Time to Retire Slurs

Brownstone Institute · Sep 24, 2026

Time to Retire Slurs

by Alan Cassels at Brownstone Institute

My Uncle Don had a different name for everyone.

I had no idea where he came up with all these labels. They were often colourful, and clearly he thought they were funny. Except nobody was really laughing.

To him, someone from South Asia was a Paki, an aboriginal person was, obviously, an Indian; a guy from Ukraine was a Bohunk; a Frenchman, a Frog. Germans were Krauts, and a Gook was someone from Southeast Asia, a name, no doubt, planted in his head from a racist epithet thrown at the Vietnamese. You get the picture.

But looking…