Is "yanks" an offensive title

[HoundstoothLuke]

I remember reading somewhere ages ago-I can't remember where- but there was a small piece on what a yankee is. It went something like this:
To a non-american, a yankee is an american.
To an american, a yankee is a northerner.
To a northerner, a yankee is someone from New England.
To a New Englander, a yankee is someone from Vermont.
And in Vermont, a yankee is someone who eats pie for breakfast.

 

[Pompidou]

When I went to England, I was buying a new watch and needed to have the band reduced quite a bit. When I went to the shop, the fat guy behind the counter joked, "You're a Yank, aren't you supposed to be fat?" Didn't offend me at all. I'll admit the irony of it all left me biting my tongue - I mean, we were like Laurel and Hardy, and Hardy shouldn't be making weight quips. Still, I bit my tongue. After all, if overweight is the first American stereotype, rude is the second, so I had to win on two fronts to look like the better man in front of the spectators. Yanks didn't even lead me to raise an eyebrow.

 

[Bricktop]

"Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees Win!"

For all those here who don't listen to the radio broadcasts of a certain New York baseball team, and I am guessing that's 99.9999% of you, that's how their (to me beloved, to many others reviled) announcer calls the last out of their victories. Including last night's rocking rally against the Texas Rangers in the playoffs.

I am an expat Englishman now living in the US over 30 years. I can't recall "Yank" ever being used over here except as a diminutive of the baseball team's name. "Yankee" on the other hand, I have heard used with pride in New England to refer to longtime residents of the area, not Johnny-Come-Latelies whose families moved in in the last 150 years. And of course, it's used as a pejorative when said by Southerners, especially in an overexaggerated Scarlett O'Hara voice.

When I was in England, it was commonplace to hear, just as we used to call 5 shillings a dollar.

 

[Nik Taylor]

Like most things it depends in which context it is said....

 

[Harp]

I'm a RedSox fan....is that worse than being a Limey? lol

Yes, without a doubt....

 

[Dewhurst]

Just a quick couple of questions for our American cousins...

If you were called a Yank, would you feel offended?

and what term do you prefer: America, US, USA? (is there a difference that's not clear to us Brits)?

I would not be offended, but I would wonder why the person didn't call me an American. (A screw loose, potentially. I've never had anyone call me a "Yank" before, but I would probably just stare at them as it took several revolutions for my mind to grasp they were referring to me).

As far as referencing my origin, I prefer USA. "America" could identify multiple continents/regions over here.

Also, coming from a Brit, it (Yank) sometimes feels loaded.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I worked for a Japanese owned company for a short period of time and actually have a Japanese Ex-Patriot working for me now. Gotta make sure I never let him know I play "Medal of Honor" at home!

For all we know the Japanese probably designed the game!

 

[bumphrey hogart]

It seems that you have picked the term 'Yanks' to refer to Americans. To us living in America..we are 'Americans' living in the United states of America(all of us). As far as I know..'we' never(or very rarely) refer to ourselves as 'Yanks'..or much of anything else...except perhaps New Englanders...Midwesterners...Southerners...or Westeners. If we do..certain slang seems to generally have a derogiatory reaction. Those of southern state heritage using leftover Civil War slang really doesn't mean much now in modern U.S. reality. It seems in your country..regional..historical differences hold much more important 'age old' meanings. Perhaps that's why some of us Americans may have a more difficult time figuring out how to actually address your Nationality...unless "Brits"..pertaining to Great Britian.
To us being Americans and prefering to be called just what we are..is not a copout. In this country..we have a tendacy to look at ourselves as just that...no matter our differences. There just is no alternative..unless you must call us 'Yanks'. Since that label has been used for so long by those of Great Britain and elsewhere..we do know that it is a 'pithy' word for only Americans..whether we like it or not. Some do (probably most)..some may not. Although our nations are probably more alike than not...there are still cultural differences that can cause us to look at things differently. Some more dramatic that others. Some music..food...at times humor...and even slang. Havent you noticed?

It's the same here,none of us would call ourselves a 'brit',I suppose unless you live in an area you're just not going to get the subtleties,and the more subtle you get, the smaller the area.I live in a county with a population of 400,000,yet we still have jokes about people from a particular section of that county.Outside of cornwall,we're all cornish,inside we're not,unless of course someone from outside were to threaten us.It's ok for us to take the mick out of ourselves but someone from outside try!I hope that's not confusing,I'm just trying to say we all view ourselves and others from a particular point and it's so easy to mistake an outsiders viewpoint,names,etc as derogatory just because it's from an outsider.We call you yanks because that's what our parents called you and it's nothing more than a term to describe citizens of the united states and there is nothing other than that inherent in the term,anything else you read into it is what you read into it.

 

[Geronimo]

Not to me. For the UK'ers, calling a southerner a yankee is like calling a Scotsman an Englishman. Might get you into a fight in a low bar in Georgia, but that's easy to do anyway.

Personally, I prefer 'Texan' or 'Great Satan.'

 

[bumphrey hogart]

Not to me. For the UK'ers, calling a southerner a yankee is like calling a Scotsman an Englishman. Might get you into a fight in a low bar in Georgia, but that's easy to do anyway.

