Ok. I'll give you that. Fact is though, that since the war it has widely been regarded as offensive:
Thing is, it came as a total surprise to me, and to most of the other commonwealth posters as well.
I'll concede that care is needed. If, say, you visited a foreign country and you inadvertently offended someone through your use of language that isn't offensive back home, it wouldn't wash if you argued that they should get over themselves simply because your language is inoffensive back home.
The point I'm making, however, is that the power of words comes not from history, or the word itself, but from the power that people give them. In most ways it's a personal choice. If somebody called me a "dutchman" ferinstance, i'd happily agree. If you take the sting out of the tail... the tail is just that - a tail.
This reminds me of another anecdote I can share. Years ago I used to date a "Pretoria poppie" ?, and one day when I went to visit, I stopped at a shop to buy some drinks and whatnot. An Indian chap was walking around selling samoosas and those other lekker sweetmeats and stuff they do so well.
He adressed me in Afrikaans, and with a moerse smile asked whether I wanted some "lekka Coolie-cookies", i.e samoosas. At first I was a bit taken aback, and even offended a bit. I resented the fact that he assumed that because I was white and in PTA, I would be Afrikaans (maybe it was the GT streep and drain-pipe silencer that gave the game away ? j/k lol), and that I would find the term "Coolie-cookie" amusing. I felt manipulated, and thus kindly declined the offer, although I didn't say anything.
The real lesson however was that this oke wasn't offended by the term at all, and indeed, probably used it to his good advantage. And that's where the difference lies. This man took all the power away from the term "Coolie", and gave it to himself, and ironically managed to make me offend MYSELF simply because I overanalysed the association.
To this day I still regret not having bought from him.
