Guinea (ethnic slur)

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Guinea is a highly offensive ethnic slur for someone of Italian descent in the United States.

It derives from "Guinea Negro", which came from the popular belief that Italians were part African because of their often darker skin, and possibly from the belief that the Moors once dominated parts of Italy.

As a word, it is sometimes considered as offensive to Italian Americans as Nigger is to African Americans. Is used in conjunction with other derogatory terms such as Dago, Wop, Greaseball, and Goombah.

[edit] In popular culture

In the movie The Godfather, one of the characters, Carlo Rizzi, beats his wife, Connie, the sister of Michael Corleone, and calls her a "spoiled guinea brat." More recently, it is also used by Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed, Frank Costello, numerous times.