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Comment by obarthelemy | Hacker News Reader

I'm old and French and used to live in Paris, so I call it "the corner Arab" which is a bit dated because such shops are no longer 100% owned+operated by Northern Africans. Mine still is though. I asked them if they found the moniker racist, they laughed "non, it's true".

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I’ve always referred to them as the alimentaire. At least that is what’s written on the canvas.

In my experience, the only people who get offended at good-natured "political incorrectness" are people who have a social or political agenda that political correctness is part of.

...as well as those who are inured to it and can’t be bothered raising the issue so just go along.

I think it's actually quite common for the first generation to go along with the joke or casual racism or whatever, because an important part of fitting in is to not rock the boat, so to speak.

You can't start making a fuss until your foothold in society is firm enough that you can afford to do so.

And, of course, plenty of people also simply don't care or find it offensive.

There's a very fine line between good-natured stereotypes and genuine bigotry; stereotypes are the first step on the path to dehumanisation.

That's so true. Once I heard "Jocks are dumb" and was outraged at the dehumanization going on. Like, excuse me, they are people too.

The politically incorrect thing was already a part of a "social or political agenda". That a person can't or won't object because it would be too radical or controversial or, like, a total buzz kill, dude, raises questions about what the value of the epithet is to the people trying to protect it.

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