Re: yella gals- I don't flinch when I hear that referent used as I do when I hear the n-word-regardless who says that n-word and in which context it is said.
Maybe this is because I rarely hear "yella gals" spoken and read it only in the context of very old songs. "Yella" has been retired for some time as a common descriptor for light skin Black folks. Now they're called "light skinned". Or they're called "redbone" if they have a reddish tinged to their skin. Or -and I don't approve of these referents, light skin Black people [and what that means varies from circumstance to circumstance-andsistother famfamicaseilight ] are sometimes affectionately and sometimes not called "White boy" or "Casper" or even "honky". As an example, recently a "medium" brown skinned child in my foster care caseload was affectionately called "White boy" by his darker skinned young mother and his late thirty year old grandmother.
Btw, I believe that "yellow" was rarely used for Latino people. They might have been called "brown" or "dusty" but yellow? I don't think that often if at all.
That said, I respect and appreciate where GUEST,AR282 is coming from in her/his 19 May 06 - 05:13 PM post. I can imagine that "yellow" when used as a referent for Asian people would result in the same visceral revulsion for Asians as the n-word does for people of Black African descent.