Why is "Chinaman" derogatory, but "Englishman", "Scotsman", "Irishman", "Welshman", "Dutchman" not?

[Dandelion]

"Dutchman" is a derogatory term we call the Afrikaners. They don't like being called that!

I was at an international conference recently and there were some Afrikaners doing the technical. One of the presenters (can't remember where she was from) thanked the "Dutchmen" for doing the technical, thinking she was complimenting them. They were not impressed at all.

I would be honored to be called a Dutchman.

[Skye]

The same way its become "wrong" to call a Chinese or East Asian person "yellow" or a Native American person "red skinned" but its still TOTALLY okay to call someone "white" or "black" or even "brown". Also, look at how "Asian" has now come to usually mean someone of East Asian background (in America), even though "Asia" encompasses everything from much of the Middle East to East Asia. Parts of Russia, Israel and many Arab countries, etc are all in Asia but many ignorant people would get pissed off if you considered a blonde hair, blue eyed Israeli person to be "Asian". Because you know, "Asia" stops where ever China ends to many. And then those same people will tell you how "diverse" a country like America is lol.

[NSXD60]

edited

[Red Pill]

The same way its become "wrong" to call a Chinese or East Asian person "yellow" or a Native American person "red skinned" but its still TOTALLY okay to call someone "white" or "black" or even "brown". Also, look at how "Asian" has now come to usually mean someone of East Asian background (in America), even though "Asia" encompasses everything from much of the Middle East to East Asia. Parts of Russia, Israel and many Arab countries, etc are all in Asia but many ignorant people would get pissed off if you considered a blonde hair, blue eyed Israeli person to be "Asian". Because you know, "Asia" stops where ever China ends to many. And then those same people will tell you how "diverse" a country like America is lol.

I understand "yellow" sounds bad because in English it means "coward" too. But I thought that Chinaman means just "man from China", I didn't know it is considered derogatory. Today it's really difficult to know which words you can use without offending somebody.

[El_Abominacion]

As a Jackie-Chanoid idk how Chinaman was even considered an offensive word in the first place. Something like 'Chink' is a different story

[NSXD60]

Asian is too general, but Mongol leaves no doubt. To distinguish Amer-Indians from those from India, I would propose Hindians.

[Dandelion]

Calling covid Wuhan flu is also derogatory, but in my opinion an improvement. As it at least acknowledges a geographical location within China. After the pandemic I guess it will boom tourism-wise.

[MobyD]

As a Jackie-Chanoid idk how Chinaman was even considered an offensive word in the first place. Something like 'Chink' is a different story

Well it depends on the context....

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Because it was originally used a derogatory slur for Chinese people, just like how the N word was used as a derogatory slur for Black people and just like how the word "kike" is a derogatory slur for Jews and "Kraut" a derogatory slur for Germans.

[LostSoul]

Same with "Murzyn" in Poland. It initially didn't have any negative connotations against Black people, unlike "Czarnuch", literally meaning "N-word", but the PC culture prohibited any usage of this word, especially due to George Floyd's death.