Talk:Palagi

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[edit] Racial Epithet?

Neither Pakeha nor Palagi are particularly comparable to nigger, and Pakeha is even less so.

Nigger has a long history and context of being used in a particularly negative way, and is rarely used as a primary self-identification by anyone.

With Pakeha, a large number of NZ-born europeans identify primarily as Pakeha, making it a largely self-defined term. It is one that has been willingly used by NZ Europeans (especially ones with Maori language fluency), since early settlement. That should show that it is not historically or currently a negative term. If you take a look at the logs of the pakeha wikipedia page, the current 'debate' appears mostly fuelled by a few sockpuppet accounts of, by their/his own definition, white racist/s.

P

Palagi is less commonly within NZ as a self-defined term by europeans, and therefore a larger percentage of the usage is by people intending to be nasty - just because any term used about a group that is not by that group (ie a self-defined term), tends to take on more negative connotations.

The term still doesn't have much historical negative usage, so, at most, it would be a very minor racial epithet.

I can't comment on it's usage within Samoa, and whether it is used as a self-defined term there.

I would suggest that that section be removed, or replaced with 'minor racial epithet'

Cheers.

- A. Nonymous, Wellington, NZ