It's On: "I Hate The Gooks"

Update: I didn't read the date - this is from 2000. Drudge has it up. Not sure how this plays. But, as I said below, the gloves are obviously off.

Yeah, the gloves are coming off. When I clicked in, I'm thinking, okay, how long ago was this? Um ... yesterday??? To the media??? Bad move. Straight talk. McCain hasn't healed psychologically post-captivity. We now live in a world with a lot of "gooks." A tasteless Drudge header - "Flashback?" From yesterday? That's over the line, too. Obviously used in the worse sense of the word without cause.

Greenville, S.C. -- Arizona Sen. John McCain refused to apologize yesterday for his use of a racial slur to condemn the North Vietnamese prison guards who tortured and held him captive during the war.

``I hate the gooks,'' McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. ``I will hate them as long as I live.''

McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, was questioned about the language because of a story last month in the Nation magazine reporting his continued use of the slur.

Since then, reports of McCain's language have been circulating on Internet chat sites and e-mails among Asian Americans, many of whom find the the term offensive and inappropriate for an elected official.

Comments

[templar knight]

Sparty, I didn't know the prison guards at the Hanoi Hilton even commented on McCain's use of the word "gook". But if you really want to see racist remarks aimed at Asians, you need to go to Michelle Malkin's site and see what some of Sparty's liberal friends have had to say about Phillipinos, who happen to be Asian the last time I checked. I'm sure Sparty's indignation at Asian racism took a sabbatical when it was liberals making the racist remarks.

As usual, there is no hypocrite like a liberal one. Bleh!

[seekeronos]

"--- First off I reject the notion that the word "gook" is racist in any manner. Just because you and the liberals say it is doesn't make it so. It's a word to describe those that held him captive and tortured him for 5 years. I'm not about to vote for the RINO but his 5 years in that hellhole give him the credibility to say it if he wants. ---"

Cap. Infidel - I'll stand by Dan's statement regarding not making racist utterances while seeking or holding the office of the POTUS. As a representative and leader of *all* the United States, it is completely unbecoming of a President to voice his racist opinions regardless of whatever credibility he assumes based upon his years of captivity.

Most Asian-Americans consider "gook" to extremely racist.

Wikipedia defines "gook":

"--- Gook
(U.S. military slang) an Asian person, especially an enemy (e.g. Koreans or Vietnamese during the Korean and Vietnam wars). By extension, any Asian person. Derived from the Korean words “hanguk” 韓國 and “miguk” 米國 (from the longer term phonetically sounded out "America" as 亜米利加國).

Guk is from the Chinese word guo 國, which means country. “Hanguk” refers to Korea[77] and “miguk” is the common word for the United States.[78] American troops thought "miguk" sounded like "me gook" (i.e. "I am a gook"). The word persisted during the Vietnam War, perhaps also because the Vietnamese people have a similar word “quốc”, meaning "country". "Gook" was also used by white soldiers in Africa to designate enemy insurgents.[79]
---"

From Urban Dictionary:

"---

A derogatory term used for the purpose of describing a Korean. (Obtained form the Korean pronunciation of their country, Hangook.)

---"

From a (presumably more respected) academic source, Prof. Kim Pearson of the College of New Jersey
Link: http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/gook.htm

"---

GOOK

1. n. [1920s+] (orig. US military.) a derogatory term for foreigners, especially south-east Asians, e.g. (in chronological order of use) Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, and Vietnamese.

2. n. [1940s+] a foreign language spoken by one of the above peoples.

The etymology of this racial slur is shrouded in mystery, disagreement, and controversy. The Oxford English Dictionary admits that its origin in "unknown," but that isn’t quite fessing up to true complexity of the matter. It is generally agreed that the term was coined by the US military, the question is: In which war? The farthest back that its genesis is likely to have occurred was the Filipino uprising of 1899. The American soldiers are said to have referred to the natives as "gugus," playing off a Tagalog word meaning "tutelary spirit."

Was this "gugu" slur passed along by the US military for two generations until the outbreak of the Korean War? It is unclear, but during that conflict the term "gook" emerged in its current form. The Korean language has a suffix, "kuk," (phonetically "gook") that means person, and seems to be a likely source for an entirely new coinage, perhaps completely unrelated to "gugus."

Cao and Novas, the authors of Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History, explain the term’s origins as follows: "Gook, the American racial epithet for all Asian Americans, is actually the Korean word for "country." Koreans call the United States of America Mee Hap Joon Gook, which they shorten to the more familiar Mee Gook. Similarly, Koreans have shortened Dae Han Min Gook or the People’s Republic of Korea to Han Gook. During the Korean War, American soldiers gave the word gook a derogatory slant and used it to refer to Koreans. The term gook went through yet one more transformation when American servicemen in Vietnam used it to refer to the Vietnamese, particularly the Vietcong."

