Who's a Pommie bastard?

Current affairs seem not to be current. There has been nothing of interest in the last week. The political situation amongst the Yanks appears to be beyond parody. Which led me to wonder in particular whether Americans take offense at being thus called, and in general what is this PC demonization of slang or diminutives for nationalities?  I have no problem about being called limey, and I am probably one of a minority of Limeys who knows the derivation.

I am uncomfortable about ‘Brit’ mainly because this was the diminutive of choice for the IRA (‘Brits out of Ireland’ and all that garbage). Taffy, Jock and Paddy all have an affectionate ring.

When I was in Australia I had occasion to complain that nobody had called me a pommie bastard. Didn’t they like me? They soon corrected themselves. There is the famous story of the time when the captain of the English Test cricket team, Douglas Jardine, was called a ‘pommie bastard’ by an Aussie player’. The Aussie captain threw open the dressing door and demanded ‘Which of you bastards called this pommie bastard a pommie bastard?’

                                   

And then we have the naughty ‘n’ word, the ultimate no-no unless used between consenting black adults. When I was working in Kingston I met an old Jamaican who had been a pilot in the RAF during WW2. The Jamaican contingent went to Canada for their training and once they had achieved their wings they went to New York for some fun. They walked into a diner which had the usual sign in those days ‘No colored’. The owner stopped them and said can’t you guys read and what are those fancy uniforms? Maurice told him that they were RAF pilots. The owner turned to his customers and yelled ‘Hey fellas, these ain’t niggers; they’re Spitfire pilots’ and waived the bill.

As they say in Yorkshire ‘There’s nowt as queer as folk!’

Afrikaners are not too keen on being called ‘Jaapies’, never mind what they call blacks. The French call us ‘rosbifs’ and we call them ‘frogs’ but in the spirit of good-natured banter. ‘Paki’ is a simple diminutive of Pakistani and I have a feeling that it means ‘pure’, so how has it become pejorative?