A slow-spreading(?) slur: "_anti_-slant[-]eye"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Slant" is frequently asserted to have been common GI slang during the
Vietnam War, but that claim is mightily exaggerated.

How do I know? Because most all of the HDAS cites are in the form of
"derogatory expressions for Vietnamese such as ... 'slant.'"

I'm not saying it's imaginary - just unusual. "Slope" was fairly common.

JL
On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: A slow-spreading(?) slur: "_anti_-slant[-]eye"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 1:36 PM, Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> > Far from being a SLOW-spreading slur, SLANT appears to be a term that
> > formerly was used as a not-very-widspead ethnic/racial epithet, then
> > ameliorated owing to its very descriptive genericness (e.g., in medical
> > terminology)--and today is in widespread use as a positive term of
> > self-reference among many Americans who are genetically disposed to have
> > slanted eyes.
>
> If I may quote myself, edited for clarity:
>
> "SLANT-EYE IS AS OLD AS DIRT.
>
> But, citable instances of
>
> "ANTI-slant-eye"
>
> are surprisingly rare and recent and I haven't *heard* it anywhere,
> except for that one time.
>
> On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 1:36 PM, Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> > Americans who are genetically disposed to have _slanted eyes_.
>
> I'd forgotten that the eyes of Orientals are_ literally_ slanted.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
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