If Prejudice Against Pakistani-Americans Is Widespread, Why Can't The <Em>New York Post </Em>Spell "Paki"?
07/15/2010
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF
Query: if prejudice against Pakistani-Americans is widespread, why can't the New York Post spell "Paki"? An Australian paper, picking up the story, corrects the spelling here.
Taunted airline worker sues

By EDMUND DEMARCHE

Last Updated: 8:19 AM, July 10, 2010

Posted: 3:29 AM, July 10, 2010

A Pakistani-American airline engineer from Brooklyn is suing his firm for allegedly allowing co-workers to taunt him by calling him "bomb-maker."

Jamil Akhtar, 51, said he complained to his bosses at North American Airlines that other employees derided him with derogatory names like "Packy," insulted his Muslim religion and threatened him.

His suit, filed yesterday in Brooklyn state Supreme Court, charges that when he complained to superiors, he was threatened with the loss of his FAA license.

Akhtar said he took a two-week leave of absence in 2007 and when he returned, a supervisor smiled and said, "What are you doing here? You're fired."

The engineer quit in 2007. He is suing for back pay and other damages.

If you're not familiar with it, Paki, short for Pakistani is considered an insult in Britain, which has been crowded with Pakistani immigrants for years and years.

President Bush, who hadn't heard this, used it as short form to refer to America's allies in Pakistan, arousing cries of hatred and contempt towards him...from people who hated him anyway, so who cares? (The short form "Pak" is used by the Indian Press.)

But most Americans don't know or care enough about Pakistanis to actually have racist feelings about them. Possibly airline employees in New York feel differently for some reason.

This reminds me of the  case of Kerri Dunn, who vandalized her own car at Claremont College with racist, anti-Semitic graffiti...using words the students actually didn't recognize, because they'd never heard them in their lives.

Print Friendly and PDF