Originally Posted by vicente

I am in complete agreement with Seeker. The vast majority of people in The U.S. do not find it offensive.

The vast majority of people in the U.S. has not had my life experiences.


I actually refer to myself as a "gringo". It is a handy way to tell people who you are. It is much easier than "Americano", "Norte Americano", "de los Estados Unidos", etc. I know when it is being used as a pejorative simply by the tone of the person's voice. It is not the word itself.

Here's part of the problem. You equate gringo with citizen of the USA, right? That's not it. It's someone white. It definitely refers to your race. If you are called that excessively, I'll bet you a dollar to your doughnut you're going to get tired of it.



I understand why Thomas doesn't like to be called gringo but it is totally unrealistic to expect that we are going to stop using that word or stop referring to each other by race or origin. It is basic human nature to put identifiers on people. You can call it what you want but we ALL do it. We identify people in physical ways so that others will know immediately who we are talking about. "the old guy. the black guy, the fat lady, the blond girl, the rich man, the tall guy, the bald guy, the Korean man, the Mexican, the latino, the gringo, and on and on....

Hang on. I'm not expecting it to stop. It will continue. But when people talk to me, I prefer that another word or, even better, my name be used. My name. Is that such a big sacrifice? I use their name. Is that such a big sacrifice?

Do you think "the old guy" or "the black guy" may get tired of it too?

My experience is that nobody who did not know me ever called me gringo to my face unless I had already used to word to describe myself. In Costa Rica, in particular, the people there are extremely polite and generally call me "caballero" unless they know me.