Do you find “Gringo” offensive?

43 comments

1. ~~”Gringo” basically means “white person.” It originates from when Americans were invading Mexico, so they would say “green go” because the militaries uniforms were green and “go” being to leave, as most Americans didn’t know Spanish. It has taken on the meaning of “white person” in todays vocabulary though.~~

   Edit: this seems to only be partially true (only for mexicans) and it’s a designation for Americans. As per the link replied by u/MTB_Mike_ :

   After the Mexican-American War, gringo began to be used for citizens from that country, with expressions such as “American gringo” or simply gringo, attested as in popular use in Tepetitlán in 1849. Since then, gringo became a way to designate United States citizens exclusively.

2. Its annoying to be called Gringo within my country of birth.

   If I was in Mexico and acting a fool, I would get it.

3. It’s a mild insult. I try not to put myself into situations where someone would use pejoratives at me.

4. No

5. I wouldn’t consider any of these things insulting.

6. Not really, but if someone was trying to be rude and insulting to me I don’t think I would care for it. But that’s true of someone being rude and insulting in general.

7. Depends on the context. If it was “hey, my favorite gringo!” I would be fine with it. It it was “Hey gringo, you don’t belong here” I would not be fine with it.

8. I don’t think I’ve ever been called “gringo” (at least not to my face…) but if I was I’d probably just laugh. Definitely wouldn’t be offended by it.

9. You can’t offend me. If you say something in a threatening or hostile way, well I’m gonna be hostile back, but the words themselves don’t make a difference.

   I’ve only ever been called “gringo” in a chummy way, and I find it endearing.

   An old coworker of mine, of Mexican origin, used to call me “gringordo,” which I think might be his own invention but it obviously meant “big fat white boy.” He also used to tell Mexican jokes all the time…obviously he wasn’t trying to hurt feelings, he just had that anything goes sense of humor. In the first hour we spent working next to each other he leaned over and said in his thick Mexican accent “Hey man, what do you get if you cross an octopus with a Mexican?” I, very warily, said “Uh…I don’t know.” He said “Me neither but I bet it’d pick a lotta fuckin apples! HEHEHEHEHEH!”

10. I live right on the Texas-Mexico border… you get used to being called gringo.

11. ¡No, porque soy el jefe de los pinche gringos!

    Seriously though, it is pretty mild but still rude.

12. Only people who call me gringo are my half-Mexican cousins (who are also halfish German and look even more ‘Gringo’ than I do).

13. Nope. And for that matter cracker, whitey, etc don’t bother me either. It’s like someone saying “fuck you” which isn’t great, we clearly won’t be friends, but I’m not offended.

14. No, because I know Spanish.

15. From a Mexican, no. From any other latin American country, yes.

16. It’s a mildly condescending word for a foreigner. I wouldn’t hear it used on just any white American though – usually reserved for situations where they would seem out of place among Latinos, or if they were trying really hard to *act* Latino for whatever reason.

    I have also heard it used for a Latino that speaks Spanish badly or don’t understand something about Latino culture. It’s a bit more abrasive in those cases.

17. Never been called it, I imagine if I was I would probably find it funny. Hard to offend me by calling me white and or nerdy, especially given my affinity for Weird Al.

18. Idek what it means. So to me, I don’t find it offensive.

19. Gringo means a non-Hispanic white person. It could be used with a negative tone, but if someone called me a gringo I’d be like “yep.”

20. The word itself doesn’t bother me, but sometimes the attitude with which it is said pisses me off.

21. Lived in Tucson for five years and was never called that, but then again I’m part Indigenous and apparently look Latino, so they were more likely to start speaking to me in Spanish. Now that I think back, I believe I heard ‘Anglo’ used more than Gringo.

22. Si, yo soy gringo. Como el chile con carne y los tacos de Taco Bell (muy caliente, ay ay ay).

    Seriously though, don’t sweat the pejoratives. Koreans call us hamburgers (because we eat so many burgers) and Canadians apparently. Call us hotdogs (because we eat them when we’re on vacation there). It’s not like they’re calling us a [user was banned for this post]

23. No, not at all.

    In fact my ex gf is Cuban, and her mom called me “gringito,” which I assume meant “awesome and super handsome guy who makes my daughter very happy.”

    It’s actually means “little white boy” but she used in endearingly.

    (And I was raw dogging her daughter evey night so even if the insult was there, I still won that fight lol)

24. My best friend growing up is Mexican and any time I’d go to his house his dad would call me gringo but it never bothered me, his dad is actually very nice and I think it was more of a nickname rather than an insult.

25. It’s kind of hard be to offended by getting lumped into a group that isn’t being actively wronged by society. Like, if I was being profiled and judged for being white I’d probably be pissed about a slur. But right now if someone saw me and said “hey gringo!” I’d probably just respond like they called my name.

26. If it’s used a slur, yes.

27. Depends entirely on context.

    “Hey gringo how do I get to the HEB?” = cool

    “Fuck you gringo I hope your mom dies from Covid” = not cool

28. When people I don’t know refer to me as a gringo I find it annoying but I don’t think I’d say I find it offensive.

29. Sometimes yeah, depends on the context, but some people don’t believe in racism against white people, so you’ll never convince them they are racists.

30. Nope. It’s doesn’t matter to me if it’s said as a generalization or if it was said as an insult, I won’t be offended. A guy I used to work with used to call me “wedo”, a derogatory word meaning “white boy”. It never bothered me. Me and him were friends and I was a white guy. Being called words like gringo, redneck, yankee, white trash don’t offend me one bit.

31. Not something I hear particularly often in the mid-Atlantic region.

32. No.

33. No

34. No me importa qué te llamo güey.

    Gringo just means white person AFAIK. I think most Spanish speakers know that most Americans know the word, so now they use huero in my experience. Means the same thing, fewer Americans have heard it though.

35. It doesn’t offend me.

36. I am a gringa, not a gringo. And no, it’s cool.

37. There may be things I care less about, but none come to mind.

    Call me gringo, honky, wonderbread. IDGAF. They’re just words.

38. I don’t really care, been called white boy and gringo many times when visiting family in south Texas. As far as I’m concerned whatever, call me a chicken fucker if you like, your thoughts mean nothing to me. In a menacing way then yes, I care, but that’s cause the menacing bit.

39. No

40. Nope.

41. I don’t at all.

42. So here’s my relationship to “gringo” (or technically for me, gringa), as a white girl often mistaken for not white.

    I live in Texas. Texas has changed hands so many times we literally have an amusement park named after the whole ordeal (Six Flags), but most recently it was a part of Mexico and all those Mexicans crossed the border without moving an inch when Texas was annexed. This caused all these people who had lived on that land for generations, under the Mexican government for generations, to suddenly become foreigners.

    I was born and raised in Texas, my dad lived in Texas the majority of his life, and we both jokingly use “gring(o/a)” to describe ourselves. And ONLY ourselves. I see it as a nod that Texas, mostly culturally as well as historically, is both US and Mexican. Both foreign and not. We use it as a way to say “you are just as welcome here as I am”. And we NEVER use it to describe someone else.

43. No.

    It doesn’t have any meaning to me.