One can say
slant eyes is just as much of an insult as
nigger, called "the most offensive term in the English language" (
sic) by various
blacks. After all, the term
slant eye has been used by just about every
imperialist power in their own languages for centuries, probably beginning with the
Dutch in the 16th century in
Southern China. I'm not sure. They were the first
colonialists. The
Brits used it, the
Yanks certainly used it. The
French and
Germans used it. Even the
Russians used it.
Stalin reportedly called
Mao a "
slant-eye peasant".
Anyways, this continued in the 19th century into California, where Asians were brutally oppressed in the West, at times even worse than blacks. After the Civil War, at least blacks were granted some of their constitutional rights, discrimination against Asians was heavily practiced well into the 50's.
The American legacy of slavery means black slavery. It is easy enough to forget that there were other races who were enslaved by whites, including Hispanics and Asians. The white man even travelled all the way over to China to enslave us. Can't say that about blacks now can we?
The few black people tried to explain why nigger is the most offensive word in English often blabbered about "centuries of institutionalized oppression and slavery". While I do not claim that Asians were victimized to such a degree, you have to admit that we Asians have definitely been given the short end of the stick for a good 500 years by several imperialist powers, both at home and abroad. We were the slaves for the Wild West. We were slaves in our own homes. Oh yeah, we were lynched by the truckload. And all this time, the term slant eye was used liberally.
Shouldn't that history give the term "slant eye" just as bad a connotation as "nigger"? Or at least close to it?
Most Asians don't explode in flames when called a slant eye (yes, even after eons of oppression and slavery). Perhaps most of us don't bother with meaningless namecalling. Let the white devils talk.
By the way, I've been called a slant far more by non-whites than whites, most notably the incredibly racist Aborigines in Australia, who think that with government protection that can say anything. Somehow I feel the stereotypical white trash hick is much more exaggerated than it really is. Right, dannye?