Talk:pakeha

Offensive?

Is this an ethnic slur? — Ungoliant ^(falai) 19:58, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

My understanding is that it used to be a clear ethnic slur and is now more often seen as gentle teasing, but is still used in pretty offensive contexts from time to time. I'm not a New Zealander though, I could be off. WurdSnatcher (talk) 20:02, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

There are a few New Zealanders who say it is derogatory and implies that they are outsiders who do not belong, but by far most of the people say it is not derogatory at all. It is commonly used in NZ newspapers, for instance. Nevertheless, the NZ government often tries to find a good, neutral pc substitute that is also suited to formal English, but they have generally failed at this. Recently the census bureau there used the term "NZ European", but it was not well received since the pakeha do not feel like Europeans. Even though most pakeha feel that the word is not derogatory, they usually prefer to use the term Kiwi instead. The only problem with Kiwi is that it seems a bit colloquial. —Stephen ^(Talk) 13:41, 13 October 2015 (UTC)