The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #101444   Message #2045767
Posted By: GUEST,cmt49
07-May-07 - 11:33 PM
Thread Name: BS: What do we call them?
Subject: BS: What do we call them?
A previous thread deals with PC and blacks/African Americans in the USA. In Denmark the problem is rather more absurd. The racist party which grew with the increased numbers of moslem immigrants in the 90's, rocketed to power after 9/11, and which now props up our government, has been consistently anti-moslem. Of course, they can't say that (at least, not the party leaders), so they avoid the M-word by a series of expressions which sound generic but which are only used to refer to moslem immigrants and their descendants:

When still at school = 'bilingual'
When known to the police = 'second generation immigrants'
When grown up and settled = 'new danes'
When not fitting into any of the above = 'other ethnic origin than Danish' or just 'ethnic'

Many people in this country, which once prided itself, however naively, on its tolerance, now soil their trousers at the sight of a headscarf, and are convinced that if the moslem population was actually allowed to build a mosque then our whole way of life would crumble.
This is the legacy of Bush's campaign to bring freedomanddemocracy to the world. Maybe Coca-Cola could market a new drink called 'Paranoia'. It should sell well here.
Have other people noticed similar changes in their countries?