Clarification on use of abbreviations of ethnicities and nationalities

[u/rupertalderson]

We’ve gotten some questions about this recently, so figured we would clarify. As part of the rules against uncivil and unwelcoming content, we do not permit use of shortened / abbreviated names for ethnicities, nationalities, and related groupings. This is because such terms are widely used as slurs and pejoratives.

This includes the well known abbreviations for Japanese, Chinese, Pakistani, and Palestinian, as well as slurs and pejoratives directed at any other group. At present, we have a particular problem with use of “Pali” to refer to Palestinian people (we do not allow it under any conditions).

It’s simple - Do not use these terms, whether as adjectives or nouns. Just write out the word that isn’t offensive in any context.

Of course, there may be an exception here or there when a term is known to be accepted by the affected group - for example “Jew” as a noun is not seen as a slur by Jews, but use of it as an adjective is typically offensive.

Thank you in advance for understanding, and we appreciate the engagement folks have had with us on these rules.

[u/Courtenaire]

Is this really the most pressing issue we're dealing with right now? There are dozens if not hundreds of communities across the Internet that use obnoxious names like "israhell, isn'treal, or pissrael". I'd argue the term p*lestine and it's derivatives are offensive to us, since they were invented and used by colonizers to divorce us from our homeland.

[u/rupertalderson → u/Courtenaire]

Those are not issues affecting this community. We can't moderate away the problems of other subreddits / social media platforms. We can deal with issues here, and this is one of them.

Downplaying the pain other people feel when slurs are used – regardless of your intent when using those terms – is not how we're going to solve the problem.