---"

[TheSpartan]

Its unfortunate that Mandela decided to side with the Soviets at various times, but when the US turned it's back to him who could blame him? As for his call for "death to whitey" as you put it, again...after years in prison under the most vile forms of torture and abuse imaginable I could hardly blame him for taking that attitude. The proof is in the pudding however and he's shown a willingness to work with whites in his country, more than many of them were willing to do.

As for liberals in Malkin's site using racial slurs..shame on them. They know better and they are no better than they profess her to be if they are doing what you say. I don't frequent the site myself so I wouldn't know. I'm sure it's no worse though than anything said on Free Republic.

[WAHOO WILLIE SEZ:]

Spartan I'm not sure you understood what I was saying. I say Mandela and others accepted help from the Soviets for the very reason you say. The west turned it's back. Thier reasoning, not mine, was fear of revenge. There was some revenge on local levels however but it was short lived. And yes, in many cases, not just his there was valid reason to desire revenge. Says a lot about the human spirit that they rose above that pettiness. There remains a lot of work there. You can't hold a people down for centuries and expect them to live up to the "elite's" standards. I give you post ACW "reconstruction" as proof. We are still working on that grand idea.

[TTexas]

Bush=Hitler
Bush Lied and People Died!

If the above comments piss you off, then stop calling Ron Paul a racist. The last time I checked, Dr. Paul delivered black babies and checked for cervical cancer on black women. Man, what a racist! Some of you are starting to sound like the Code Pink idiots.

[templar knight]

Let me see, Sparty, you don't blame Mandela for saying "Death to Whitey" for his vile treatment, yet you blame McCain for using the word "gook" to describe his tormenters. Man, you liberal types prove your hypocrisy by the second. Did you read what you said earlier?

[seekeronos]

TTexas, you are the official recipient of this thread's "Golden Golfball" award.

I mean you hit that one clear outta left field and over our heads:

I think only one person mentioned Dr. Paul, and he (the commenter) was largely ignored.

The main thread of discussion is about John McCain's use of an epithet eight years ago, and not something supposedly said by Dr. Paul in some whacky newsletter. Here's your golfball, thanks for playing!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Templar's right Spartan. What is good for the Michigoose is good for the Michigander (sorry, had to play off the MSU reference).

Let me start over... if Mandela is going to get a free pass for his "death to whitey" songs by the MSM, then I reckon we need to give Johnny Mac a pass to.

Or is there such a thing as rising above one's past wrongsufferings and forgiving those who have done wrong to you?

It would certainly be the Christian thing to do, but all the same -- voicing one's racism in public is usally not the way to get onto most people's party invitation list (unless that party happens to be the local chapter of the KKK or the perhaps the ANC if you happen to be Mandela).

[tally]

oh no, mccain still hates the people that f-ed him up. oh no, he called them a bad name. well hell, i like mccain even better now. much better romney and his surrender monkey dad.

[TheSpartan]

I see your point but it's not quite the same. The depth of what was done to black SA's far outstrips what was done to a handful of POW's.

[TheSpartan]

You'll also notice that I never said McCain was a racist...I said Reagan was. While Reagan never uttered a racist word that the general public is aware of his actions say differently. McCain is actually the opposite his actions say he's not, his words say otherwise.

[seekeronos]

Sin is sin. And calling for the annihilation of a minority race is far out of proportion to anything that might have been done to the black SA's.

Reagan's responsibility as president begins and ends with the United States of America. Whatever he did to help the situations of foreign countries is done because it is in the best interest of the many United States; likewise, if a nation is not the recipient of our gracious assistance for whatever reasons, it is also because it is not in our interest to do so.

South Africa and its social issues are not something that Reagan (or any other POTUS for that matter) have a responsibility to address, beyond maintaining a pro-Western government in power that was able to offset and control the marxist factions operating in a terrorist capacity (such as the ANC and SACP as they acted as such for their particular social revolution).

If that makes Reagan a racist, then you, dear Spartan, have a very perturbed view of things.

Of course, being a liberal, your brain automatically locks into the calculus of white guilt that your marxist schoolmasters at MSU so tireless hammered into you:

"Whitey is always wrong, and must always apologize and make obeisance to non-whites".

You should have done better to have been instructed:

"America, whether for right or wrong".

[TheSpartan]

"Sin is sin. And calling for the annihilation of a minority race is far out of proportion to anything that might have been done to the black SA's."

It might be out of proportion, but only slighty...it was one step short of slavery.

And Reagan's responsibility was primarily to the US but wasn't part of that responsibility to promote freedom around the globe?

And as the leader of the free world it was ABSOLUTELY his responsibility to address Apartheid but he ignored it and even promoted it through his support of the DeKlerk gov't. Instead he chose to paint the ANC as a terrorist group instead of a group seeking to overthrow an oppressive regime, but then again that was Reagan's global MO.

[Fred Beloit]

George M. Cohan's spiteful, malicious, and degrading song about my ethnicity: Do re mi mi mi: "Yankee Doodle went to London, just to ride the ponies, I am that Yankee Doodle boy."