Personally, I prefer 'Texan' or 'Great Satan.'

But that's kind of the point I'm making,we would never use the term 'yankee' unless it was to describe something and then it would be 'yanky',(semantics this time of the morning,I'll need a lie down!),it's a subtlety,a yanky car to describe an american car,there's no way that the vast majority of brits would get that they were describing a car from the northern states and there would be absolutely no derogatory sense inherent in the term,it could just as easily be 'a really beautiful,would give my right arm for yanky car',I'm beginning to feel llike I'm disappearing up my own behind on this thread,it seems to keep coming back to 'two nations divided by the same language'.I don't know why I'm still defending this apart from it was my use of the term that started it.If I've offended anyone I apologise,it was never meant in a derogatory or insulting way.

 

[Peacoat]

For someone in the UK to call me a Yank is not offensive. That's just what they call all of us. For someone in the US to call me a Yank, it would never happen; I am a Southerner. Never to be confused with a Yankee, and never called a Yank or a Yankee. Not offensive and not a bad connotation, just different parts of the country.

 

[Viola]

I'm an American who this July emigrated to Australia... I think I've been called a Yank most weeks since.

You know what, it's never bugged me. At all.

It doesn't bug me when people ask if I'm Canadian, either. (I don't have a Southern or Noo Yawk accent so I must not be American to some Aussies...)

The only thing that really does bug me is "Are you Canadian" "No, I'm American." "Oh, but you're so nice/polite/friendly!"

Thanks? I never know what to say to this one and I've gotten it quite a few times.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

"No, I'm American." "Oh, but you're so nice/polite/friendly!"

I never know what to say to this one...

Tell 'em to go to hell.





Just kiddin'.

 

[El Doctor]

I'm from the south, but you can call me a Yank, ya Limy. I told an English friend about Red Dwarf, she hadn't heard of it.

 

[GHT]

I'm from the south, but you can call me a Yank, ya Limy. I told an English friend about Red Dwarf, she hadn't heard of it.

To the best of my knowledge, African/American soldiers were never referred to as Yanks. Was that some sort of passive racism? But those guys will be pleased to hear that a new cockney rhyming slang has taken root here in East London. "Barack Obamas"--------Pyjamas.

 

[Fed in a Fedora]

I proudly refer to myself only as an American and generally will not respond to anything else.

The term, "Yankee" is incorrect from my perspective as I am a Southerner without significant connection to the term nor to the people from the region to whom it properly refers. No insult to my friends in the northeastern portion of the USA, but they have an identity and we are well separated by miles and culture. Consider that Cornwall is closer to Lithuania than New Orleans is to New England.

I have been called Yankee in several countries without any major problems but think of it this way: Why not call a Scotsman, an Englishman? Because it is wrong, ignorant and inconsiderate. We may have some commonality, but the regional differences are quite obvious and important to our respective identities.

Will I be deeply offended - no. But I appreciate your asking. It shows a high degree of consideration.

Fed

 

[Stearmen]

I am trying to brake the habit of calling my self an American! After all, any one born in Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and even Argentina, are all Americans. They were all born in either North, Central, or South America! It's tough though, well over half a century of using it.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Doan mattah whatcha call me, jus doan call me late fa dinnah

 

[MikeKardec]

When I lived in Australia I was often called a Yank but then the Aussies would rush to apologize as if they had caught themselves saying something derogatory or wanted to prove how PC they were or something ... after awhile I started to suspect that they were doing it all on purpose and the apology allowed them to have it both ways. I don't know if that sort of passive-aggressive approach was true or not but I never felt it was a problem, people can call me anything they want (especially if it's to warn me about an oncoming truck or something), it doesn't change who I am (but, of course, the oncoming truck might make significant changes!).

I did have a Peruvian acquaintance take me to task for referring to my country as America, appropriately reminding me that she was an American too. My response was that I agreed that she WAS an American but people from the United States should not be criticized for calling themselves that because we chose to make that our identity FIRST, people from the USA declared our independence from the Old World when people from her country were still Spaniards. I certainly wouldn't be offended if a Native American used whatever designation his or her people had in their native language for this land, I'd think it highly appropriate and would be happy to be allowed to join in.

So often choosing to be called something over something else seems to me to be just trying to find grounds for insult. I wouldn't want to give a word that much power over me. However, I'm a reasonably privileged white American man, others are welcome to feel differently.

I've always been confused by the Jap, Japanese, Nipponese issue. If Japan is a Western mispronouncement of Nippon, shouldn't "Japan" be one of those mistakes of the past that needs to be corrected or are Japanese people just cool with it? I might be missing something.

 

[Redshoes51]

About five years ago, LizzieMaine said..."The Americans most likely to find it offensive are Southerners and New England baseball fans."

Since I live in Mississippi, I think it would be more correct to say that we might say, 'Damn Yankee...'

My Mom and Dad moved to here from Southern Illinois back in 1929 or so... Dad died in 1996... quite a long time...

at his funeral, there were some old timers there that still affectionately referred to my Dad as that 'damn yankee...'

HAH...

~shoes~