Reply to Is the phrase “fresh off the boat” offensive in all circumstances?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When I was at Harvard in the early/mid 2000s, there was a group of Asian-American friends on my floor, and they used the term "FOB" regularly, said in a joking tone that was also disparaging, to describe Asian students who had accents or were awkward/poorly dressed.  (I'm white and never used that term myself).  Asian-Americans are the only people I've ever heard using that term.

My great-grandparents were "fresh off the boat" from Eastern Europe.  As a white person, I would not ever use that term to describe anyone, though, because the way I saw the term used in college was as an insult toward people who don't fit in with superficial standards (fashion, accent) that aren't their fault.  It wasn't a neutral description. [/quote]

Also know a few ABC (American born Chinese) who used it for the FOB older relatives - similar to how we use boomer today.  With frustrated love or loving frustration.  [/quote]

This is how I’d always heard it — friends talking about relatives—so didn’t realize it was used as a slur or offensively.  More like “give them a little grace — they just got here and don’t know the local norms yet.”   It’s a little unusual because most slurs are developed by people outside the group (usually white peoole) and then maybe get adopted by the people in the group to reclaim power.  But this seems like it was developed by people in the group and used both in a derogatory way and in a not derogatory way.  [/quote]

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