I have to admit it; I am ethnically a y--k. I feel violated way down deep in my Mick/Kraut sensitivities. Whaaa whaaa. Boo hoo.

No, no not this too from The Godfather: "'I don't care how many daigo guinea WOP greaseball goombahs come out of the woodwork! [Tom: 'I'm German-Irish'] Well let me tell you something, my Kraut Mick friend! I'm gonna make so much trouble for you, you won't know what hit you!'
Woltz to Tom Hagen"

[templar knight]

Hahaha! That's funny, Fred(erick) Barbosa. Are you a redhead, Fred? Or is your krautness more dignified, without the temperament of the redhead. The World wants to know.

[Wahoo Willie]

Oh sparty,sparty, sparty. My goodness please dont make me go through the very long line of actual and percieved "racist" US presidents to disprove your cute little accusation. Using your criteria of ignoring a situation and maintaining diplomacy with a racist government indicts EVERY president from GW to GWB....yes, even your beloved WJC and his loving spouse. I wont insult your education but maybe we want to curb the emotions a wee bit.

[Wahoo Willie]

Fred the Yankee Doodle song is about an american "fancy boy" who visits a pub for men who like other men in London.........

[seekeronos]

I think that this here pretty much sums up Spartiekin's perception of truth:

"--- Instead he chose to paint the ANC as a terrorist group instead of a group seeking to overthrow an oppressive regime, but then again that was Reagan's global MO. ---"

Maybe because the ANC _actually_ was a terrorist group, performing acts of terrorism?

I mean, there was Winnie Mandela's well document statements about using terror as a tool to obtain their ends.

And before you go try and conflate something much more noble such as the American Revolution, or perhaps more cogently, the US Civil war (better remembered to some as the Southron War of Independence for State's Rights) - was a war between two civil bodies that largely fought according to the law of war as understood at that time, and generally refrained from deliberately targeting civilian populations.

Sherman's March to the Sea being excepted, naturally.

Mandela may have fought against the evil of his people (Xhosa mostly, but with Kwazulu and some Swazi partisans joined him) being oppressed by the whites who held power, but his methods and his allies are certainly not beyond reproach.

And yes, Reagan did promote liberty and the American way - and in so doing, befriend the DeKlerk regime, apartheid included, for the better purpose of staunching Marxism and Communism... of which the Mandelas, the ANC, and the SA Communist Party were vocal advocates.

Therefore, if we must flabble over who holds the higher moral ground, I'll see your Nelson Mandela, and raise that with a Martin Luther King, or a Mohandas Ghandi who practiced (and preached) passive resistance and a civil disobedience which, after Christ's example of humility, is far more deserving of praise than a John Brown or a marxist (Mandela) who would dispose of his race enemies by hooping them with tyres and setting them alight with kerosene or gas.

[seekeronos]

I think that this here pretty much sums up Spartiekin's perception of truth:

"--- Instead he chose to paint the ANC as a terrorist group instead of a group seeking to overthrow an oppressive regime, but then again that was Reagan's global MO. ---"

Maybe because the ANC _actually_ was a terrorist group, performing acts of terrorism?

I mean, there was Winnie Mandela's well document statements about using terror as a tool to obtain their ends.

And before you go try and conflate something much more noble such as the American Revolution, or perhaps more cogently, the US Civil war (better remembered to some as the Southron War of Independence for State's Rights) - was a war between two civil bodies that largely fought according to the law of war as understood at that time, and generally refrained from deliberately targeting civilian populations.

Sherman's March to the Sea being excepted, naturally.

Mandela may have fought against the evil of his people (Xhosa mostly, but with Kwazulu and some Swazi partisans joined him) being oppressed by the whites who held power, but his methods and his allies are certainly not beyond reproach.

And yes, Reagan did promote liberty and the American way - and in so doing, befriend the DeKlerk regime, apartheid included, for the better purpose of staunching Marxism and Communism... of which the Mandelas, the ANC, and the SA Communist Party were vocal advocates.

Therefore, if we must flabble over who holds the higher moral ground, I'll see your Nelson Mandela, and raise that with a Martin Luther King, or a Mohandas Ghandi who practiced (and preached) passive resistance and a civil disobedience which, after Christ's example of humility, is far more deserving of praise than a John Brown or a marxist (Mandela) who would dispose of his race enemies by hooping them with tyres and setting them alight with kerosene or gas.

[Fred Beloit]

Wahoo, the origin of this offensive word is unimportant. It is now an ethnically and racially charged insult. As such it violates my ethnic sensitivities (ahoo hoo). There ought to be a law against it. The constitution should protect my hide from being rubbed the wrong way, you Y--k, you. Why are you trying to make this an issue of homophobery? Why are you trying to hurt Britney and me? Leave us alone.

[WAHOO WILLIE SEZ:]

Fred my friend, you're off your meds. A little time in the gulf chasing tarpon will fix you right up.