>Because "redneck" is a term that is used to ascribe a set of
>characteristics to a specific group of people -- to stereotype
>them. And people who get called "redneck" would be reacting to
>a term that is meant to belittle or demean them my assigning
>negative or exaggerated characteristics to their ethnic group,
>and often to imply lower intelligence or ignorance.
>
>So if someone objects to being called a "redneck," they can
>point to negative images, and OBVIOUSLY from this post, to a
>high degree of prejudice and bigotry exhibited towards them by
>people who would call them "rednecks."
>
>NONE OF WHICH APPLIES TO THE USAGE OF THE TERM "A-RAB"!

Clearly you would have to be absolutely crazy not to agree that the stereotyping and demeaning of Arabs is a widespread practice in America today, and you just haven't been listening while people have tried to explain that this is what many of us associate "A-rab" with. Your retort is that this type of disrespect is not necessarily meant when people use the term... and that would be all well and good if this was just a misperception on the part of foreigners like tohunga and myself.

But it's clearly not. Even Rjcc came up in here explaining that Arabs find it offensive - that is, ASSOCIATE WITH IT THEIR BEING STEREOTYPED AND DEMEANED. You don't care, you just want to keep asking why, which indicates to me that you're shutting out in your mind all the anti-Arab racism you've encountered so that you can focus on people using it inoffensively, but THIS IS WHY NO ONE WILL EVER SATISFY YOU. It happens at certain times that people talk about "A-rabs" badly - this you cannot deny. To you, the fact that sometimes people talk about "A-rabs" meaning no disrespect invalidates the association that is made on the basis of the first fact. So there is no reason to continue asking for examples, no one will be able to give you any that will sway you, because you'll just go back to thinking about inoffensive usage (like your own, like some of the Chicago ppl in this post, etc).