Racist words for White People

[Abi]

Just interested, does anyone have racist words for white people in different languages? As far as I know the only ones in English are "cracker" and "honky" and they don't have the power that "nigger" or "chink" do. Preferably powerful ones, that would be censored on tv or radio.

[Xephyr]

There is the Australian Aboriginal English slang term balanda (comes from "Hollander). I don't think it's quite a racial slur, though-- although it does have negative connotations. Same goes for Lakota wašíču (which is commonly said to come from an expression meaning "taker of the fat"-- the fat being [allegedly...] the most choice part of a piece of meat, so like "hoarder" or "hog". More likely it comes from an old word for "ghost".)

Since this thread will probably end up just being about words for white people in various languages, here are some examples:

Xhosa: umlungu
Yup'ik: kass'aq (comes from the Russian word for Cossack)
Inuktitut: qablunaq (assimilated to qallunaq in eastern dialects)
Klallam: xʷənitəm
Halkomelem: hwunitum (pronounced exactly the same, I think)

[Yaali Annar]

Cantonese has Bakgwei tho I'm not sure how offensive is that.

Indonesian has neutral to offensive "bule". The etymology is from Malay "bulay" which means abnormally white / albino.

[Gulliver]

My Latin American friends used to refer to us as gringo and gringa, and I remember a discussion between a Mexican and a Bolivian as to whether it meant American or white person. The Bolivian used to refer to her Australian flatmate as "mi gringa", whereas my Mexican housemate told me I wasn't a gringo because I wasn't American. The terms were used endearingly, though.

[zompist]

Gringo can certainly be spoken with disdain, but it's not very cutting. I think gabacho is stronger. (It's Mexican; I don't know how far south it goes.)

Guailo (Cantonese) used to be pretty strong, but I don't know if it still is.

[Ser]

My Latin American friends used to refer to us as gringo and gringa, and I remember a discussion between a Mexican and a Bolivian as to whether it meant American or white person. The Bolivian used to refer to her Australian flatmate as "mi gringa", whereas my Mexican housemate told me I wasn't a gringo because I wasn't American. The terms were used endearingly, though.

Since you know gringo isn't an insult per se (you can say it as an insult, but so you can with "black"), why are you mentioning it in this thread at all?

(Also, a gringo has to be American for me.)

I think gabacho is stronger. (It's Mexican; I don't know how far south it goes.)

I'm from San Salvador and I've never heard this until now.

[Thry]

Gabacho is pejorative for French person in Spain.

[richard1631978]

A few languages used variations of Fereng, originally just used for the French.

The Japanese have Bata-Kusai (stinking of butter) though it's mostly used to describe a Japanese who is over westernised.

I'm sure I've heard that Gringo is used in Spain to describe Northern Europeans.

[TehranHamburger]

In Sranan there is 'Buru' whose meaning sort of lies between Farmer, White person and Slave master, it's semi pejoratively and a bit affectionate at time. It's quite common for kids to sarcastically call their parents Buru if they are put to work.

[Thry]

I'm sure I've heard that Gringo is used in Spain to describe Northern Europeans.

No, that's guiri. Gringo is yanqui in... Mexican?

[Ser]

...And Salvadoran. I'd love to know how south it goes before it gets replaced by yanqui, if it does at all. Torco, krinnen, do people over there commonly use this word?

[zompist]

Gringo is pretty much "white person" in Peru. (However, Spaniards generally don't qualify, and my informant (my wife) is uncertain about Italians. The prototypical gringo is blond and blue-eyed.)

[Ser]

Would a blonde and blue-eyed Peruvian man be referred to as a gringo???

[zompist]

I just asked to make sure-- yes, in fact they'd be gringos.

[Thry]

Torco does use gringo for yanqui afaik.

[ol bofosh]

Torco does use gringo for yanqui afaik.

I think he's called me a gringo for being anglófono (us anglosajones are all the same to him, lol). Whether that's "usual" is another thing.

[Izambri]

Racist words for white people aren't very common here. The only one I can remember is cul blanc "white butt", and isn't extremely popular.

I'm sure I've heard that Gringo is used in Spain to describe Northern Europeans.

No, that's guiri. Gringo is yanqui in... Mexican?

Here guiri is used to mean "tourist" in a more or less derisive way. Gringo isn't common, and ianqui is used to refer to USA natives.

[Thry]

Do you call black tourists guiris?

[Izambri]

Do you call black tourists guiris?

Any foreign tourist that behaves like a guiri is a guiri.

[Thry]

xD putos guiris
Though the most common stereotype is the sunburnt striped red-white Brit with socks and sandals that goes... "senior, poungamei unah servesah".

[Izambri]

xD putos guiris
Though the most common stereotype is the sunburnt striped red-white Brit with socks and sandals that goes... "senior, poungamei unah servesah".

Because clear skin tourists are far more common here than darker skin ones, and that has been the tendency for the last decades. European, American and Asiatic tourists are very numerous, much more than, for example, Indian, Arabic and Subsaharan ones.
This will change in the near future (it's changing now, in fact, with more people from, say, Brasil and the Arab countries, at least in Barcelona). Not a radical change, probably, but we'll see if guiri is still the Catalan slang word for "touristy tourist" in a few decades or people develop different words for different nationalities/skins.

[Thry]

quieeeen sabe

[----]

A few languages used variations of Fereng, originally just used for the French.

The corresponding word in Thai (faràng) doesn't seem to really be 'racist', at least in my experience. I've heard it used completely neutrally more often than not, but I suppose if you wanted to you certainly *could* use it in an insulting way.

[Rui]

Guailo (Cantonese) used to be pretty strong, but I don't know if it still is.

老外 (laowai) used to be kind of offensive in Mandarin, but it's kind of losing its edge now too I think (but it's still not a preferred term for foreigners, and pretty much on the decline). On the other hand, I did see a video on youku a few weeks ago of a young Chinese kid calling a white person a 怪猴子 (guai houzi lit. "strange monkey), which I would be pretty offended by...

but usually even from kids and less educated adults, I'll usually only hear 外国人 (waiguoren, which just means "foreigner"), and that's not offensive at all, or at least not considered to be offensive.

[Torco]

I'm not sure it fits in the category of 'offensive' or 'racist' but, yeah, huinca <meaning something like 'invader', and actually coming from inca originally, apparently> is the mapuzungun word for 'fucking white chilean interloper'.