware of the slur it might possiblly carry but it is an ordinary word. I don't believe the pig was to speak spanish?? No one is calling anyone a name. He is a pig named Pork Chop - he could of been Ham Steak for goodness sake. It was about PORK people. Get over yourself. You could be offended by every word coming out of my mouth if you want to. It is a matter of opinion. This word by it self is not a racial slur and heaven help me the thousands of times I have said pork chop in my life have never been derogatory to anyone but the pig I suppose.